A little bit on the history and then the review :
Seiko BrandSeiko is perhaps best known for its wristwatches, all of which were at one time produced entirely in-house. This includes minor items such as the oils used in lubricating the watches and the luminous compounds used on the hands and the dials.
Seiko produces both quartz and mechanical watches of varying prices. The least expensive are around RM150-RM200 (Alba) and the most expensive costs RM1.6 million (Credor JURI GBBX998).
Seiko's mechanical watches are highly prized by collectors—from the Seiko "5" series (the 5 reflects the five essential features of the watch, namely shock resistant, water resistant, automatic, and day and date display), which is the most common; the Seiko automatic Chronometer series; the "Bell-Matic," with a mechanical alarm; to the highly prized luxury "Credor," "King Seiko," and "Grand Seiko" lines.
Various Seiko watches were worn by the cinematic James Bond 007 in four films starring Roger Moore from 1977 to 1985. Also, a Seiko watch was worn by Sean Connery in the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again. A Seiko Chronograph is also worn by Jason Bourne in the movie "The Bourne Identity" adapted from a novel by Robert Ludlum.
Seiko 5There are many, many different style of Seiko 5 watches. Mechanical or quartz, round or rectangle, with or without see through back. And in a many different styles. They also come with different calibers, depending on their age, or style.
The Seiko movement is the 7S26 (2 variants 7S26A & 7S26B), made in Singapore, and contains a total 64 parts. The crown is at the 3 o’clock position. The watch can not be hand-winded, and the (central) seconds hand cannot be hack. Since it cannot be hand-winded, you have to wear the watch often, or you have to adjust the time each time you start wearing the watch after the power reserve time, which is about 40 hours, has passed. The watch can only be re-animated by shaking it a minute or so and let the rotor do its job, then setting the time, and start wearing it.
The movement itself is not decorated at all. The rotor, which winds in both directions, has got some engravings. "SEIKO TIME CORP 7S26B", and "TWENTY-ONE JEWELS". I guess the 7S26 has got 21 jewels and beats at 21.600 alterations per hour.
The case is polished stainless steel, it's diameter is 38mm and the watch is 11mm thick. The back is “see-through” and the rotor can be seen moving when the watch was moved. Inscriptions around the back are "SEIKO", "water resistant", "stainless steel", "7S26-03R0", "A4" and “KY”.
The saphire crystal rises just a fraction above the bezel.
A nice white dial, with hour markers. The 12 being a double striped marker. Minute markings between the hour markers makes this watch very easy to read. Luminous dots on every hour, plus luminous hour and minute hand makes it also very easy to read in dark. At 3 o’clock position there is a display for the day of the week and the date.
The dial has the word "SEIKO", the Seiko 5 logo, the word "AUTOMATIC" and “21 JEWELS”on it. At the very bottom (barely visible with the naked eye ) it says "7S26" and "1068 R 2". My guess is that it has got something to do with the dial identification,
The watch came with a stainless steel bracelet. It compliments the watch quite good.
Functions:Hour, minutes, seconds, day and date. At 00:10 the date changes, at 01:30 the day changes to the same day, and the day/date transition is completed at 03:00. Saturday is displayed in blue, Sunday in red and the other days of the week in black.
The day can be quick-set by pulling out the crown one click. Turning the crown changes the date accordingly. The central seconds hand can not be hacked. Therefore if you wish to set the watch to the second exactly, you must wait until the watch comes to a halt, and then set the day/date/time, and start shaking the watch when the seconds hand is synch to the verification time signal. My guess is that this is not an elegant way to set a watch.
The SEIKO 5 is fantastic value for the money. One can get one at RM300 (cheapest) for an automatic watch and ranges to Thousand ringgit too. The in-house movement has already proven itself for being very reliable, and, after some experimenting with the regulation function, it can be a very accurate watch. It is for that reason an ideal daily watch. It sure is cheap, but it is not a “cheap” watch. My thinking is where possible money was saved for the next grail (Ha! Ha!). The movement has got no decorations.
The major setback is the fact that the watch can not be handwound, therefore I have to set the watch many times, because I never wear a watch for very long. Sometimes I wear two to three different watches on a day. When I put the Seiko 5 back on the wrist very often it has stopped (unless I shake it twice a day), and I have to reset it. That is only the annoying part.
Nevertheless this is my first grail for the year and I will keep this one in my collection.
Chng
