By Meor Amri Meor Ayob
Recently Seiko announced the release of the Credor Eichi II dress watch under the exquisitely high-end Credor line. Using the precious metal platinum as base material, this watch marks the 40th anniversary of the Credor line and the 15th anniversary of the Spring Drive technology.
In my personal view, the Credor line by Seiko is the finest watch that money can buy.
Made by hand by artisans that are considered living national treasures by the Japanese Government, the watches straddles two worlds – the world of exquisite horology and the world of fine art.
The Eichi II is made by Seiko Epson’s Micro Artist Studio, located in Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. This special unit makes only a few watches each year, including 20 Eichi II timepieces annually. Everyone involved in the manufacturing process are master craftsmen (and women), with many years of experience.
The platinum case of the Eichi II – meaning “wisdom” – is protected with a domed sapphire crystal with antireflective coating treatment. The dial comes in pure white porcelain, with blued steel hands and blue indices.
There are some key differences to the first Eichi. Instead of Arabic numerals, the new model has thin hour counters instead. The power reserve indicator is now allocated to the back. Nevertheless, the biggest difference is the size from a comparatively small 35 mm, the case size has be upsized to 39 mm.
The calibre 7R14 movement is engineering perfection. Since it is a winding watch, thickness has been kept at only 10.3 mm thick. The movement uses a patented torque return system which is able to increase the efficiency of the main springs by an additional 25%. This has the benefit of increasing the power reserve of this watch to an astounding 60 hours without the need to add an additional main springs. For more info, please visit seikowatches.com
Meor Amri Meor Ayob – Contributing Editor
Meor Amri is a passionate watch collector from Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Having bitten by the horology bug in 2010, he has written extensively about the watch scene and has assembled a large collection of watches (excessively!!) on his own free time. Read his articles here.
His blogs on the same subject are: Eastern Watch & Western Watch
