£236 of Seiko wizardry: the case they used to give us, the bracelet they had to get wrong
A legendary Seiko for £236
It's Saturday night, so we dress up. I'm not a dress watch guy, but I love them, and this is probably the best of my three: the Seiko SARB035. I bought it new for £236. Now it's discontinued and sought after. 38 mm, 44.5 lug-to-lug, 11.5 mm thick, 20 mm lugs. A bit small, but not too small for me. A staggeringly beautiful watch.
Faceted to the gills
An insane polished and brushed case. One of Seiko's best cases: a lovely stepped chamfer runs along the top of the flank all the way to the end of the lugs. Brushed lug tops, polished bevel, polished midcase. This is what Seiko used to give us back in the day. Another masterpiece. This case is for the beeeech. Push-pull crown with the Seiko S deeply engraved, screw-down display back, 100 metres.
Sharper than a Shogun sword
The dial is off-white with a hint of cream. It looks like it was fashioned from the most endangered of tusks. It wasn't. Applied polished indices with a smidgen of lume, applied Seiko logo, framed date at three, and those dolphin hands, black tips, lume infills, sharper than a Shogun sword. They just pop. Needle-thin seconds hand with a diamond counterweight, sweeping at 21,600. The 6R15 hacks, hand-winds and does 50 hours. The lume? I've called it not too shabby, and I've called it underwhelming and quite disappointing. Little slivers, but they do glow brightly.
The bracelet they had to get wrong
The factory bracelet is lovely, polished bevels on the flanks, but the end links don't sit right, which is common on the SA family of that era, and the clasp only has two micro-adjusts, so a good fit is hard. If they'd just got the end links correct it would have been great. So I put it on an Uncle Seiko President. Solid links, looks like a Rolex. It's not. But a stamped clasp for 60 quid? Not impressed.
Dropped, broken, reborn in Poland
First drop in about ten years of owning watches. I was taping it up to polish the bezel before selling it, it slipped out of my hands onto the kitchen floor, and it stopped dead. Heavy heart, bros. Then Mr Jun's sister got it repaired, stripped and regulated in Poland for 280 zloty, about £54. Now it runs at zero seconds on the wrist. It's never run this well. Max respect.
Verdict
In its day this watch offered a mind-boggling combination of case finishing quality for a ridiculously low price. Seiko don't do that anymore. I was thinking about selling it, but since it came back I've been enjoying it immensely. A true elegant and beautiful piece. Never give up.
