Polar white field GMT: made me feel like a king, strutting round like a peacock
Wintry white. Explorer II? Not even once.
A beautiful Seiko 5 military-inspired field watch, £410 at RRP. I bought this one for my good friend Secondhand Steve, and he paid £369 for it, which I think is quite reasonable. It's the SBSC009 in the land of the rising sun, and the SSK059 has finally been brought to the international market. Aren't we all extremely grateful?
Wearability matrix is coming in hot at 13.6 mm thick, 39.4 mm wide and 47.9 mm lug to lug, with 20 mm lugs and 100 m of water resistance. Single-dome Hardlex, proprietary Seiko mineral glass, and no AR coating, which is noticeable. It's an entry-level Seiko 5 Sports and that's what you get.
The Five Sports is bringing the noise
147 g with all links in place, 140 g after I took two out for my 19 cm, 7.5 in beef wagon. Inside is the 4R34 caller GMT: 21,600 vph, 24 jewels, +45 to -35 seconds, 41-hour power reserve, and an independently adjustable 24-hour hand that jumps in one-hour increments. Before Seiko released this kind of movement, good luck getting a GMT under 500 quid, because they didn't exist. It's not a true GMT with the jumping hour hand, but it doesn't matter. Everything is in-house, from the crystal to the handset to the loom compound.
Exemplary excelsior
The case is all brushed, and look how well they've done it. Vertical brushing on the 24-hour scale of the fixed bezel gives it a sort of sunburst appearance, a touch of class. Concentric brushing on top of the lugs, horizontal on the midcase. Exemplary excelsior. Just look at that. Drilled lugs for you spring-bar freaks, and a fluted push-pull crown at 3, not shrouded and not signed.
A bracelet that's actually good
It looks like a five-link bracelet but it's not. It's a one-piece link that doesn't articulate. Get rid of it. But it's quite clever, and it drapes. Excellent tolerances, brushed flanks, no hollow end links detected. For a Seiko 5 it's a good bracelet, perfectly serviceable and very comfortable. The friction pins are a breeze to size, with a thick split pin on the end, and they are not ever going to come out. Screws can back out. These pins will not.
The clasp is a stamped-out piece of junk with four micros. Get rid of it immediately. But it works perfectly well. This is a £400 watch, and you can pick it up for a lot less.
The dial, and the one thing I'd change
A stark polar white textured dial. 12-hour Arabics that look applied but are punched out with an applique on top. A framed date box at 3, pencil hands, a segmented hour hand and an orange syringe-tipped seconds hand. The shovel-tipped orange GMT hand is straight off the Marinemaster 300's second hand. Heritage. Lovely.
My only criticism: the inner ring of 24-hour military markings makes the dial look a little busy. The loom is quite underwhelming, which for Seiko is a rarity. And the long pinion stack and glass back add thickness. They could have shaved at least a millimetre.
Verdict
Overall, it's about how this twerp makes you feel. It made me feel like a king, like a big brave man walking around with my polar dial, showing off like a peacock around town. I can't recommend it highly enough. It's an excellent clock and I love you all, bros. Never give up.
