Seiko Sports 100 Chronograph

Seiko Sports 100 Chronograph
Seiko Sports 100 Chronograph
In 1990, I bought as schoolboy this Seiko analog chronograph for unbelievable 298DM (or was it even 398DM?). It took me very long to save that much money. But from the moment, I saw this watch in a catalog, I fell in love with it and had to get it.
This model was really a beauty, paired with technical gizmos, such as analogue chronograph, analogue date and moon dial. Moon dials were very popular in the late eighties...

If you compare this watch with its very well designed (unfortunately plastic made) dial to a watch with a Valjoux 7751 movement, which also has got a moon dial and analogue date, the Seiko looks tons better.

This watch, which was also worn by the german TV star Hans Meiser, conatined a rather rare Seiko 7A48A movement with 1/20 sec stopwatch capability (up to 30 minutes), regulation, 15(!) jewels and four tiny stepper motors.

Seiko 7A48A
Seiko 7A48A

But excatly these four stepper motors were the reson, why this watch became quickly boring for me: Almost every hand (the three stopwatch hands and the main time indication) was individually driven by an own stepper motor. No gears, no trains. Even the resetting procedure was dull: Every hand ticked forward until the zero position.

So, for me, a Vajoux 7751 powered watch with crazy dial, but interesting movement, was and of course still is much more interesting to me, than this beautiful, but boring Seiko quartz chronograph.

I wore this watch daily, even in water (it is water resistant up to 100m), as long, as its first battery went dead, to finally close the chapter of quartz watches in my life. Well, almost finally, since I'll probably wear one day my Novus LED or my Timex Quartz.