Dad's Seiko Fives

These are old friends. I saw these Seiko 5s on my Dad's table, which brought back memories. 

The silver piece was purchased some 30 years ago, when my siblings and I pooled together an amount of RM90 to purchase the piece for my Dad's birthday. Since he was a watchsmith and one of his fave brands was Seiko, I figured that he would appreciate a Seiko 5 gift from us.

I knew that Seiko 5 was a good watch then, but I was still young and did not know that it was named so for its 5 attributes :

1. Automatic-winding;
2. Day-Date window;
3. Water resistant;
4. Unbreakable mainspring (Diaflex);
5. Shock resistant (Diashock).

So after we emptied our piggy banks, I remembered us counting the coins (yes, 10 sen, 20 sen, and 50 sen coins) and it amounted to exactly RM90. I kept all the coins in my pockets and could hardly walked, as the weight of the coins were pulling my pants down with every step. I mounted my BMX and cycled 40 mins to town, afterwhich I stopped by his friend's watch shop. This piece caught my eye at first glance, and his friend was willing to let me have it for all the money that I had in my pockets although it was priced higher. He laughed when he saw me emptying out the coins on his counter.

Dad had quite a collection of watches; but he sold them all off and made the silver piece as his daily-beater. It's in the meaning, I guess. The watch might not be valuable in terms of its monetary value; but it meant the world to him. In fact, it had stopped running a few times in recent years and he had spent more than our purchased price to repair and had it running again and again.

The gold piece was purchased some 20 years back, with some of my first paycheques. I knew that the Seiko 5 that we gifted Dad was 10 years old and running slow, so I wanted to get a newer Seiko 5 for him. I was earning some RM1,000 those days- take off my car instalment, house instalment, room rent, daily expenses, and token sum to family; and I had no spare monies at all. So it took a few paycheques to put together a decent sum to go towards this piece. I told Dad that it was the only Datejust that I could afford just then; and he kept it under lock and key for many years, keeping it pristine until I literally had to coerce him into wearing it in the wild.

Over the years, I have been able to afford better watches for him; but he had kept these 2 pieces as his daily-beaters. They followed him everywhere. They are old friends indeed.

May he continue wearing them in good health always, Amen...