We recently looked at the seven best vintage Grand Seiko watches to collect , as well as at a $90,000 1968 VFA Grand Seiko that sold earlier this year. Today, we are going to look at actual listings for the best vintage Grand Seiko watches you can buy right now. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: Grand Seiko prices are on the rise.
In the first half of 2024, Grand Seiko watches had the highest year-on-year sales volume increase, according to ChronoPulse, the market index run by sales aggregator Chrono24. Collectors are now realizing that in the sub-$10,000 bracket, the luxury Japanese brand represents unrivaled finishing and design, combined with a choice of exceptional mechanical, quartz, and spring drive movements. This trend is interesting to consider against other trends, like Rolex dropping in price almost categorically, except for the skyrocketing prices of the rather dressy Rolex Day-Date 36 .
If there’s a Rolex that resembles a modern Grand Seiko watch, it is surely the Day-Date, and the tastes shifting away from pure sport watches toward smaller dress watches may help account for Grand Seiko’s rise in value. The increasing buzz around the modern brand, as well as some recent one-to-one Grand Seiko reissues , has also led to rising interest in Grand Seiko’s vintage pieces. For years these vintage pieces existed in relative obscurity away from watch collector circles who mostly focused on Swiss watchmaking.
The fact that the vintage models were only e.
