Under £500
17 watches Gethin has reviewed with a list price under £500. Worth the zlotties? The scores say.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK059 Field GMT
An excellent, wearable white-dial field GMT that made him 'feel like a king'; only quibbles are a busy dial, weak lume and a thick glass back.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK GMT range (several models)
A good-value family of in-house GMTs: 'they're all great' for under GBP 400, though he is 'not a GMT guy' and hates the friction-fit bezels. Sprite and Silver Cloud are his picks.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SRPD family ('5KX')
A family roundup of Seiko Steve's SKX-style Seiko 5s: tongue-in-cheek 'I hate them all' but for GBP 150-180 new 'you could do a lot worse'; he rates the SRPD55K1 and a gold-accent one highest.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SRPD51K1
A good-looking blue fake-diver he does like ('it wants to be good') but the two examples' bezels are all over the place, and he signs off with 'get rid of them' in the dedicated 5KX review.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SRPD55K1
His favourite of the 5KX bunch: a plain, all-black-and-silver 'boring' 5 Sports he loves the look of, held back only by a painfully stiff bezel.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK001K1 GMT 'Black Grape'
A stunning black GMT whose bezel annoys him: he can't see why it is called Black Grape, and one example's bezel alignment is 'disgusting'.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK003K1 GMT 'Blueberry'
A lovely, wearable blue-sunburst SKX reinterpretation that he calls a 'stunner', though the friction-fit bezel and cyclops irk him and it isn't one of his two picks of the range.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK033K1 GMT 'Silver Cloud' (Sky Blue)
His favourite of all the SSK GMTs: a handsome silvery-sunburst piece he is 'confirming is good'.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SSK035K1 GMT 'Sprite'
One of his two picks of the SSK GMTs: a beautiful, eye-catching best seller that is 'not a Rolex, but pretending to be one'.
Seiko · Prospex
Seiko SRP527J1
A smart, handsome dress watch with a lovely dial and great value, though a big 42 mm and not Gethin's kind of watch.
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SRPD57K1
Dedicated review is lukewarm: a pretty black-and-gold starter Seiko 5 at GBP 159, but 'best left to the newcomers' for Gethin. (He is more positive about it in later videos: see notes.)
Seiko · Seiko 5 Sports
Seiko 5 Sports SRPD71K2
A smart little SKX-alike that he would never buy himself: great price at GBP 169, but bezel feel and the blue lume let it down.
Vostok · Amphibia
Vostok Amphibian 090486
A brutal, ingenious, £100-ish Russian diver that Gethin thinks everyone should buy immediately.
Erebus · watch
Erebus Origin
Ticks every box for £271, with a great bezel and great lume, yet Gethin just doesn't want one.
Draken · watch
Draken Aoraki (Vector dial)
A small-batch New Zealand field watch, excellently executed, that Gethin loved enough to pay over retail for.
Seiko · Presage
Seiko Presage SRPB46 'Manhattan' Cocktail Time
A special-occasions watch with a 'mental' dial from Seiko, 'the kings of dials'.
Orient · Diver
Orient Ray II
A lovely, high-quality in-house diver for about a hundred quid, let down by a tiny crown, a hard-to-grip bezel and a jangly bracelet; Gethin would spend a bit more on the Kamasu.
