I’ve owned a number of modern and vintage Seiko divers throughout my journey in the watch hobby. Like so many others, my first automatic watch was an SKX, which I bought on Amazon in 2014. Since then, I’ve owned a 6309 Turtle, a 6105 Willard, four Monsters, a couple of rare SKX variants, a 1000m Tuna, and a SBDX023 MarineMaster 300. I keep coming back to Seiko divers because I love their ability to look fantastic and perform perfectly in any situation I might encounter. While I’ve more recently moved upmarket and onto other brands, I started with Seiko and will always have at least one in my collection.
As of today, I have just one: a Seiko 7548 quartz diver. My particular example is a Japanese domestic market 7548-7000 from May 1981. I bought it on Mercari Japan from the original owner. I purchased via Buyee, an excellent proxy buying service for a number of Japan-only websites.
Here’s what I spent to acquire this watch:
- Purchase Price: 12,700¥ ($119.77)
- Service fee: 1,000¥ ($9.44)
- Shipping: 2,400¥ ($22.66)
- Total: 16,100¥ ($151.87)
In return, I received a badass watch with 41 years of history and a Kanji day wheel to boot. I’d expect to spend two to three times that amount on a 6309 Turtle, at least four times that on a 6306 Turtle (if JDM and a Kanji day wheel are important to you), and upwards of ten times that for a 6105 Willard. I did get an exceptionally good deal, but I routinely see JDM examples well under $200 on Mercari Japan and Yahoo Auctions Japan, with US market examples on Ebay often selling for around $200.
Like many other enthusiasts, I tend to prefer automatic over quartz, but this is not a run-of-the-mill quartz movement. This is a fully jeweled and serviceable quartz movement from the era when quartz was the premium option over automatic. Perusing a 1980 Seiko Japan catalog (pages 29 and 30), you’ll find that back then the 7548 cost 35,000¥ while the automatic 6306 was only 25,000¥! Having owned the 7548, 6309, and 6105, I can confidently say that the 7548 is just as much fun to wear. Don’t get me wrong: all of the aforementioned watches are phenomenal in their own right. I’d love to own a 6306, and maybe even another 6105, but in a discussion of value the 7548 is a downright steal by comparison.
When I received my 7548, it was running and kept good time, but had an issue with the date advancing. I got it serviced immediately, but probably could have used it as-is for quite some time. Servicing costs for the 7548 were similar to what I’ve spent to service automatic vintage Seikos in the past. I spent about $225 to have the watch serviced at International Watch Works, and $30 for a CT041 sapphire crystal from Crystaltimes USA which was installed during servicing. All in all, I spent about $400 to acquire the watch and get it ready for the next 40 years, pending battery changes of course.
While I could have gone with a cleaner, more pristine example, I love the look of a well-worn Seiko diver. I like that this watch is over 40 years old and shows every bit of its age. The wear tells the story of the original owner using it as the tool it was designed to be. On a practical level, I’m more comfortable using it as a tool watch myself, because any wear that I add to it will just add to that story. For a reasonable all-in price, I have a watch with the cool factor of being truly vintage and, after a service, the water resistance and reliability necessary for daily life. This model is truly a bargain, and while I’m glad there is such a great entry point into vintage Seiko, I also hope these become more widely appreciated for the incredible watches that they are.