As a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel that was 2020, a watch was released that sent murmurs of excitement through Seiko fans around the world. It was the King Seiko KSK SJE083, a reissue of one of the most important references for the brand, the King Seiko ref. 44-9990. This isn’t just any other reissue. This is a watch that celebrates a critical decade in the history of the Japanese watchmaker that deserves greater recognition – the 1960s. A brief history of King Seiko Let’s start with a little bit of history. Thanks to being so geographically isolated from Europe and the rest of the watchmaking world, Seiko had to do things a little differently than their continental colleagues. In Europe, the watch industry was generally very horizontally structured, with hundreds of watchmaking businesses only producing very specific parts. This ecosystem of watchmakers had its benefits. Every watchmaker could focus solely on a single part of the watch, and pour their energy into the craft of perfecting it, giving rise to the likes of the legendary bracelet-making firm Gay Frères and the celebrated casemaker Jean-Pierre Hagmann. Isolated in Japan, this was not an option for Seiko,…
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