SEIKO Rescue Project

So having spent more than three years in Japan, I have a certain affinity for SEIKO. In particular I have long been searching for a hand-winding piece. What I wanted, was a watch that a typical Japanese person would have bought and worn. And then I found this on Ebay, and pulled the trigger.

So my hope is that this will be pretty straight forward, with only a mashed up crystal. 

So upon my return from BaselWorld, we will roll up our sleeves and see what we have! Stay tuned -

Kasukabe, Obara-San, and Seiko

Back in the early 90s I lived in Japan working as an English teacher.  My next door neighbor and I spent the better part of that first year (92) trying to figure each other out.  In my infinite wisdom (read none) I would often go for a five mile run before work each day.  Work started at around 12:00 Noon and I was usually "on the road" by 9:00 AM - about the hottest and most humid times you could do anything.

Every morning I would see Obara-San, my neighbor, and shout "Ohayo-gozaimasu!" to him and wave as I ran past.  And every morning he would just look at me puzzled as I ran by, silent.  About a year into this exercise in cross-cultural communication, he stopped me as I was running and we actually had a fairly lengthy conversation, wherein he explained that he and his wife were a little worried about my "stability" as I was going out and doing heavy exercise at the worst possible time of the day for it.  You live and you learn.

This Seiko is a dead-on ringer for the Seiko that Obara-San had.

I put it on today thinking about neighbors, friends, and that far away town of Kasukabe - which from all reports has grown dramatically since then - and I suspect that they finally got some decent English teachers in as well!  And I suspect that Obara-san is still there, lending a helping hand to the misguided Gaijin teachers.