Seiko launched its Avenue line in 1985 - like the 1989 Seiko 5H22-6250 dress watch here, with original 5H22 instructions manual - to target a young demographic.
The series was a hugely popular, thanks in part to the effect of TV commercials featuring popular artists.In line with the watch style popular in the 1980s, a genre of watches referred to as "traditional watches" became popular.
The Seiko answer to this style, namely the Avenue, was retro-inspired oxidized gold and silver 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.
Accodingly, the Avenue dial here is sparse - as a great dress watch should be - with applied hour indices on a cream-colored glossy dial, and it features baton minute, hour, and second hands. The Avenue design here 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.
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.
This Seiko Avenue dress watch comes on a black leather strap, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, springbar tool, and original Seiko 5H22 instructions manual.
1989 Seiko 5H22-6250 Avenue Dress Watch
DIAL: Sharp cream-colored Seiko-signed dial, with crisp writing. Date complication at the six o’clock position works as designed.
CASE: Stainless-steel case measures 34.5mm (36mm with crown) x 39.5mm, with matching caseback. Case lines remain sharp, with no evidence of machine polish.
CRYSTAL: No scratches or blemishes.
BAND: This Seiko comes on a black leather strap; it also comes with a red and black nylon strap.
MOVEMENT: Seiko 5Hxx hacking quartz movement, manufactured in May 1989. Seiko ceased production of its 5Hxx line in 1989, making this example here one of the last to be made.
CROWN: Unsigned stainless-steel crown.
Of note, this Seiko Avenue dress watch comes with an original Seiko 5H22 instructions manual.