Seiko produced Stellaris for Sears, Roebuck, and Company as the in-house brand for Sears – and this svelte 1970’s Stellaris womans mechanical is no different.
At its 1886 inception, American company Sears - run by Richard W. Sears, a railroad agent - sold watches by mail order catalog - much akin to Amazon at its founding selling books, pocket watches were Sears' first commodity, but it would gradually add substantially to its offerings - just like Amazon.
With the patina’d lume and - in particular - the vibrant red slender seconds hand, there’s more than enough visual contrast going on here to make the watch visually engaging. Couple this with the gold case and two-tone gold and stainless-steel bracelet and it all adds up to an engaging dress watch on the wrist.
Seiko produced Stellaris for Sears, Roebuck, and Company as the in-house brand for Sears, However, before this, Stellaris was a brand name registered in 1963 by Mondia; while not a well-known brand, it produced some intriguing watches, such as the Mondia “Big Eye” chronograph and the Top Second. It also put out a watch model called Stellaris with an unusual fluid case.
How did Mondia and Stellaris evolve to be separate watch brands? It's yet another mystery lost to the ages, akin to how both brands would become victims of the Seiko-initiated Quartz Crisis. Watch periodical Fratello has speculated, “Mondia was used as support to make Stellaris trustworthy."
"Or, I suppose another possible scenario is that the Mondia Stellaris became so popular that Mondia decided to make it a separate brand featuring its own range of watches. And there were quite a few of them, mostly later Stellaris electronic models.”
Regardless, the Stellaris font and symbol didn’t change after it was established as a stand-alone brand, the clearest evidence of the relationship between the two.
This Stellaris comes on a two-tone bracelet, and with rugged travel case, and springbar tool.
Gold 1970's Stellaris Manual Wind Woman's Mechanical Diver
DIAL: Stellaris-signed dial, with matching hands.
CASE: Stainless-steel case case measures 25mm (26.5mm w/crown) x 29mm.
CRYSTAL: Domed acrylic crystal, no cracks.
BAND: Two-tone stainless-steel and gold bracelet, which will fit up to an approx. 7.5 inch wrist.
MOVEMENT: Manual winding Seiko 9024A mechanical movement.
CROWN: Unsigned stainless-steel crown.