SLA025: my favourite watch ever, and it'll scratch if you so much as look at it
Seven years of wanting
I've wanted this watch for seven years, since it came out in 2018. Then Mr Jun, the legend, surpassed himself again. Grand Seiko-style retail cover, rice paper inside the box, and in there: the SLA025, SBEX007 if you're JDM. A faithful re-creation of the 6159, the world's first Hi-Beat dive watch. 1,500 pieces. Around £4,700 new, €5,500, and it doesn't even come on a bracelet. Get rid of it immediately. Mr Jun paid £2,495. He wasn't happy with the condition of that one, so he found a better one, number 922, and sold the first. Such a torpedo.
Don't wear it
If you want one of these ridiculously Zaratsu-ified watches, don't wear it. Never wear it. Everything is mirror polished apart from the top of the case. Touch it and it smudges. Scratches can't be repolished, they just coalesce into something you can't get rid of. Wear it at your peril. It's my favourite watch case in the history of twerps: drilled lugs for the spring bar freaks, an unsigned crown like the original, a monocoque back trimmed so it wears well. And it is massive. 44.8 mm wide, 15.7 thick, thicker than the Marinemaster 300, 19 mm lugs.
Look at the sweep
The 8L55 Hi-Beat. 5 Hz, 36,000 vibrations an hour, 37 jewels, 55 hours. A simplified 9S85. Look at the sweep. It doesn't even tick. It's mesmeric, almost like a Spring Drive. Mr Jun's first one, seven years old and probably never serviced, was running zero seconds on the wrist. Unreal scenario, bros.
Dial, handset, bezel
Incredibly deep dial, gilt everything, gold minute track, gold-framed date box, no Prospex X, thank hell. The best handset of all time, with bevelled edges, and a traffic-light seconds hand I prefer to the 001's needle. Double-domed sapphire nestled under a massive coin-edged bezel that's light, airy, a buttery pleasure. Lume? Evenly matched with the Marinemaster 300 in my lume show, though my SLA023 is brighter. The waffle strap is gummy and comfortable, collects dust, and the buckle is finished to the highest standard.
Verdict
This is the best Seiko watch in the world. I've had more or less all of them, and this is my favourite watch ever. Your average luxury buyer would never go near it. Nobody would know you've got a five-grand watch on. But this is Seiko magic incarnate. Exactly what a Seiko dive watch should look like. For real Seiko fans, Grail territory. Never give up, bros.
