News · Seiko

Seiko turns 145 and picks a colour: Edo purple, across six watches

Alpinist, Speedtimer, Astron, Cocktail Time, SKX and a digital, from 450 euros to 3,000. October.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 7 August 2026

Seiko could have marked 145 years with one very expensive Grand Seiko. Instead it picked a purple, tied it to the Edo period that shaped Tokyo between 1603 and 1868, and ran it across six watches on three different power sources. The cheapest is 450 euros. The dearest is 3,000. All arrive in October.

Prospex Alpinist HBC006

Automatic 6R55, 39.5mm, 20 bar, 7,000 pieces, 980 euros. Monochrome measures the case at 12.7mm with a 72-hour reserve. This is the one to buy. The 6R55 is a proper movement, 39.5mm is the size the Alpinist should always have been, and 980 euros is barely above the standard model.

Prospex Speedtimer Solar Chronograph HBJ005

Solar V192, 41.4mm, 10 bar, 8,000 pieces, 790 euros.

Astron GPS Solar Dual-Time Chronograph HAB011

Calibre 5X83, 43.3mm, 10 bar, 2,000 pieces, 3,000 euros. The scarcest of the six and the one we would avoid. GPS timekeeping has dated badly while mechanical watchmaking has not, and three thousand euros goes a long way elsewhere in this list.

Presage Cocktail Time HCB006

Automatic 4R34, 40.5mm, 5 bar, 6,000 pieces, 620 euros. Monochrome says the dial takes its name from a cocktail, Edo Murasaki, and that the 4R34 adds a GMT hand on a 41-hour reserve.

Seiko 5 Sports SKX HDB003

Automatic 4R36, 42.5mm, 10 bar, 9,999 pieces, 450 euros. Nearly ten thousand pieces, so nobody needs to panic.

Seiko Selection HFL001

A 37mm digital on the A824 quartz, 10 bar, 4,000 pieces, 670 euros. The strangest inclusion, and the one that makes the set worth talking about. Very few brands would put a digital watch in an anniversary collection.

What lifts this above the usual recolour exercise is the restraint. No new calibres. No complications bolted on to justify a premium. One idea, applied six times, at prices an ordinary person can reach.

Australian pricing had not been published when we went to press. Seiko quoted the collection in euros.

Two thousand pieces against 9,999

Two things are worth pulling out of that list.

The first is the spread of run sizes. Two thousand pieces of the Astron against 9,999 of the SKX is a five-fold difference, and it tells you exactly what Seiko expects each one to sell. The Astron is the halo. The 5 Sports is the volume.

The second is that only two of the six are conventional automatics. The Alpinist and the Cocktail Time run mechanical calibres; the Speedtimer is solar, the Astron is GPS solar, and the Selection is straight quartz. Anniversary sets usually retreat to mechanical watchmaking because that is where the prestige sits. Seiko has instead put its quartz and solar work on the same shelf as its automatics and charged accordingly, with the solar Speedtimer at 790 euros sitting between the two mechanicals.

All six reach Seiko Boutiques and selected retailers worldwide in October.