Went to the watchfair at the weekend and got VERY lucky

1718 Views 10 Replies 11 Participants Last post by OldHippie1968, May 11, 2010

Jason1970M

Discussion Starter · May 10, 2010

Ive posted the same topic on a couple of UK forums but thought I had better come 'home' to the reborn SCWF! My first post on the new forum ^-^

Met up with my mate Derek ( luvwatch ) , but like most watch fairs these days it was more of the usual, beards, clocks and tat..... But, I had one of those heart stopping moments, in amongst the tat in a biscuit tin was this Seiko, broken non-original bracelet but in remarkable condition.... The grumpy seller was serving a beardy type next to me and when there was a lul in their conversation I asked 'how much?' He grumpily told me he was serving this beardy bloke here, hang on ... So, I was clutching my find in my ever increasingly sweat filled hand and got my chance to ask, he told me and I half heartedly tried to haggle a bit off but he held firm, so I tried to stop my hand from shaking and gave him his money . So I then squirreled it away and carried on rummaging but the gold mine was spent.... By now I was wondering how Derek was going to take the news, he knew I had bought something but not what it was...... He was of course chuffed to bits for me, hes a great bloke and it was one of those things that makes it all worthwhile and the reason we go, these sorts of things are out there. they just need ferreting out.... I almost asked for one of his ciggies To be fair, unless your a Seiko geek then you might not have recognised it for the gem that it is, its a 1966 Seiko 5717 8990 one button manual wind chronograph, its historical because it was Seikos first ever Chrono made especially for the Tokyo games of 1964. This one is in superb condition and works perfectly, a couple of the second markers have lost the black paint inlay on the rotating 60 second bezel but thats it, all the edges are sharp and no scratches on the caseback either... Its a great size too nearly 40mm across the bezel which must have seemed huge in 1964 18mm lugs though so its a little bit under strapped but Im not complaining

I was was a little bit worried that the crown wasnt original , but it is....

I would like to know more on this model, like how many were made and how long the Olympic torch stayed on the back until the Seahorse replaced it...
There are lots of random posts on the net but nothing to much in a condensed form.... Enough rambling, here are some pics.....