As this seminal Golden Anniversary year for the watch industry winds down ? and timepieces commemorating a half-century of the Zenith El Primero, the Heuer Monaco, and the Omega Moonwatch have all been given their due ? one milestone from 1969 remains largely unheralded: Seiko’s invention of the first wristwatch with a quartz movement, the original Quartz Astron. The Japanese watch giant remedied that this week, with the release of the 1969 Quartz Astron 50th Anniversary Limited Edition ? a series of just 50 pieces in gold that brings together in one watch the original technical innovations of the first Astron and the ultra-modern GPS functionality of the revamped 2012 version.
Seiko 1969 Quartz Astron 50th Anniversary Limited Edition The original Quartz Astron, released on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, 1969, introduced into watchmaking the use of a tuning-fork-shaped quartz oscillator and open-type step motor ? still standard technology in quartz watch movements today, and now even used in other non-horological electronic applications ? for a then-unheard-of accuracy of +/- 5 seconds per month. In 2012, Seiko revived the Astron name for a watch that pioneered another groundbreaking technology, the ability to connect to GPS satellites and to adjust to a new time zone at the push of a button, all powered by light and never needing a battery change.
The gold case’s delicate engravings are executed by hand.
While this 50th anniversary piece incorporates all of these elem...