Learn The Quickest and Most Obvious Ways to Spot a Fake Seiko Dial

Fake or "aftermarket parts", as they've been successfully rebranded in recent years (presumably in a bid to make them more palatable) plague the vintage Seiko market. Whether it's a dial, hands, bezels, bracelets or even the entire case, fake parts can ruin the identity of your watch. Thankfully, there are often tiny tells that can help you spot the fake parts from a mile away. One of the least known, but easiest to spot is:

The Subtle Font Difference Between the Suwa and Daini Factory Dials

Please, contain yourself. Not only is this exciting, but it's genuinely useful. You'll be able to immediately out half of eBay's current 6138 Panda offerings as fake.

Without getting too deep into the history, in the 1950s Seiko had its two factories, Suwa and Daini. Both factories operated independently eventually resulting in differing movements like the Marvel vs the Super, and different designs like King Seiko vs. Grand Seiko. Although the two factories are often seen as being warring rivals competing against each other for Seiko's love and approval, the "rivalry" was a lot more friendly in nature and ultimately existed to benefit Seiko by nurturing as much innovation as possible.

By the late 1960s, to meet increased demand for Seiko watches, the two factories began sharing parts and designs, which resulted in both factories working on the 6138 and 6139 Chronograph lines together. Dials made in either factory were designed to look identical, apart from one tiny detail; their dial stamps:

pictured: Suwa's "Whrilpool" (left) and Daini's "Thunder" (right)

What I alluded to at the start of this vintage buying guide is that the Suwa and Daini factories used very slightly different fonts to each other - their "A" letters have a noticeable difference. Little is known about whether this decision was intentional or not, but it's definitely helpful now in spotting fake dials!

Almost all Seikos from that era bear the word "JAPAN" along the bottom half of the dial's edge. Suwa dials use a flat "A", whereas Daini dials opt for a pointed "A":

pictured: flat (right) and pointed (left) subtle, but easy to spot

I have to make a slight caveat here. The swapping of factory parts during the Seiko's international boom in the late 1960s and early 1970s meant that not all Daini dials bear the Daini logo and not all Suwa dials bear the Suwa logo. My understanding is that Daini would start work on some dials and Suwa would finish them, and vice versa, resulting in a hybrid mix of a dial codes and dial symbols.

Dial codes?!

Indeed, it was easier to leave this until the end. As well as including their symbols, Daini and Suwa would also add a T or an R to the end of the model number found at the bottom of Seiko dials. 

pictured: "T" (left) means Suwa and "R" (right) means Daini

As I mentioned earlier, dials were shared between the two factories, so using the Suwa/Daini symbols to determine font choice isn't always a perfect science. However, as the dial codes were printed on the dial at the same time as the word "JAPAN", they were never mixed. A "T" dial code is always found with a Flat A, and a "R" code is always found with a Pointy A. It's easy to remember as the letter T is flat and should be paired with a Flat A, and the letter R is pointy (sort of) so should be paired with a Pointy A! I'll leave you with some examples: