Seiko’s 6218 Weekdater – like the 1964 Seikomatic 6218-8971 automatic dress watch here – were equal with Seiko’s famed Grand Seiko of the same time period.
Both were produced at a time when many Swiss dress watches looked uniformly conservative – small round cases with slight lugs. However, Seiko never sought to copy this style, but instead produced its own unique series of boldly-designed, larger cased watches that today still look fresh, handsome, and above all, original.
This alone remains one of the reasons why we favor Seiko so heavily – its dress watches of this time were refreshing in diversity, and the coherence of design in the Seikomatic line (to include the 6218) reflected undeniable quality.
At the time of its debut, the 6218 was flagship of Seiko’s high end automatic line, sharing the same 35 and 39 jeweled automatic movement as the 57GS/43999 and 62GS (the first automatic Grand Seiko) - the 6218 eventually earned the moniker “mini Grand Seiko,” accordingly.
All were examples of Seiko adding jewels to the movement to stop what had been translated from Japanese as the “shake fall problem” with the datewheel.
Seiko began manufacture of the 62xx movement – offspring of the 33-jewel 400 calibre movement, which was produced between mid-1963 and early 1965 – in May 1964 until the late 1960s, and the 62xx went on to be one of the best-known Seiko movements, cased in numerous Seiko designs of the 1960s – to include the famed 6218 Weekdater here.
This 6218 Weekdater comes on a leather strap, and with a nylon strap, rugged travel case, and springbar tool.
1964 Seiko 6218-8971 Weekdater Automatic Dress Watch
DIAL: Silver Seikomatic Weekdater applique dial, with matching sword-style minute, hour, and second hands. Date and day function at 3 and 9 o'clock positions work as designed - please note, never change the date function between the hours of 9 to 3 o'clock, as this is a known issue in the design and will result in damage to the movement.
CASE: Stainless-steel case measures 37mm x 44mm, with matching caseback. Crown is recessed.
CRYSTAL: Correct domed acrylic crystal.
BAND: This Weekdater comes on generic vintage stainless-steel bracelet that will fit up to an approx. 7.5 inch wrist; it also with comes with a premium red nylon strap.
MOVEMENT: Seiko 35 jewel 6218A automatic movement beats at 18,000 bph, manufactured in October 1964.
CROWN: Recessed unsigned stainless-steel crown.