As we usually do, we will talk about our favorite brand Seiko. During the long history of the brand, Bell-Matic is the ONLY mechanical alarm watch that Seiko has produced and it is a really interesting part of the brand's history in my opinion. The fact that an alarm created solely from moving metallic parts, driven by the unwinding of a second coiled spring of a watch movement draws out a spectacular joy whenever I hear it.

Let's get started!

I believe most of us are born in an era where our experience of alarm was in an electrical form from our battery-powered desk alarm clock driving the ring of the clock's bell and it gradually replaced by all forms of tunes or songs with the mass adoption of mobile phone as our alarm clock. Somehow mechanical things always bring us back memories from the past.

Manufactured from 1966 – 1978, the Seiko Bell-Matic is the only mechanical alarm watch that Seiko has produced, and the watch comes in many different variations from Dial to Case shape.

Today we will be covering the earlier Bell-Matic model during its production the 4006-7010.

The case back of this particular example has 'Water Proof' designation on the cashback, can further proof the model as an earlier year production model because the 'Water Proof' word was disallowed in 1970, and Seiko have replaced the designation with 'Water Resist'.

Under the case back, we could find the 4006 compact movement in the watch. I believe that this is the only Seiko with 2 springs in the movement, one for the usual time-keeping function and the other solely for the alarm and will release the power in one single activation. 

The reason behind the two spring design is simple because we can't have the timekeeping function stop just because the alarm has used up all the stored energy with the spring right?

Moving on to the dial of the watch, we can see the day-date window at 3 o'clock, applied Seiko logo at 12 o'clock of the dial, and the sub-brand name at the 6 o’clock position together with the jewel count and Suwa logo.

The hands of the watch are similar to the hands being used in Grand Seiko and King Seiko of the same era with dauphine design and a black racing stripe in the middle to aid visibility. This is the most classic hand design for Seiko in my opinion.