- 7A28-7000-Aliens-Ripley.jpg (77.8 KiB) Viewed 17318 times
The Giugiaro-designed stainless 7A28-7000 worn by actress Sigourney Weaver, playing 'Lieutenant Ellen Ripley' in the 1986 cult classic sci-fi movie Aliens was a very clever bit of 'product placement' by Seiko's marketing people and certainly helped the watch to achieve 'Grail' status among collectors. There are a number of online blog articles attesting to this, such as: Seiko Giugiaro ‘Aliens Ripley’ .... and Watches On Screen: Seiko Giugiaro 7A28-7000.
These led to Seiko producing a number of limited edition 'Spirit' 7T12 powered re-issues of both the 'Aliens' and 'Bishop' watches in 2014 / 2015, which I wrote about in detail in this thread on the old forum. The closest resembling Ripley's 7A28-7000 being the SCED035 (as reviewed by W&W). These were hastily snapped up by speculators. But I digress ....
Like the initial 'Ripley' reissues, there were two colour finishes of the original 'Aliens' watch: Silver anodized (with black plastic pusher buttons) and Black chrome plated with yellow plastic pusher buttons. There were also normal export and JDM versions of both variants. The easy way to recognise the latter is by the small block capital CHRONOGRAPH dial script (instead of the usual italic) and their bracelets have SPEEDMASTER logo'd clasps. The black chrome coated variants (also seen stamped as 7A28-7009), which appear to be rather more common, never actually appeared in the movie, but by association (and heresay) also acquired the 'Aliens' moniker.
As I only collect 7A38's (not 7A28's) I have never owned either an original or re-issue of the 'Aliens' or Bishop watches. I've got nothing against 'quirky', but they do nothing for me personally. However, in this thread on the old forum I've commented with bemusement on their pricing a number of times in years gone by. I'm certain that I had also passed comment on a stainless 7A28-7000, listed by a UK eBay seller much more recently. But that must have been in another thread that I've so far been unable to locate.
One thing's certain - that's when they do occasionally come up for sale, mint examples can command very strong prices indeed. Here's one described a 'very good condition' (rather than 'mint') which sold on an appropriately named website 'Grailium'. Note the generally matte finish of the silver anodized coating. - rsz_7a28-7000-ripley_aliens-gralium-sold.jpg (230.29 KiB) Viewed 17020 times
Italian eBay seller 
