Seiko Railway Watches July 16, 2017/ Anthony Kable
Seiko has an extremely long association with railways and their watches are still seen in common daily use today.
In the early 20th century railways in Japan rail used foreign made watches from Waltham, Elgin, Zenith and Omega for general time keeping operations by staff. At this time Seiko was rapidly developing watches with improved accuracy to a level that would be suitable for use on the railways.
In April 1929 Seiko released the Type 19, a size 16 (43.18mm) pocket watch movement with seven jewels. This movement was placed into a pocket watch configuration with a distinctive dial design that employed the same font style as Seiko’s original Laurel wrist watch model from 1913.