When Looking for Ricoh World Timer information, this is one of the first results you find, hence i'm going to update it with some thoughts and observations.
I have little qualification other than i own 2 of these and i have spent time searching the internet for Ricoh Watch information to try to get some further insight.
sadly there is a lack of information and therfore what follows is what i found and what i think.
World timer
original version for japanese market and potentially for export
1) The case back says WARLD timer, stainless steel, water proof
2) The inner bezel has "pepsi cola" blue and red sections, the red is very red and bright, each section has a dot below the number to help with accurate centering
3) The outer bezel has GMT and a number of cities in RED not yellow/orange
4) The crowns will be 1960s style Ricoh R signed, or may not be, it seems to depend on age
5) The second hand is a "lolly pop" and is painted red
6) The dial may have Japan and some numbers between the 5 6 and 7 markers this is inconsistent on many Ricoh models, presumed market dependent.
7) The dial will have a rasied R stuck on and Ricoh painted in itallics see logo here
Ricoh Logo and symbol, meaning, history, PNG, brand
8) The dial will have world timer and automatic, painted on, and worldtimer is in a bold font
9)There may be a month/day/date rather than day date, seems to depend on vintage
10) There may be a japanese cherry blossom logo that on earlier watches was used to designate export model, no idea if this is true but mentioned in posts by an itallian employee of the offiicial importer in italy and in translation of text from factory and a japanese watch museum.
11) Dial is metallic blue or matt black
or faded in the sun...
RICOH WORLD TIMER GMT DIVER Here is a RARE 1970's RICOH World Timer GMT Diver watch with triple calendar day, date & month in 3 o'clock position. Beautiful oversize watch 43 mm in original condition, original dial, original hands, original crystal, original signed crowns, original signed...
maximaze.com
as such if your watch has most of that its probably made in the 1970s for the japanese market.
the movement in these watches 61215A (series 30 caliber 61 21 jewels 5?? A for automatic) was made from 1970 until the mid 1990s but in my view in later years unlikley to be manufactured in the original factory that the 1970s watch was. This model and many others could be made or assembled in the 1970s 1980s and 1990s for markets such as india south America and south east asia.
All products of the original Takano company and the Ricoh company [which bought out Takano] can go under this entry. Ricoh Historical Overview: Much o
www.tapatalk.com
www.ranfft.de
Ricoh was the number four Japanese manufacturer of self-developed mechanical watch movements, after Seiko, Citizen and Orient.
watch-movements.eu
if RIQUARTZ watches were the new thing in the early 80s i'd expect the japanese factory to be making the new tech not be building 1970s movments for watches that were old models. That doesn't mean that any that were made were fakes, just that they were made in a different factory potentially in a different county, where a BIG auto winding mechanical watch was still considered a thing of value , made either from first princepals or from kits of parts.
looking at the the 6121 movment you see differences, winding gears with holes or no holes self winding counterweight with slot and balance holes drilled or a solid yellow metal counterweight with poor printing. this isn't an idicator of fakes , lots of ricoh watches show these changes its an indicator of when it was made in may cases
later versions
1) Ricoh World Timer on case back stainless steel water proof automatic R and Ricoh in itallics
2) strap 3 segement, 1 wide 2 narrow, Ricoh in itallics raised logo on clasp
3) same inner bezel as 1970s watch
4) outer bezel has GMT and certain cities in yellow oranage these watches tend to have good bezles so many older "red cities" versions have terribly worn bezels.
5) silver painted R on dial with rasied silver embossed RICOH not itallic
6) no japan no numbers
7) worldtimer and automatic all in same font
8) No R on crowns
9) day date only
10) silver/white lollypop second had
I have one of these, it stil has the "now yellowed and brittle" plastic on the case back, keeps perfect time, photo below looks gold, thats just plastic
The common version on Ebay
1) generic case back with "diver" water resistant, stainless steel, instead of world timer
2) 5 segment strap 3 wide 2 narrow, early ones used thick supports onto watch case later used two thin supports. the clasp is standard 80s/90s with RICOH in the modern logo.
3) inner bezel red and blue is subdued some what. not a bright colour, with no dots under the numbers for alignment
4) all else the same
5) month day date or day date
Japanese dealers have these for sale at £1000.
i own one of these, it looses 5 minutes per day.... but otherwise perfect shape. i had a watch repairer take a look, an estimate for the work to fix, he didn't think it was a fake just that it had been set up or interfered with by somone who didn't know what they were doing, suggsted a full service and then the kind of set-up neccesary to cater for the impact of gravity and angle on its time keeping ability. expensive for an £80 watch. so i got my omega serviced instead....
the later watches that i have seen the inside of, invariably seem to have the "cost cutting" movement, yellow counteweight poor printing no holes in winding gears
Fakes? well if i was going to fake one i'd want to maximise profit and minimise the chances of discovery. You would fake the orginal version not the one that seems to have sold well in later years in India Vietnam Thailand etc, ... check indian ebay, they LOVE a Ricoh .
Surely youd do a proper job and also fake the box and tags and print the manual, i see no evidence of that with these.
watches made from second hand parts will exist, re-cased watches will exist, and it seems likley that current interest in these watches has prompted someone somwhere to offload obsolete stock. The risk isn't of buying something that wasn't made by Ricoh somewhere in the world, the risk is potentially buying a worn watch movement in a brand new old stock case with the generic "fits any big watch-across-many-model-ranges" case back. a relativly new movment in a new case...badly set up, well..... i have one of those.
Ricoh also made a World Time watch. same movement, map of the world on the dial presumably 1980s or 90s going by the style.
Richo dynamic wide or wide dials fit the world timer case. so if the dial is green its probably the wrong dial
The Ricoh Diver was the same size with 1 crown but the case back obviously fits a wide range of watches....cost cutting again? one case back with generic words that loosely covers a range of models?
google images: "Ricoh world time" or "world timer" will illustrate in great detail the variations.
Goggle search will highlight lots of people dismissing off hand any world timer that isn't a worn 1970s japanese market version as a fake. I don't think all or many of them are i can't think why any company would pay the price to tool-up to recreate a watch that is unlikley to sell for more than £1000 and is most likley to sell for £80 - £115 which is what i paid in 2017 and 2021. Ricoh made some high end models, gold cases and auto winding movements with ball bearimgs ground from precious stones etc, this isn't one of them... its just a competent automatic watch that fits with the current big watch fashion
Dave
