Many Seiko watches from the 1960’s through the mid-1980’s have rightly gone down as design classics, building a considerable following amongst watch collectors.
 
Many of these vintage Seiko watches are popular with Seiko enthusiasts - but many are relatively unknown, like the svelte matte-black 1986 Seiko 2P21-0B20 Avenue womens dress watch here, with an original Seiko 2P21 instructions manual - representing "diamonds in the rough" for its ability to stand out among routine and boring fashion watches.
 
Seiko launched its Avenue line in 1985  to target a younger demographic.  The Avenue series was hugely popular, thanks in part to the effect of TV commercials featuring popular artists, and Seiko designed the watch in a style popular in the 1980s, a genre of watches referred to at the time as "traditional watches."
 
The Seiko answer to this style, namely the Avenue, was retro-inspired oxidized gold, silver, or black  exterior finishes featuring user-friendly dials either with 60 markers and classic numerals around the circumference or sans numerals (mostly present on the example here).  Elsewise, Avenue variations incorporated small second hand dials - and moon phase complications - also proved popular with its target demographic.
 
Accordingly, the Avenue dial here is sparse - as a great dress watch should be.  The Avenue design also benefits from the discrete placement of a date window along the minutes track just above the six o’clock position, with no negative impact upon the symmetry of its great dial design.  Or even better - this one doesn't even feature one!  Why crowd up an already small dial?
 
And to think it all began in 1969, one of the most spectacular in Seiko’s storied history.  That year, it released the world’s first automatic chronograph, the Calibre 6139 and the V.F.A. (Very Fine Adjusted) movement – which delivered Seiko’s highest yet level of precision for a mechanical movement. 
 
But Seiko would release another first upon the world, the first quartz wristwatch - the Seiko Quartz Astron, which went on to change the way the world told time, and severely tested the dominance of the Swiss, bringing high technology within the reach of all.  
 
Some truly gorgeous watches from the same era produced by the same company have quietly slipped under the radar for the simple reason they were designed for the typically slighter wrist, ie: women. The design of the Seiko 2P21 here - classic and simple - is one of these, and it borrows heavily from the instantly recognizable earlier Seiko automatic and quartz divers.
 
And it’s a shame, because many of these smaller watches feature exquisite details – Seiko found an original, great looking formula for its watches, and stuck with it. The quartz movements Seiko designed for watches like these are tough and reliable – and stylish!
 
This vintage Seiko comes on a leather strap, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, Seiko 2P21 instructions manual, and springbar tool.