Today, I am offering for sale a stunning Seiko 7016-5011 chronograph aka “Seiko Monaco” (even though I do not find this nickname particularly appropriate), dated from June 1973. These models have become increasingly hard to find in all original condition without wrong or aftermarket parts. What makes them special and historically important (from a horological point of view) is the great Seiko 7016A movement,

• an automatic column wheel chronograph calibre
• with flyback function
• that was introduced just two years after the launch of the first ever automatic chronograph and remained
• the world’s thinnest (6,4mm) automatic chrono movement with minute and hour counter until 1987/1988.
• Moreover, it offers a rare monocounter complication (i.e. minute and hour counter on one common subdial) that was eventually made popular by no less than Patek Philippe no earlier than in the mid-2000s.

Case: The case (37mm wide without pushers, 40mm lug to lug, 12mm high) is in excellent unpolished condition with only minor signs of use. All edges are sharp, polished bevels are shiny and brushing patterns remain present as they should (only one small spot near the bottom pusher is a little shinier than on NOS examples). There is no dents and the caseback looks beautiful too with all imprints being perfectly legible. Crown and pushers are all original, of course.

Dial and hands: The all original dial is flawless with colours fresh as they can be and all lume dots are fully intact. The entire handset is original to this model – which quite often is not the case with these watches - and the stopsecond tip remains bright orange. The original lume material applied to the handset is perfectly clean.

Crystal: The mineral crystal (and the thin bezel surrounding it, as that's one entity) are in very good condition with only minor scratches and hardly visible smudges around the very edge. Imho, there is no urgent need to replace the crystal yet (but original spare parts can still be obtained).

Movement: The movement requires a service or a demagnetization as timekeeping is not satisfactory (off by approx. 60m/d). Nevertheless, all functions (start, stop, reset, flyback as well as date and day quickset and automatic winding) work just as they should. A full movement service has already been considered in the price asked. The weekday is indicated in English and German.

Bracelet: The watch comes on its original bracelet with original endlinks which is sufficiently long for a wrist circumference of 19cm.

The price for this watch is EUR 800,-, international shipping included.

Pics (unedited):

The watch is located in Austria (EU) and so am I. I do have plenty of international references from various watch enthusiasts (also known here), so please feel free to ask for them.

Just for the records: I am a private collector and, therefore, the watch comes without any personal guarantee given by me. However, I am offering to give a full refund less fully insured shipping expenses in case the piece sold would not be as described by me (within an inspection period of three days and to buyers from within the EU only due to the complex customs procedure in case of an overseas deal).

Thanks for reading and thanks to the Chronotrader platform and its host!

Kind regards,
F.Antl