The "Wedding Anniversary" Seiko (ref 21-3210) was made in 1973 to celebrate Emperor Hirohito's upcoming 50th Wedding Anniversary. The watch is often simply referred to as 寿 in Japan, which means "Kotobuki" or Congratulations/Long life.
Interestingly, "Kotobuki" is also the word for a Yōkai, or mythical Japanese creature creature, that is depicted as being a combination of all of the animals from the Chinese zodiac. It has the head of a rat, the ears of a rabbit, the horns of an ox, the comb of a rooster, the beard of a goat, the neck of a dragon, the mane of a horse, the shoulders of a tiger, the arms of a monkey, the back of a boar, the hind legs of a dog, and the tail of a snake.
As a result, the dial is adorned with two Kotobuki as a way to offer congratulations and a long life to the Emperor. As a very limited edition JDM from 1973 that's not very easy to track these down in the West, especially not in this condition
Features:
Year Produced: November 1973
The Theme: The 21-3210 comes in two colour options; gold and silver. The gold one, as you might expect is rarer and more desirable, but both are hard to get hold of. Designed as an elegant dress watch, to be worn during celebrations for the Emperor's wedding anniversary, this square shaped manual wind vintage piece has a lot going on. Pay particularly close attention to the raised etchings of the two Kotobuki on the dial.
Condition: Near brand new condition. Some incredibly minor hairline scratches on the case back, but the dial, crystal and case front are all near perfect.
Scope: This watch comes with the original box, original price tags, the original golden buckle (non-original leather strap) and the original spare dial. Yes, a spare dial - that does seem strange! The spare dial is a non-Kotobuki version of the dial, i.e. a “plain” dial. My understanding is that people were expected to use the Kotobuki dial during the 50th Anniversary year, and then switch to the plain dial for the “non-anniversary” years that followed. That seems like a hassle, and I’d love to know how many people actually did it!
Silver Emperor: The Silver variant, in equally great condition with the full kit, is also available. The Gold and Silver Emperors can be purchased together with a large discount, as we would prefer the pair to go to the same collector.
Movement: Manual Wind, 19800 bph, 47 Power Reserve, 23 Jewels
Dimensions:
- Lug to Lug: 33.6mm
- Case Width: 32.5mm
- Case Thickness: 8.1mm
- Strap Width: 17.0mm
