6 of the best 1960s watches, an era dominated by science & Seiko

Jamie Weiss

The 1960s was a memorable decade for many reasons – the rise of counterculture, humanity’s first steps on the Moon, the civil rights movement, the pill and the sexual revolution – and fittingly, it was also a critical decade for the watch industry. Not only did the ’60s see the launch of many watches that have become iconic names, but this decade also saw two crucial technological developments: the first automatic chronograph movements, as well as the world’s first quartz watch, which would go on to completely upheave the watch industry, causing the so-called “quartz crisis” in the decades to follow. Picking just six watches from this decade was a hard ask, but I’ve tried to collate a punchy half-dozen. Groovy, baby!

Seiko Quartz Astron

As the title of this article alludes to, one watchmaker dominated the 1960s more than any other: Seiko. This decade saw the Japanese brand mark many firsts: in 1964, they produced the first Japanese chronographs and world timers; in 1967, they won second and third place at the Neuchâtel Observatory chronometric trials, a coming-of-age moment for Japanese watchmaking; in 1969, they would be the first to bring an automatic chronograph to market, the ref. 6139… However, those achievements all pale in comparison to the Seiko Quartz Astron, the world’s first commercial quartz wristwatch.

Released on Christmas Day in 1969 and costing about the same as a Toyota Corolla, the Quartz Astron marked the beginning of the quartz revolution. Accurate to ±5 seconds per month or one minute per year, and boasting a battery life of over a year, it’s also a beautiful piece of design. The Quartz Astron is also emblematic of Japan’s post-WWII transformation into the economic and scientific powerhouse that it is today.

Bulova Accutron

While quartz crystal oscillator-based watches have ultimately consigned electric watches to the dustbin of history, nine years before the Seiko Quartz Astron was released there was another electronic watch that was poised to change the watch industry: the Bulova Accutron. Rather than using a balance wheel, the Accutron utilised a tuning fork, vibrating at 360 times per second, driven by an electromagnetic coil system and powered by a dry-cell battery with no mechanical contacts. Not only did this make it more robust and practical than other electric watch designs, but it also made it more accurate. With its smoothly-sweeping seconds hand and distinctive electronic hum, the Accutron redefined luxury and watchmaking – if only for a few years.

Rolex Daytona

The 1960s would prove to be a prolific decade for Rolex, the Swiss brand launching many watches that have since become iconic: the eclectic Cellini King Midas, the now-archetypal Explorer ref. 1016, the buff Sea-Dweller and the even buffer Deep Sea Special, which accompanied the first successful descent to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. However, no Rolex release of the ’60s is as influential or pop culture-relevant as the Cosmograph Daytona, which in the years since has proven to be the Crown’s most coveted model. Developed with motorsports usage in mind, the original ref. 6239 was originally referred to in Rolex marketing as the “Le Mans”, named after the famous French endurance race, with the Daytona moniker sticking in 1965, a reference to Florida’s Daytona International Speedway.

Heuer Carrera

Another watch of the 60s released to capitalise on the growing popularity of motorsports was Heuer’s iconic Carrera. Named after the notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana road race of the 50s and the brainchild of maverick CEO Jack Heuer, the original Carrera ref. 2447 was inspired by modernist architecture and designed for maximum legibility – and would prove to be more famous than another important Heuer motorsports chronograph released in the 1960s, the Autavia wristwatch.

Eschewing an external tachymeter bezel in favour of a more streamlined design, Jack Heuer targeted the Carrera at gentleman racers, positioning it as a watch you could wear from the track to dinner. One of its big innovations was its “tension ring”: an angular ring of steel that held the watch’s crystal in place, improving its water resistance while also providing greater visual depth (a design feature TAG Heuer has harkened back to with the modern Carrera Glassbox).

The first Grand Seiko

Another milestone for Seiko in the 1960s was the launch of the very first Grand Seiko. Borne out of Seiko’s somewhat arcane system of internal competition – with the Daini Seikosha firm coming up with the King Seiko line of watches and the Suwa Seikosha firm coming up with Grand Seiko, as well as other developments like the Quartz Astron mentioned earlier in this article – the Grand Seiko “First” was intended to be, as Seiko puts it, “the ‘ideal’ watch with standards of precision, durability and beauty that would lead the world.” In essence, it was Seiko (and by extension Japan’s) first real crack at making a luxury timepiece.

The first Japanese watch to be certified by the Bureaux Officiels de Contrôle de la Marche des Montres in Geneva (at the time the world’s most respected chronometer testing body), the Grand Seiko “First” set a new bar for refinement for Japanese watchmaking, eventually inspiring the creation of a whole sub-brand.

Zenith El Primero

In 1969, three concerns raced to release the world’s first automatic chronograph: Zenith, Seiko, and the Chronomatic consortium made up of Heuer, Hamilton, Buren, Dubois Depraz, and Breitling. Ultimately, Zenith would be the first to announce their movement (hence “El Primero” – “The First”)… Although it was actually Seiko who was the first to get one to market, the ref. 6139. However, the El Primero (which is both a movement and a watch) has proven to be the most iconic of these three. It was also the only high-beat movement of the three, running at the higher frequency of 36,000 vibrations per hour: allowing for measurements of 1/10 of a second, as well as giving its chronograph hand an exceedingly smooth sweep. 60 years later, derivations of the El Primero movement continue to power Zenith’s modern creations – and even by modern standards, the El Primero is a fantastic movement.

The fairytale story of its revival is equally as impressive: facing the quartz crisis in 1975, Zenith decided to cease production of the El Primero. However, watchmaker Charles Vermot took it upon himself to secretly protect the movement by gathering all its technical plans and tooling and hiding them in the manufacture’s attic, with Vermot only revealing his secret in the 1980s when demand for mechanical chronograph movements returned (as well as a big order from Rolex to supply movements for the Daytona).