There are many vintage Seiko divers popular with collectors, and the diver here – a 1990 Seiko 7N35-6A70 dive watch here, on a vintage stainless-steel bracelet and with Seiko 7N35 instructions manual – continues the Seiko reputation for building robust, stylish, and purpose-built divers for a wide-range of professional adventurers.
The 7N35 dial here is stark and utilitarian, with military-esque hour indices on a pitch black glossy dial, and features a short hour hand contrasted with a longer minute hand, aiding in wearer ability to distinguish the two immediately. It also benefits from the discrete placement of a date window along the minutes track just below 4 o’clock, with negative impact upon the symmetry of its utilitarian design.
Military forces the world over have long took note of Seiko’s dive watch lines, with their reliable movements – during its heyday and even today, Seiko divers are popular with various armed forces for this same reason, despite the widely held (false) assumption that military personnel only wear military watches issued to them.
Seiko debuted its SUS line in the early 1990s, after it perceived a disconnect between its offerings and younger consumers, in an attempt to wean the same customers off of digital quartz watches made by Seiko competitors.
Seiko set about conducting a series of surveys to gauge the interests of their target demographic, namely individuals between 19 and 22, by placing photographs of Seiko watches from 1913 through the early 1990s – and their overwhelming preference was the minimalist, utilitarian designs from Seiko’s wartime offerings.
And from, this the SUS (“Simple” and “Strong”) emerged. The design utilized historical aviation, military, and railroad timepieces that emphasized legibility above all else (important considerations when designing military watches, as well).
The SUS line went on to become a popular watch in Japan, and Seiko produced them, with their multiple variants, for eight years, to include automatic, quartz, and kinetic movements. Among these, the 4S15 “Military” variant – released in early 1996 – was by far the most popular. That said, the 4S15 was not actually designed to be a military watch (while the crown doesn’t screw down, it does hack). But the 7N35 here does hack and feature a screw-down crown.
This Seiko diver comes on a vintage stainless-steel bracelet, and with nylon strap, rugged travel case, springbar tool, and Seiko 7N35 instructions manual.
1990 Seiko 7N35-6A70 SUS Dive Watch
DIAL: Black Seiko SUS-signed dial, with crisp white writing, no fade. Date complication at 4:30 position works as designed.
CASE: Stainless-steel case measures 38mm (36mm w/o crown) x 40mm; recessed crown, with matching caseback. Case lines remain sharp, with no evidence of machine polish.
CRYSTAL: Seiko Hardlex crystal, no scratches or blemishes.
BAND: This Seiko diver comes on a vintage stainless-steel bracelet, which will fit up to an approx. 7.75 inch wrist; it also comes with a black nylon strap.
MOVEMENT: Hacking Seiko 7Nxx quartz movement, manufactured in June 1990.
CROWN: Unsigned stainless-steel crown, screws down as designed.
Of note, this Seiko 7N35 diver comes with an original Seiko 7N35 instructions manual.
