Daily Archives: March 7, 2008

I was looking at Baily Banks and Biddle *again* and looking at this watch:

It’s a Breitling, SuperOcean in Coral. Pretty nice looking watch. The bezel turned well, with a little slop. Only 60 clicks, but acceptable. Oh, did I mention it costs well over $2,000? At the time, I was wearing this watch:

That’s my SKXA55K1 “Orange Bullet” The saleswoman held the watch up next to mine and mentioned that the Seiko had a richer looking orange face than the Breitling. Looking at it, I had to agree. The black, 120 click bezel on the Seiko stands out much better as well, another thing the saleswoman pointed out. I appreciate her honesty, but this is really not a good way to sell a $2150 watch! The Seiko costs well under $200.

Not that I dive, but if I did, I think I would appreciate the large markers and broad hands on the Seiko as opposed to the Arabic numbers and narrow hands of the Breitling.  I also don’t think many people would wear a $2000 watch for diving.

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Seiko SNKE03J1 Black

All Black PVD Seiko 5 automatic
General Comments:

This is my fourth automatic watch.  This is another watch bought by Tiffany, the greatest wife in the world, for my 34th birthday. It sparkles on the wrist and looks very handsome, but not dressy. It is a Made in Japan Seiko 5, my first. The fit and finish are excellent all around. The blood red second hand really stands out. Although there is not much luminescent material, the large, silver markers against a black face allow for easy reading in poor lighting. The lume that is there is nice, Noon, 3, 6, and 9 have different sized markers, making it easy to read. The black day/date window is surrounded by a silver bezel, also a nice touch.  The PVD process really creates a black finish that does not come across well in photos.  It looks nothing like paint, it looks like black steel.

Features:
Case: 37mm diameter, stainless steel, 50m water resistance, PVD Black.

Back: Hardlex exhibition back, screw down.
Crystal: Hardlex, flat.
Movement: Automatic, 7S26B, Seiko in-house design. No handwind or hacking. Made in Japan.

Complications: Day of week, Date
Other: Luminous hands and markers, Lumibrite.

As stated before, this is a mechanical watch, and as such will never require batteries. Initial accuracy is about +6 seconds/day. The Japanese made 7S26 seems to be better regulated at the factory.

I have only had the watch 3 days, so these are just initial impressions.

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