Honda F1 Watch - help identify

[vadeit]

I got this watch from my grandfather in probably the early 90s (maybe late 80s). He worked for Honda for many years, mostly as a service manager at a dealership in Vancouver.

I have never worn, always kept it in the box stored away. We never discussed the watch after he gave it to me. I have tried to find out more about it but google has nothing.

Anyone know anything about this watch? Seen it before?

Crap BB pics, couldn't find camera. Don't know why pics all got rotated

[ga16i]

I called a buddy of mine who is an expert on Honda F-1 watches from the late 80's and early 90's ...

Unfortunately, it's probably quite difficult to get any kind of history on most car branded watches.
They're most likely promotional merchandise with the company logo put on with maybe some standard OEM documentation to go with it.

It's highly unlikely that Honda manufactured this watch, but probably a company like Seiko or someone was commissioned to put out a one-off order on promotional watches. Just looking at the color on the pics and considering the age of the watch, it does seem to jive with it being marked as stainless steel rathering than just stainless steel caseback (this a good thing). After a bit more poking, I found that Seiko Epson does make a quartz movement VX36.

See this sample and check out the similarities:
http://www.kentextime.com/e338m.html

Working with the assumption that it was Seiko who made this watch, then according to Seiko nomenclature, 1D0474 would mean it was made in the year 1981, or 1991 in December and it was #0474 of that series. I don't believe Honda was active in Formula 1 in 1981, so 1991 is more likely. McLaren Honda won the Formula One Constructor's Championship that year and also won the Driver's Championship with all time great Ayrton Senna. 1991 also marks the end of the reign of the McLaren Honda dynasty that dominated Formula throughout the late 80's and early 90's. McLaren will get one more constructor's championship in 1998 and Honda will be crap and later bow out in 2008.

Now would you like to pawn it or sell it?
I'll give you $50 for it.

Seriously, as for value, I can't see it being worth too much being a standard quartz watch from Seiko. It might be interesting to Formula One nuts, but probably at most $200 worth??

*Those numbers were just plucked out of thin air.

[NRGie]

Probably older version of this


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ronaldobayan/1851917095/

[flipstah]

Originally posted by ga16i
I called a buddy of mine who is an expert on Honda F-1 watches from the late 80's and early 90's ...

Unfortunately, it's probably quite difficult to get any kind of history on most car branded watches.
They're most likely promotional merchandise with the company logo put on with maybe some standard OEM documentation to go with it.

It's highly unlikely that Honda manufactured this watch, but probably a company like Seiko or someone was commissioned to put out a one-off order on promotional watches. Just looking at the color on the pics and considering the age of the watch, it does seem to jive with it being marked as stainless steel rathering than just stainless steel caseback (this a good thing). After a bit more poking, I found that Seiko Epson does make a quartz movement VX36.

See this sample and check out the similarities:
http://www.kentextime.com/e338m.html

Working with the assumption that it was Seiko who made this watch, then according to Seiko nomenclature, 1D0474 would mean it was made in the year 1981, or 1991 in December and it was #0474 of that series. I don't believe Honda was active in Formula 1 in 1981, so 1991 is more likely. McLaren Honda won the Formula One Constructor's Championship that year and also won the Driver's Championship with all time great Ayrton Senna. 1991 also marks the end of the reign of the McLaren Honda dynasty that dominated Formula throughout the late 80's and early 90's. McLaren will get one more constructor's championship in 1998 and Honda will be crap and later bow out in 2008.

Now would you like to pawn it or sell it?
I'll give you $50 for it.

Seriously, as for value, I can't see it being worth too much being a standard quartz watch from Seiko. It might be interesting to Formula One nuts, but probably at most $200 worth??

*Those numbers were just plucked out of thin air.

Now that you mention it, the font looks similar to my Seiko SKX:



Generic image*

[Cos]

.

[EG6boi]

Originally posted by Cos

[ga16i]

bwaahaha, yeeeeep great graphics. Now if only they can mix those shows with Swamp People or Ancient Aliens.

OP: since this is a 20 year old quartz watch, you might want to open her up and check that the battery hasn't done anything crazy and dispose of the dead battery if there's one in there. Doesn't look like it's a screw back case, so there's probably a notch of some sort for you to pry on with a knife to get that thing open.