Vintage Seiko 43999

Seiko watch has a great impact on my generation as we practically grew up with it as it was a dominant watch brand in the 1960s, 70s till the early 1990s. I remebered have a titanium Seiko when I was in my Univerrsity and was proud wearing it.

Even though my attention recently is on the vintage Seiko Divers, the highly collectable Grand Seiko 43999 is always on my radar lists and I didn't expect to find one.. But somehow LOA made it happened!

The Suwa Seikosha :1963年 ~ 1968年 :

４３９９９               （ＳＳ） １９６３年４月 ~ １９６５年４月 
５７２２－９９９０（ＳＳ） １９６５年４月 ~ １９６６年１２月 
５７２２－９０１０（ＧＣ） １９６６年８月 ~ １９６６年９月 
５７２２－９９９１（ＳＳ） １９６７年１月 ~ １９６８年７月 
５７２２－９０１１（ＧＣ） １９６７年５月 ~ １９６８年２月 

Photo showing the Grand Seiko 43999, with the Chronometer wording, Grand Seiko, Diashock 35 Jewels,Made in Japan 43999TO and the Taiyo logo.Taiyo means Sun... ever shining, ever bright... full of radiance... 

This is one of the most beautiful Grand Seiko ever produced during the 1960's till now. The first of second model Grand Seiko made in 1963,1964 only. A total of 81,000 units of Cal.430 and 5722 were produced.

The taiyo is powered by a chronometer (Seiko internal Chronometer declaration) 35 jewels low beat 18,000 bph Cal.430 movement. It is called self-dater because it has quick set date function. Taiyo is the highest quality masterpiece of low beat GS.

 The back case has the lion emblem and the 43999 wordings

The difference between the 43999 and the 5722-9990 . is that the latter has no Taiyo logo on the dial, while the back case wordings are different (43999 versus 5722-9990) and the movement markings are different too 

Grand Seiko 43999.

Movement Calibre 430

35 Jewels

18,000 bph

37mm Diameter Stainless Steel Case

Serial Number 3001662 - October 1963

For those who wants to know how much is the Grand Seiko then, in1965, Seiko´s first model diver (62MAS) sold for 13,000JPY, approximately half the monthly wage of a Japanese college graduate. By way of comparison, the precursor sport/waterproof 50m Silver Wave 6201B (1960) cost 11,000JPY while its lower-spec successor, the 6601-7990 30m Sportsmatic Silverwave sports diver cost about 8,200JPY. At this same time the GS 5722 cost a breath-taking 27000JPY, a full month wage of a Japanese college graduate.