I stumbled across this interesting vintage 1960’s watch called ‘Dynasty’ which turned out to be an in house brand for Sears, Roebuck & Company with a Japanese Hamazawa 5026 movement. My initial investigations found very little, with only references to Seiko and eventually Orient. Now having found a little more it makes sense when you know the close connections of Seiko and Orient. Research suggest an unofficial relationship between Hamazawa and Seiko. Hamazawa Ltd was founded in 1954. In the 1970s, they took out a few joint patents with Epson on non watch related items. They seem to have sold a lot of movements to various Japanese and foreign watch companies. In 1983 they merged with two other companies, one of which was a major watch case supplier for Seiko-Epson. In 1986, this company was eventually taken over by Seiko. In the 1960’s Hamazawa released the 5000 family of movements – automatic and manual wind. They were 17 jewel movements and have a 21,600 beat. The self-winding mechanism partially uses the Seiko Magic Level System. Their movements were: 5020: manual wind, center seconds 5022: manual winding, central second, date 5023: manual wind, center seconds, date, day 5025: automatic, central second, date 5026: automatic, central second, date, day The 5026 is a 17 jewel automatic that is a rebadged Orient cal. 16720. As we mentioned above, Hamazawa was a company that was eventually taken over by Seiko in the 1980s. Back when this watch was made, they were probably somewhat independent; however the winding mechanism on the 50xx movements would have required a license agreement with Seiko who held the patent at that time. The rest of the design however has absolutely nothing in common with Seiko design practices. This movement first came out in the late 1960s, but what Hamazawa were doing from their inception in 1954 until then, it is unknown. The 7 jewel version movements they manufactured were used in Seiko's cheap labels ‘School Time’ and ’Tomony’. The 17 jewel ones were used by Orient and turned up in other Japanese brands like ‘Urika’ or other retailers such as ‘Sears Roebuck’ watches. It is unlikely that there is a 'Seiko' branded watch with this type of movement however they may exist. The movements were sold widely overseas and may be found in US brands including Sears and Benrus, and the British brand Astral. Comments are closed.
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Old Time WatchesI enjoy collecting mechanical (manual wind and automatic) and early electric and quartz timepieces. I take great pleasure in researching and writing about the companies and people that created these beautiful watches. PF
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September 2018
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