HANDS-ON: The King Seiko KSK SJE083 is the reissue that any Seiko fan needs to check out
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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When we think of watchmakers, we immediately think of European and Japanese artisans. But to ensure our watches remain in tip-top shape, watchmakers around the world and of varying backgrounds all work hard to ensure the immortality of our timepieces. Earlier this month AFP via Prestige shone a spotlight on 52 year-old Youssef Abdelkarim, a third-generation watchmaker in Baghdad. Thousands of watches fill his workshop, and Abdelkarim diligently spends his days at his desk working his way through the queue of watches that need his care and attention to fix. According to AFP, “Abdelkarim began fixing watches at the age of 11, after the death of his paternal grandfather, who opened the store in the 1940s. His grandfather had already passed the trade onto his own son, who began to teach Youssef.” During his days in his shop, Youssef Abdelkarim can be seen repairing anything from a cheap Sigma watch to a coveted Patek Philippe. He even claims to have possibly repaired a watch that belonged to former dictator Saddam Hussein. He explained to AFP, “It was a rare watch brought to me by the presidential palace, with Saddam’s signature on the back.” It apparently cost 400 Iraqi dinars to…
When a watch enthusiast approaches a timepiece, they usually ask about specifications like case diameter or movement caliber first. Most people, however, will first want to know the price. It can prove a bit of a shock that such a small object can have such a high price tag. It is no secret that luxury branding is one element of increased prices and margins. But another more genuine factor of the cost of a watch is the actual time it takes to develop, decorate and assemble. Back in 2014, Patek Philippe president and CEO Theirry Stern explained in an interview that some of their creations can take six years to make – possibly even more for their most complicated references. Last month, Matthew Catellier explored this aspect of production in an article for Forbes. It’s a reminder of the extensive research and development, assembly time and quality control that each watch undergoes and that also might ease the minds of those who feel they’ve spent too much money on a watch. According to Thierry Stern, “A simple movement is minimum four years of work before you can present it. A complicated one, we’re talking about six years approximately. And a…
