Captain Willard: a strange little cushion, a bezel I rate above the 62MAS, and a bracelet that lets you down
Mr Willard reporting for duty
One-take show tonight, bros, and it's a proud one. Mr Willard, the SPB151J1, or SBDC109 for the JDM crew, courtesy of Mr Jun. A modern interpretation of the 6105-8110 from 1970, the watch Martin Sheen wore as Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now. The real-life Japanese adventurer Naomi Uemura wore the 6105 on his 12,000 km dog-sledding expedition across the Arctic too. Excellent man. Excellent watch.
Retail is £1,200, which it's not worth. By the time I did the Turtle head-to-head you could get one new on the bracelet for £844, and Mr Jun paid £581 used.
A strange-looking little chap
I measured it myself, because Seiko's numbers don't quite follow: 42.2 mm across, 14 mm thick, and 46 mm lug-to-lug, not whatever they say. That's extremely short, so it's wearable for most of us. It's a real cushion. A proper tool-watch aesthetic, unobtrusive on the wrist, unique and very interesting. It's a strange-looking little chap. He really is great.
Fully brushed on top, polished flanks, a polished screw-down caseback with the tsunami. The crown is buried in the case, incredibly safe. Pity it's unsigned; that snaky S off the Sumo would have been nice. Drilled lugs, so it's a true strap monster. That big chamfer on the sapphire looks impeccable, but it shrinks the dial and makes the minutes harder to read. I love it anyway. It's worth it.
A bezel to behold
The bezel action on this watch is something to behold. Every review you've ever seen will tell you the 62MAS has the better bezel. Stiffer, clickier. To my taste, this is better: more mushy, softer, smoother, easier to action, like my Gen 2 Sumo, and one step down from the king of bezels, Mr Marinemaster. Pure pleasure.
Matte black dial, no sunburst, just black. Snub-nosed trapezoidal indices, doubled up at 12, and a handset polished throughout that reflects light in the most beautiful way, with a red-and-white seconds tip reaching right out to the minute track. Great Seiko lume, generously applied and long-lasting. Not as good as my Marinemaster, but great.
The one thing they had to get wrong
The bracelet. It's underdosed. It looks all right and wears well enough, solid end links, a milled double-deployant clasp that's better than a Turtle's or a Samurai's, but like all Seiko bracelets it leaves you feeling somewhat betrayed and let down. They could have done it so much better. We all know they could. They never do. It's best on rubber: I tried an Uncle Seiko Chocolate Bar and a tyre-track, but it looks best on the Slim Turtle's OEM strap.
And the 6R35. Against the Turtle's 4R36 it ran plus six or seven a day while the cheap one did plus two. The date takes about two and a half hours to turn over. The alignment at 12 isn't perfect either. Shinji Hattori doesn't really care.
Verdict
Next to the SRPE93 the price gap is a joke: you get a slightly bigger power reserve and a sapphire. Overpriced new, but used, not too bad. Do I love it? I do love this watch. I really do. Get one used, stick it on rubber, never give up.
