Vintage Ricoh Dynamic Wide automatic watch

Ricoh is a brand that's usually associated with copiers. It has or had other products. I have a working Ricoh camera that I acquired during my time as a student in Japan in the 1990s. It is 'Made in Japan' as with a working Pentax camera that I also have preserved. It was much later that I discovered the company also produced watches. And apparently, it is still producing watches today.  

The watch features split date and day displays. The days are in English and Kanji (at the same time).

Side view shown the signed crown

The other side view showing the good condition of the stainless steel case

The case back showing the Ricoh emblem and the watch to be 'water proof' and 'all stainless steel'. There is also a reference number. The 'water proof' marks on the dial and case back indicate the watch to have been made and released before 1970 when watchmakers transitioned to the more accurate 'water resistant' mark. Another thing about the reference number in Ricoh watches is that the first numbers indicate the movement caliber. 30 means this is part of the Ricoh 30 series and a Cal. 30, which runs at 18,000 A/h. This dates the watch to the year 1966, when the Cal. 30 came out.

Close-up of the signed crown - this was rather overpolished or really worn down but you can still see and feel the Ricoh R.

Close-up of the dial showing details such as the jewel-like hour markers and the W often found in their "Wide" models.

The dial from another angle to highlight the cyclops crystal detail over the date feature

 

Another photo of the watch showing the elegant dial and a bit more of the grey crocodile strap that I used as a replacement for its original stainless steel bracelet. The bracelet does not fit my wrist so I just set it aside for when I have an extension for it.

For more information on Ricoh watches, you can simply Google the brand and browse the discussions. Here is one of those online discussions on Ricoh:

https://www.watchuseek.com/threads/vintage-ricohs.2732146/

You need to be careful when acquiring Ricoh watches as there are many fakes going around. These are mainly out of India or Pakistan, which for some reason produce many of the fakes including those being sold as NOS (New Old Stock). The online forums have much information on how not to fall for these fakes.

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