Power Wheels Magazine A Notch Above
On Christmas Day 1969, Seiko launched the Seiko Quartz Astron, the world’s first commercial quartz wristwatch. This innovation changed watchmaking forever by using a battery-powered quartz crystal to keep near-perfect time. Compared to mechanical movements, Seiko quartz movements maintain a high level of accuracy up to within about 15 seconds per month.
Aside from accuracy, quartz watches also require low maintenance since their batteries last around 2 to 3 years on standard models. Customers welcomed the practicality of just wearing a quartz wristwatch without the need to wind them up, as in the case of hand-wound mechanical watches, or adjust the time every other week, as in the case of automatic ones. Best of all, Seiko quartz models offer reliable Japanese engineering at affordable prices.
Nine years after the successful launch of the Astron, Daini Seikosha, the second of Seiko’s major manufacturing plants, came out with the 1978 Seiko Quartz Type II 7123-7010 for the Japanese Domestic Market (JDM). Seiko intended the Type II model as a high-quality, mass-produced alternative to expensive luxury quartz timepieces while offering precise quartz technology to the common folk.
A reliable battery-powered, high-torque Caliber 7123 quartz movement powers the Type II. Its 35 mm stainless steel case features brushed and polished finishes, a thickness of just 8 mm, and a lug-to-lug length of just 38.5 mm, which makes its suitable as a dress watch. It is also exceptionally light and easy to wear, weighing only 55 grams with its factory-installed brushed and polished stainless-steel bracelet. It weighs next to nothing on your wrist.
Our Type II was produced in October 1978 and features a jade green dial with polished stick indices, a bilingual day (English and Kanji) and date display with quick-set function. Its thin pencil-style hour and minute hands are polished along with the “SEIKO” and stylized “SQ” metal scripts, while a white second hand sweeps the entire dial every 60 seconds.
Modern battery-powered smart watches now boasts of a multitude of features including Bluetooth connectivity, heart-rate monitor, and step counter, but few have the classic design and the singular function of just simply telling the time, day and date as our 1978 Seiko Quartz Type II. What used to be a bargain-priced disposable quartz watch has now become a collectible 48-year-old classic timepiece worthy of being featured in Timepieces for today, Friday, September 18, 2026.
Model: Seiko Quartz Type II
Reference No.: 7123-7010
Month/Year of Manufacture: October 1978
Type: Dress Watch
Movement: Battery-powered quartz
Caliber: Seiko Caliber 7123 Quartz
Diameter: 35 mm
Thickness: 8 mm
Lug-to-lug Length: 38.5 mm
Lug Width: 18 mm
Weight: 55 grams
