Marking 60 Years Of Prospex & The Return Of The King Seiko VANAC
Both releases pay tribute to Seiko’s rich history while embracing innovative modern elements.
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To mark 60 years of the Seiko diver’s watch, they’ve released three new Prospex models. At the same time, the King Seiko VANAC is making a comeback too—over 50 years since it first launched—now updated with a cool mechanical movement and a sharp, edgy design.
Both releases pay tribute to Seiko’s rich history while embracing innovative modern elements.
Prospex: Celebrating 60 Years of Innovation
Seiko’s heritage in diver’s watches began in 1965 with the creation of Japan’s first diver’s watch. Since then, Seiko has continuously advanced in diver’s watchmaking to meet the demands of professional divers.
Over six decades of innovation, Seiko has introduced landmark timepieces that have enhanced safety, reliability, legibility, and ease of use, building a legacy that is upheld today by the Prospex collection.
The year 2025 marks the 60th anniversary of the Seiko diver’s watch. In commemoration of this milestone, three new creations are introduced into the Prospex collection.
The first of these new watches, powered by the new Caliber 8L45, joins Seiko’s flagship series for diver’s watches, Marinemaster, which combines exceptional performance with refined design and craftsmanship.
Its exterior traces the familiar contours of an early and iconic Seiko diver’s watch that was introduced in 1968, while its construction finds inspiration in another innovative Seiko diver born in 1975.
The new Caliber 8L45 represents the pinnacle of Seiko’s mechanical watch movements.
It incorporates Spron, Seiko’s proprietary alloy, designed for durability against breakage, rust, and wear, ensuring resilience in harsh underwater conditions.
A thinner, longer mainspring provides 72 hours of power reserve, while an improved method for securing the movement within the case enhances durability.
In addition to its longer power reserve, Caliber 8L45 operates within a tolerance of +10 to -5 seconds per day.
A dial inspired by shinkai, or “the deep sea”
The dial features a blue gradient that deepens toward the outer edge, capturing the mysterious and beautiful underwater world.
The watch features a new textured dial whose pattern evokes the deep sea. To ensure reliability and safety, the indexes are formed as part of the dial through a molding process and will stay firmly in place, even under impact.
A thick, clear paint adds a lustrous finish to enhance the beauty of the dial while achieving an unprecedented level of depth.
A case construction using Seiko’s latest watchmaking technology
The watch features a one-piece titanium case construction that ensures water resistance to depths of 600 meters, suitable for saturation diving.
As a mark of its professional-grade capabilities, the word “PROFESSIONAL” is inscribed on the dial.
Just like Seiko’s historic diver’s watch introduced in 1975, it features a specially developed L-shaped gasket to prevent helium infiltration, eliminating the need for an escape valve.
The stainless-steel bezel insert has been treated with diamond-like carbon coating to achieve a surface hardness approximately six times greater than it would otherwise be, making it significantly more resistant to scratches.
The newly developed bracelet features rounded links designed to provide a flexible and comfortable fit.
The watch will be available as a limited edition of 600 at the Seiko Boutiques and select retail stores worldwide from July 2025.
Supporting JAMSTEC’s Arctic Research
Seiko Prospex actively supports various marine conservation initiatives by contributing to the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) research team, and this watch is set to become part of JAMSTEC’s Arctic research program in 2025.
Seiko and JAMSTEC share a remarkable history of innovation and resilience. In 1983, two professional diver’s watches rated to 600 meters of water resistance were successfully tested on the Shinkai 2000, a research submersible operated by JAMSTEC.
In 2014, both automatic and quartz 1,000-meter saturation diver’s watches were mounted on the Kaiko 7000 II, demonstrating exceptional performance by operating flawlessly at depths exceeding 3,000 meters, surpassing their guaranteed specifications.
Two creations inspired by Seiko’s underwater heritage join the celebration
Two more creations join the Prospex collection in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Seiko diver’s watch.
The watches showcase a fresh dial design – one in silver colour and the other in blue – drawing inspiration from the wave mark, a symbol of reliability found on the case back of Prospex diver’s watches.
The silver-dialed model pays homage to Seiko’s first diver’s watch from 1965, while the blue-dialed version reflects the design of the 1968 diver’s watch. Both are powered by the long-trusted Caliber 6R family.
The watch with the silver-colored dial is equipped with Caliber 6R55, while the blue-dialled model features the GMT Caliber 6R54.
The GMT hand of the latter can be set independently without interrupting the other hands, allowing the wearer to see, at a glance, the time in a second-time zone.
Both movements deliver a power reserve of 72 hours and are water-resistant to 300 meters – an improvement of 100 meters compared to previous diver’s watches equipped with Caliber 6R54.
The watches have Lumibrite on the hands and all 12 indexes and feature a unidirectional bezel with a luminous pip.
Both creations feature an updated clasp, which allows a 15mm adjustment range, easily extended or shortened in six 2.5mm increments by pressing side buttons.
This ensures a comfortable fit, adapting to changes in wrist size caused by diving pressure or the weather.
Each of the two 6R-powered creations will be available as a limited edition of 6,000 at the Seiko Boutiques and select retail stores worldwide from June 2025.
VANAC: Return of the King Seiko
The King Seiko VANAC, a design series born in the 1970s, returns to the collection in 2025 with a sporty new aesthetic.
The watches are powered by Seiko’s latest addition to the 8L movement platform and feature an improved level of accuracy and a longer power reserve.
Inspired by the vast city where King Seiko was born, a metropolis that appears to extend endlessly into the distance, the theme for the new creations is the Tokyo horizon.
Rebirth of the VANAC
The King Seiko VANAC, a design series born in the 1970s, returns to the collection in 2025 with a sporty new aesthetic.
The watches are powered by Seiko’s latest addition to the 8L movement platform and feature an improved level of accuracy and a longer power reserve.
Inspired by the vast city where King Seiko was born, a metropolis that appears to extend endlessly into the distance, the theme for the new creations is the Tokyo horizon.
In 1972, King Seiko, characterized by its classic designs, launched the VANAC, a series with bright colours and innovative, multifaceted designs.
After over 50 years, a new VANAC inherits the spirit that infused the original, opening up new possibilities for King Seiko.
The case and dial design are inspired by the Tokyo horizon, a vista renowned for its depictions in art, film, and popular culture whose rich expressions change depending on the time of day.
Though the VANAC has a strong and dynamic angularity that makes it look as if it were carved from a block of solid metal, its bezel-less design creates an elegant and thin appearance.
The newly developed bracelet has been achieved through a combination of links with mirror and hairline finishing, ensuring comfort on the wrist and an unmistakable air of luxury and sophistication.
The dial has a horizontal stripe pattern and indexes that occupy a dedicated ring that is embedded in its surface.
The 12 o’clock index and the counterweight on the seconds hand display the striking silhouette of the letter “V,” indicating the first letter of the series’s name.
The new movement’s beautiful finishing can be seen through the watch’s sapphire crystal case back.
In fact, the new VANAC has the first see-through case back of any King Seiko watch following the collection’s relaunch in 2022.
Caliber 8L45 achieves a power reserve of 72 hours thanks to an improved mainspring and has an accuracy of +10 to -5 seconds per day.
It was engineered to have the robustness and other qualities demanded of movements that power modern-day mechanical sports watches.
Through its combination of high performance and functional beauty, Caliber 8L45 represents the pinnacle of Seiko’s mechanical watch
movements.
The new series is offered with dials in purple, navy, and silver tones, with each colour taking inspiration from the Tokyo horizon at a different time of day: evening twilight, midnight, and sunrise.
These three creations will join the main King Seiko collection and will be available from July 2025 at the Seiko Boutiques and select retail partners worldwide.
In addition to the three watches joining the main King Seiko collection, one limited edition and one Seiko boutique exclusive will also join the collection.
Both the limited edition and boutique exclusive watch feature the same specifications as the three other creations joining the main King Seiko collection.
The limited edition shares the theme of the Tokyo sunrise with one of the watches from the main collection; however, in the limited edition, the theme is expressed through a dial with a golden colour.
The lettering on the dial and the King Seiko logo on the case back also take on a golden hue. This special creation will be available in July 2025 at select Seiko Boutiques and retail stores worldwide as a limited edition of 700.
The dial of the boutique exclusive creation is ice blue, expressing the Tokyo scenery reflecting a clear blue sky on a bright sunny day.
This exclusive creation will be available in July 2025 at the Seiko Boutiques worldwide.
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