THE HOME OF WATCH CULTURE

VIDEO: The King Seiko SJE087 gets sexed up with gilt features and a champagne dial VIDEO: The King Seiko SJE087 gets sexed up with gilt features and a champagne dial

VIDEO: The King Seiko SJE087 gets sexed up with gilt features and a champagne dial

Time+Tide

The King Seiko era is an often overlooked piece of Seiko’s long and bountiful history. But, as last year marked the 60th anniversary of the King Seiko range’s appearance, there’s been a push to honour it in the best way Seiko know how — with a selection of gorgeous reissues. The latest off the block is the King Seiko KSK Re-Creation Limited Edition SJE087.

The 1965 King Seiko KSK was already reissued in 2020 as part of Seiko’s 140th Anniversary celebrations, but this new SJE087 reference more strongly echoes the luxury aspects of the KSK with a champagne dial and gilt features.

The SJE087 is a faithful modern re-creation in the same line. At 38mm in diameter, it still hits that vintage look and feel. It’s 11.4mm thickness while utilising Seiko’s 6L35  3.69mm that allows this automatic watch to be only 0.5mm thicker than its manual winding predecessors. It has a beat rate of 28,800 vibrations per hour, smoother than the 21,600 of the ubiquitous 4R35, and 45 hours of power reserve.

The champagne dial along with the yellow gold hands and markers brings a warmth to the watch and continues the vintage look and feel of this re-creation. The use of yellow gold for the hands and applied details also leans into the side of King Seiko that aimed to be more than a steel everyday watch, and mirrors the gold medallion fused onto the caseback.

The original acrylic crystal has been substituted with a box-domed sapphire crystal, providing some of that outer edge distortion we love from vintage watches while keeping itself protected from scratches. The case is scratch-resistant too, with Seiko’s super-hard coating having been applied.

King Seiko KSK Re-Creation Limited Edition SJE087 pricing and availability

The King Seiko KSK Re-Creation Limited Edition SJE087 is limited to just 1,700 pieces, and will be available for a price of €3,300.