As requested by some MWF members who pmed to me last 2 weeks, I’ve finally returned from my break away from bolehland and was able to spare a bit of time this afternoon to take a few quick pics and write a short review (my first ever review actually) on the Prospex SBDB008 Spring Drive Tuna that arrived early this month.
My very first Spring Drive experience was an Ananta GMT which I acquired sometime in 2010. Needless to say the accuracy impressed me tremendously. About + < 2 secs per week.
I then added another SD watch, the Grand Seiko SBGC003 GMT/Chronograph which remains to this day, my favourite working day & travel watch. Another SD watch, the Grand Seiko SBGA031 titanium diver, another lovely crafted fine timepiece followed. I was getting addicted to SDs excellent and very stable timekeeping and GS's unparalleled fine finishing within its price range.
I’ve always admired the Tuna concept but somehow none of them spoke to my heart in the metal, the closest being the Golgo model which unfortunately was running on a quartz. Without going into a debate on mechanical vs quartz, I was holding out for a Emperor tuna SBDX011 that was fitted with the excellent mechanical 8L movement but in a jazzed up design as the Golgo because I found the Emperor tuna far too ‘Darth Vader’ like in its stealth mode, hence ‘bland’ in my opinion, without an intention to offend anyone, anyway taste is always v personal.
I then came across an article in July where a Spring Drive Tuna was to be launched in conjunction with Seiko's 100th Anniversay and to make it even more special, it was a limited edition of 300 pcs only. It is a first for a SD to be placed in a tuna and rumours are that being a 100th Ann Ltd Edition, it will be the first and last SD tuna, just like the limited run of the golden tuna quartz version which was never re-issued in that combination.
This SD tuna had merged the best of all things Seiko & tuna, the Spring Drive accuracy and the gorgeous look of the rare “Golden Tuna” 7549-7000 600m quartz diver – the granddaddy of all Tunas with gold accents.
Fitted with the excellent 30 jeweled cal 5R65 SD, a full titanium case, a DLC coated gun-metal grey & beautifully vertical brushed titanium shroud (to minimize scratches and to avoid the possibility of shattering unlike the previous ceramic shroud), titanium nitride gold highlights, date window at 4:30 (so that when its luminous, the dial looks balanced without a missing 3 o’clock marker), a glossy and ultra finely finished ceramic bezel, a beautifully concave and perfectly executed dial, the strongest Lumibrite of all my Seikos/Grand Seikos, it is a near perfect diving tool watch with superb fine detailing and excellent timekeeping.
The only other improvement I could think of was that all the numerals and markers on the ceramic bezel should have been luminous and all luminous parts in blue if possible.. (like my beloved Pelagos)
Lugs are 22mm, diameter 50mm, 72 hour power reserve (as for all recent SD movts) and accuracy whilst officially at +/-15s/month, it has in daily use been an excellent +2 secs since I first wore it early this month (> 2 weeks). Because this is a Spring Drive model, the hands and indices were redesigned and are very different from its automatic and quartz compatriots. According to Seiko, the new hands and dial improve underwater legibility.
List price is 399,000JPY,
If anyone is keen on this, grab it quick as each country received only between 2-4 pieces each max.
All the allocated pieces in Japan have been sold out by August as it was launched in Japan first sometime in end July.
2 of our MWF members I know and spoke to, managed to get it from the Japan JDM market in August. Unfortunately they are very low key and rarely post up any pics of their GS/Seiko watches so far.
To avoid too many pms, my piece was from a friend who bought in Singapore early Sept and couriered it to me.
RRP was SGD 6,955. Discount was approx. 15% but being a very hot in demand piece you'll be lucky to get any discount now.
As at early September, only 1 last piece left and now I'm told that the price for this is fixed at SGD 6.9K.
A link with far better pictures than what I’ve taken is here:
http://www.watchfreeks.com/23-seiko/45177-seiko-prospex-marine-master-600m-spring-drive-tuna-can-sbdb008.html
a wrist shot
Adding in a dirty i-phone pic of the lume dial..no light was applied, it was taken soon after switching off the room light b4 going to bed last night..
