--- title: "Seiko SKX007: The Dive Watch Everybody Started With" url: https://quietmenace.com/watches/seiko-skx007-diver-history/ author: Quiet Menace Editors section: Watches published: 2026-10-10 updated: 2026-10-10 topics: Watch History, Japan --- # Seiko SKX007: The Dive Watch Everybody Started With > From 1996 to 2019 Seiko sold a real ISO 6425 diver for the price of a decent pair of boots. Then it stopped, and the internet panicked. For 23 years, from 1996 to 2019, Seiko sold a genuine ISO 6425 dive watch with a crown at four o'clock, a click bezel and an automatic movement, and barely changed it. It was the watch forum regulars told beginners to buy first. When Seiko quietly pulled it in 2019, used prices started to climb. ## Thirty years of divers before it The SKX007 makes more sense once you see the family it came from. Seiko built Japan's first dive watch in 1965, the 150 meter reference 6217-8000 that collectors call the 62MAS. In May 1968 came the 6105-8000, and in July 1970 the 6105-8110, with its asymmetric case and crown guard. That second one earned a nickname when Martin Sheen wore it as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now, and collectors have called it the Willard ever since. Then the line got bigger and tougher. The Professional 600 meter diver of 1975, the Tuna, put a shroud around the case. Through the 1980s the 6309 Turtle carried the cushion shape forward, and in 1988 Seiko replaced it with the 7002 series, a 150 meter diver with a screw-down crown at four. The 7002 is the SKX007's direct parent. Lay them side by side and the family face is obvious. ## What Seiko actually built in 1996 The SKX007 arrived in 1996 as case reference 7S26-0020. It is a 42mm steel case, about 46mm lug to lug and 13.5mm thick, with that crown screwed down at four and shielded on both sides. Water resistance is 200 meters, and it meets ISO 6425, the international standard for dive watches that covers legibility in the dark, shock, magnetism and a working unidirectional bezel. ![A wristwatch resting on top of a rock outdoors](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1670177257750-9b47927f68eb?w=1600&h=1067&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) *A cheap diver was always meant to get scratched. Photo by fatemeh zakeri on Unsplash* Inside sat the caliber 7S26, an automatic with 21 jewels beating at 21,600 vibrations per hour and about 40 hours of reserve, with a quickset day and date. It also had two famous limitations. It did not hack, meaning the seconds hand kept running when you pulled the crown, and it could not be wound by hand. You shook it to life or wore it until it ran. Purists complained. Owners mostly didn't care, because the movement was close to unkillable. The crystal was Hardlex, Seiko's hardened mineral glass, and the hands and markers were packed with Lumibrite. The black dial and black bezel version was the 007. Its sibling, the SKX009, paired a deep blue dial with a red and blue bezel that everyone calls the Pepsi. There were K versions for export and J versions for Japan's domestic market, nearly identical apart from small dial text, and the J pieces always traded at a premium that nobody ever quite justified. ## Why it became everybody's first diver Price and plainness did most of the work. The SKX007 was cheap enough to buy without a second thought and serious enough that it never felt like a toy. It was a proper tool, the same logic that made the [Casio G-Shock DW-5000C](https://quietmenace.com/watches/casio-g-shock-dw-5000c-history/) a cult object a decade earlier, applied to a mechanical watch. Then it became a platform. Because the case, bezel, crystal and dial were simple and parts were everywhere, the SKX turned into the default base for watch modding. People swapped in sapphire crystals, aftermarket bezel inserts, new hands, new dials, entire new movements. Whole small businesses grew up selling parts for one reference. A modified SKX could look like almost anything, which is part of why the plain stock version stayed cool. It was a blank page that also happened to be finished. It made a natural entry point to the bigger names. Plenty of owners went from an SKX to a [Tudor Black Bay](https://quietmenace.com/watches/tudor-black-bay-history/) or a [Rolex Submariner](https://quietmenace.com/watches/rolex-submariner-history/) once they had learned what a dive watch was for. Some never bothered, because the SKX already did the job. ## The 2019 exit and what replaced it Seiko announced the end of the SKX in the second half of 2019. The replacement was a relaunched Seiko 5 Sports collection, unveiled in August 2019 with 27 references. Many of them borrowed the SKX case shape, but the brief had changed. The new caliber 4R36 has 24 jewels, beats at the same 3Hz, runs about 41 hours, and fixes both old complaints, since it hacks and hand winds. The trade was water resistance. With a push-pull crown instead of a screw-down one, the 5 Sports models are rated to 100 meters and do not carry ISO dive certification. That trade is the whole story in miniature. Seiko gave the market a more convenient, more fashionable watch with the same face. What it took away was the thing enthusiasts actually loved, the proof that a real dive watch did not have to be expensive. Seiko's higher Prospex line now carries the professional diver work. For the full family tree, The Seiko Guy's [chronological guide to Seiko divers](https://www.theseikoguy.com/seiko-diver-timeline) is the most patient source online, and Professional Watches covered the [2019 Seiko 5 Sports launch](https://professionalwatches.com/2019-seiko-5-sports-collection/) as it happened. Read our [Omega Speedmaster story](https://quietmenace.com/watches/omega-speedmaster-moonwatch/) for the other kind of tool watch, then browse more [watch history](https://quietmenace.com/topics/watch-history/), the [Japan hub](https://quietmenace.com/topics/japan/) and the [watches section](https://quietmenace.com/watches/). Pull an SKX007 out of a drawer today and the 7S26 will start ticking after a couple of flicks of the wrist, with the day wheel still set to whatever Tuesday it stopped on. --- Filed under: [Watch History](https://quietmenace.com/topics/watch-history/), [Japan](https://quietmenace.com/topics/japan/) Hero image: Photo by Tim Schmidbauer on Unsplash (Unsplash License)