#weekdater

For Sale - Mid-1964 Seiko 6218-8970 Weekdater Automatic Dress Watch

Seiko’s 6218 Weekdater – like the mid-1964 Seikomatic 6218-8970 here – were equal with Seiko’s famed Grand Seiko of the same time period.  The Weekdater and Grand Seiko were produced at a time when many Swiss dress watches looked uniformly conservative – small round cases with slight lugs.  However, Seiko never sought to copy this style, but instead produced its own unique series of boldly-designed, larger cased watches that today still look fresh, handsome, and above all, original.  This alone remains one of the reasons why DCVW favors Seiko so heavily in its line-up – Seiko dress watches of this time were refreshing in diversity, and its coherence of design in the Seikomatic line (to include the 6218) also reflected undeniable quality.

At the time of its debut, the 6218 was flagship of Seiko’s high end automatic line, sharing the same 35 and 39 jeweled automatic movement as the 57GS/43999 and 62GS (the first automatic Grand Seiko) - the 6218 eventually earned the moniker “mini Grand Seiko,” accordingly.  All were examples of Seiko adding jewels to the movement to stop what has been translated from the Japanese as the “shake fall problem” with the datewheel.

Seiko began manufacture of the 62xx movement – offspring of the 33-jewel 400 calibre movement, which was produced between mid-1963 and early 1965 – in May 1964 until the late 1960s, and the 62xx went on to be one of the best-known Seiko movements, cased in numerous Seiko designs of the 1960s – to include the famed Seiko 6218 Weekdater here.