Am today a proud owner of a Seiko Tuna, a SBBN017. Its what I'd consider an entry-priced tuna. Surprisingly I prefer the steel bezel more than SBBN015 black bezel look, and more a rubber fan than bracelet. Relatively difficult to comprehend how nicely this Seiko professional diver range is made until you hold it in your hands and observe the small details. Not on a Grand Seiko anal perfection, but its close. Now I begin to understand what the fuss is about, from all you poisonous Tuna devout.
So what came from Higuchi was a nice taped and sealed EMS courier box. Opening the outer cardboard box, there are 2 individual origami design made by Higuchi's staff. Simple souvenir which I'm terribly pleased. Next is a long rectangular box in a purple/gray soft touch vinyl material. Signed only with a "Seiko"; logo on the top, its inside is lined with a grey, with yellow outline, velvet fabric. Soft to the touch and classy. Besides the timepiece content, I found a manual, worldwide guarantee (with a card inside, this is important for it to be a genuine product), another plastic bag and a piece of white foam to stop the watch from moving about. All together I can say this is the best money can buy divers watch; sealed and protected from all harm come what may.
SBBN017 has a bead blasted shroud, looking all matte gun metal grey and is as an industrial tool as it should be. A curved hardlex crystal dome seems protected from its surrounding well enough, sitting within a case, that sits within a stainless steel bezel, that sits within a shroud. The curvature of Seiko's hardly gives a distorted dial when viewed at an angle. Anti reflective coating isn't available here, so reflection can be quite irritating at times. When bright light shines onto you, the crystal reflects 2 of you onto it.
Running your fingers to turn the bezel in anti-clockwise rotation, the feel is more of a softly sprung turn and click motion. Not unlike my Aquadive, which feels solidly engineered and drilled. Both are equal and lovely built in their own way. Going clockwise turn will not give any free play as it locks tight in its slot.
At its 4 o'clock position, you unwind the crown to set the time, date and day that's written in both English and Japanese wordings, in case you have a tinkling fantasy of being a Japanese-san. Relatively simple adjustment process here, by pulling the crown out at 1 or 2 clicks adjusts the day/date and time respectively. And since its quartz I had to stop myself from winding it up before I lock it down. And I keep forgetting NOT to adjust the day/date when clock sits between 10 and 2. Hopefully nothing major happened in there. Impressive as well is how the seconds needle align, I would say, perfectly to the rehaut (that's the raised lines between the dial and case).
Lugs are polished, and is a contrast feature to the shroud's bead blasted case. At some angle I find the lugs protruding out like stubby leg and hands of a really round body shape. The brushed bezel, bead blasted shroud and polished screws cohesively make a very nice combination with the domed glass and rubber strap. Beautiful work that's looked the same for a few decades now.
SBBN017's rubber strap is an all matte black with "waves"; profile near the lugs and a stamped logo of a wave (or tsunami if you want) at its end piece. On the top is smooth, but on the strap's reverse is a random pattern that feels nice to touch. I was surprised to see a Titanium; word on the gun metal grey buckle, finished in brushed effect. I suppose the keeper is also made of "Titanium"?
On the case back, its a solid piece that's been polished all around. From a side angle you can see "4"; levels; tsunami logo, removable case with wordings, case with the stubby lugs and finally the brushed shroud. Now on the wordings area, its got an interesting feature where number markings indicate when your watch battery replacement is due. My smallest number is 19, which means at 5 years lifespan this beauty was built in 2014. The next interesting feature is a dot that sits on 1 of 4 quarters. Mine is on the 3rd quarter, indicating a build date of July-Sept. These number and quarter markings run halfway around from 19 to 29 so I suppose I can know my next decade of ownership's battery change date. Cool...
Its not a hefty watch and oversized either. My watch buddies commented it looks smaller than expected. Which means going Darth Tuna is a great big possibility. Lets wear the SBBN017 a bit longer, or buy both.
Well, that's all for the long winded review. Hope you all enjoyed it.
