The Seiko Kinetic: Boon or Bane?

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The Seiko Kinetic. Now that’s a watch technology that had initially discouraged and mystified me for some time. When I first inquired about Seiko Kinetics at a small watch dealer, I was advised to stay away from Kinetics as far as possible. He mentioned about frequent customer complaints and warranty claims from his fellow watch sellers. "Stick to quartz or automatic", he advised. "A Kinetic will give you a headache later on".


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Seiko’s humble classic: The Great Blue series

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Some years ago my long time friend Eddie spoke of a Seiko watch that he had seen in a watch store and was pretty excited about it. I was at my infancy of watch collecting and had absolutely no idea what this watch looked like, much less his enthusiasm for this mysterious timepiece.

As fate would have it, one day we happened to be at a shopping mall and he pulled my arm towards a display window of a watch retailer. “There! That’s the one I was talking about!” he gushed in excitement.

I peered closely at the watch. It had a very dark blue dial, bordering on black and had an intricate grid lines on the dial, very much like the Mercator lines you’d see on a globe. “Ah, I see what you mean!” when I saw the intricate globe-like appearance of the dial and “The Great Blue”

So what’s interesting about the Great Blue series?


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Why You Should Not Buy From Replica Watch Sites

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It seems that online fake watch merchants have decided to spread their wings and expand their wares to include Seiko, Citizen and Casio watches. This subject actually surfaced in the Seiko & Citizen Watch Forum several times this year.

Personally, I couldn’t care less about replica Swiss watches. There’s a healthy market for them and people buy them as gifts, to try them out before deciding to buy the real thing, for safety reasons (they don’t want to wear their genuine Rolex Daytona going to unsafe places or events) or just for pure fun. Heck, someday I might get myself a replica Omega Speedmaster automatic just for kicks! 😉


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Seiko SKXA35 Diver’s 200m review

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Watch History

 

Background

This yellow faced Seiko divers’ watch actually took quite some time for me to decide. Yellow is not my favorite color in a watch (orange is more acceptable) and I think most yellow dials are hard to read. It’s neither white nor orange. It’s probably an in-between hue. Perhaps the most positive point of a yellow colored watch is that it’s very unique and striking on the wrist.

It’s not a popular color for a watch and that’s probably why one seldom sees yellow dialed watches in the stores or on people’s wrists. I was considering the black SKX173 7s26 diver but I already own two SKX007J divers. The SKX173, apart from its rectangular index markers and the lumed ball on the tip of the sweep second hand, didn’t offer much difference from the classic SKX007 divers.

What made me eventually choose the SKXA35?


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Seiko SKX007J Diver’s 200m review

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Watch History

 

Background

The SKX007 is perhaps the most evergreen diver’s watch from Seiko. First introduced in 1996 to replace the 7002-series divers, it has become an icon of the quintessential Seiko diver. Eleven years on, this model is still sold by most authorized Seiko dealers worldwide to this day. The SKX007 became so popular that it spawned several models based on the 7s26-0020 caseback design.


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Seiko SKX781K Orange Monster review

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Watch History

Background

The SKX781K or fondly known as the "Orange Monster" amongst Seiko fans, was one of the watches that I found simply irresistible. Barely three months after owning the SKX779K Black Monster in late 2003, I finally saw one in person at a Mid Valley Mega Mall watch store. Monsters were not formally introduced in Malaysia at the time and I’m sure the one I saw was a grey market Seiko, most probably brought in from Singapore.

It sure was a very sharp looking diver’s watch and it looked very attractive hanging on a wooden toolkit-like board serving as the watch display. I was wearing my Black Monster at the time and couldn’t help comparing the Orange Monster (OM) with my beloved timepiece. Just sixty seconds into ogling at this tangerine beauty, I knew this watch was going to join my growing Seiko collection! 🙂


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