Seiko Resurrects Its Forgotten Royal Oak Alternative from the 1970s

The Locomotive was designed by the legendary Gérald Genta himself.

Published May 30, 2024

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Updated June 7, 2024

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If there is just one watch designer every enthusiast knows by name, it’s Gérald Genta. After cutting his teeth with brands like Universal Genève and Omega in the 1960s, Genta changed the watch industry forever with his luxury sports watch designs in the 1970s, namely the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and Patek Philippe Nautilus.

But Genta didn’t just create watches for the most illustrious names in Swiss watchmaking. He also designed a watch for Seiko, one that had largely been forgotten. Until now, that is.

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of its high-end subbrand Credor, Seiko has reissued the Locomotive — a rare integrated bracelet sports watch that Genta designed for the brand back in the 1970s.

Credor Locomotive

$12,000 at Credor

Meet Seiko’s Royal Oak

Over the past five or so years, the integrated bracelet luxury sports watch style that Genta pioneered five decades ago has been red-hot. From standbys like the Royal Oak and Nautilus becoming more popular than ever to brands like IWC and Tissot reissuing retro classics and upstart brands like Christopher Ward and Atelier Wen debuting their own takes on the form, seemingly every brand these days has at least one integrated bracelet sports watch in its catalog.

Seiko and its family of brands, however, didn’t really have a competitor in the space. That’s where the Locomotive comes in.

Meticulously basing the new refresh off of Genta’s hand-drawn sketch of the original watch, Credor has fashioned a modern Locomotive that looks like it was pulled straight out of the 1970s.

sketch of a seiko watch — Gerald Genta’s original sketch of the Seiko-Credor Locomotive from the 1970s.

The design of the Locomotive is unmistakably Genta. The hexagonal bezel has soft, rounded edges, recalling the porthole-inspired cases of both the Royal Oak and Nautilus. The bezel also features six exposed screws, again reminiscent of Audemars Piguet’s classic and, to a lesser extent, Genta’s take on the IWC Ingenieur.

Then there’s the multi-link, tapering bracelet, which is nearly a dead ringer for the Royal Oak’s famed bracelet, though with fewer hard edges and different finishing techniques applied.

Taken as a whole, it’s hard not to see the Locomotive as Seiko’s version of the Royal Oak. And since it was designed by Genta himself, the two watches are basically intercontinental cousins.

A Cult Favorite Reborn

While the new Locomotive hews very closely to the five-decade-old original from a stylistic standpoint, it’s not the same watch.

For one, the new version no longer bears “Seiko” on the dial. As Credor is now its own standalone brand, and has been for some time, there’s no need for the co-branded dial.

credor watch dial — As a modern luxury watch, the new Locomotive makes many improvements over the original, such as the intricately textured dial featuring 1,600 radial lines.

Speaking of the dial, the new Locomotive gets a new deeply engraved radial pattern. This new dial is more intricate than the one on the original Locomotive and is closer to what Genta had first put on the page in the ’70s compared to what made it to production. Credor used a digital process to screen the original sketch and effectively transport the dial pattern onto a physical dial via a special machine.

The stainless steel of the original watch has been swapped out for high-intensity titanium for this new release, while the case dimensions remain a vintage-friendly 38.8mm across by 8.9mm thick. An AR-coated sapphire crystal is naturally used to protect the dial in the new version, while a screw-down crown helps ensure 100m of water resistance.

Finally, there’s the movement. Considering the original was a Seiko with an integrated bracelet from the 1970s, you won’t be shocked to learn it was powered by a quartz movement. But given the current state of the luxury watch industry today, nothing but an in-house mechanical caliber will suffice for this type of release, and that’s what we have in the new Locomotive.

credor watch movement — The Caliber CR01 movement is exclusive to Credor and makes its debut in the watch.

Hidden behind the solid caseback is the Credor Caliber CR01, a brand-new automatic movement that’s exclusive to the brand. Made by Seiko, it’s an elegantly thin 26-jewel movement with high magnetic resistance and a power reserve of 45 hours.

Pricing and Availability

As Seiko’s unofficial entry into the integrated bracelet luxury sports watch wars, the Credor Locomotive is both expensive and difficult to get. It’s limited to only 300 pieces and priced at $12,000.

That SRP puts it well below industry leaders like the Royal Oak, Nautilus and Vacheron Constantin Overseas and instead squares it off against the next tier of competitors that includes such watches as the IWC Ingenieur ($11,700), Girard Perregaux Laureato ($14,900) and Chopard Alpine Eagle ($14,800).

The Credor Locomotive will go on sale this August.