Seiko & Citizen Watch Forum Message Archive

Hi

Good questions! OK, the current 200m Diver has evolved from the 150m Divers of the very late 1970s which ran until approximately 1996. The predecessor to those of course was the 150m "~turn and lock' Diver. Here's a brief rundown for you:

c.1977 end of 150m "~turn and lock'and introduction of classic and BIG 6309 "" 70XX series with day/date (SDE095); 150m wr. hands look the same as current models but early on used tritium. Winding crown featured "~tube on the crown'.

c.1981 "" case slimmed down, looking just about identical to current model, "~tube on crown' retained for now. Still using 6309 day/date movement. Hands as you know them today, poss. Still with tritium. Quartz version available with 7C46 calibre and a dial identical in design to today's.

c. mid- late 1980's "" tritium on hands and dials replaced by promethium

c very late 80's "" new winder with usual screw down arrangement, 6309 movement gone; replaced by 7002 calibre, date only. Promethium only and possibly first 200m meter models for USA (SDS105). Europe/rest of world model SDS001 with 150m WR. Hands as you know them.

1996 "" introduction of 7S26 calibre and 200m SKX007/009 models, case redesigned "" crown moved to approx 3.45 as opposed to 4. Early watches did in fact have promethium dials/hands but were soon replaced (late 96/early 97) with Lumibrite. (This explains why many people think that "~their' watch has promethium when it has Lumi; if you look at the print date of the instruction manual you will often see that it is early 96).

Regarding hands, well the very early Seiko Divers (mid-late 60's) did use hands of the pencil variety. Todays watches only use the classic hands though there are lesser (100m) models with slightly different hands which would fit the 7S26. A look on the auctions will often show these watches.

Hope this helps a bit

Kind regards

Ewan