King Seiko’s 1970s Vanac Is Back with a Grand Seiko Movement in Disguise

Seiko turns 145 this year, and the brand is celebrating the only way it knows how: by drowning collectors in commemorative limited editions. And while we’ve already covered a handful of them, the latest drop pulls from one of the more overlooked corners of the King Seiko archive; the Vanac sub-collection. A watch that only returned to the lineup last year after a fifty-year hiatus.

King Seiko’s 1970s Vanac Is Back with a Grand Seiko Movement in Disguise. Seiko turns 145 this year, and the brand is celebrating the only way it knows how: by drowning collectors in commemorative limited editions. And while we’ve already covered a handful of them, the latest drop pulls from one of the more overlooked corners of the King Seiko archive; the Vanac sub-collection. A watch that only returned to the lineup last year after a fifty-year hiatus. In case you missed the 2025 revival, the Vanac was essentially a 1970s oddity. It’s outfitted with an angular, faceted, integrated bracelet that has a really unique feel. Now it gets the anniversary treatment with the new HKF004. What Makes a Vanac a Vanac Unsurprisingly, the case here is the same one Seiko brought back in 2025: a 41mm bezel-less stainless steel design with sharp facets,...