Ricoh Crystal Diver

A Remarkable Piece of Timekeeping History

In 1899 Takano was established as a clock manufacturer. In 1938 it became the Takano Seimitsu Kogyo Co. At the start of 1957, they started making wrist watches and in the September the company agreed to a joint venture with Hamilton in the United States to produce electric watches. In 1962 Takano became the Ricoh Watch Co.

My Thoughts…

I managed to get hold of this mid 70’s Crystal Diver after well over a year of searching. These now are extremely rare and hard to find and I have only come across 4 others in my search for this specific model. After much patience and hunting, i tracked this down from a collector in Maylasia. It shares many characteristics with certain Citizen and Seiko models.

It has survived the past 50 years without too much damage. The lightly worn blue hazy bezel clicks perfectly and the lume on the hands and indices, have taken on a chalky green texture. The case has signs of use with a few tiny marks on it. For its age, the Ricoh Crystal Diver is in excellent condition. The Mercedes hour hand and baton minute hand have worn well and hold the lume together. With the splash of colours on the dial, this looks amazing on the wrist. This watch will be in my collection for a long time.

Mark – I had never seen a Ricoh watch before Neil showed up with this on his wrist. I knew them as a camera manufacturer back in the day (my day – the 80s) but not much more than that. Anyway, this watch has charm. Lots of it. The way it’s been beaten and worn over the years really makes it a great looker. I know that is not to everyone’s taste, but it makes a difference. They say some things get better with age – it certainly does here.