Amazon.com: SEIKO Brown Leather Automatic Watch - Recraft Series, Day/Date, 50m Water Resistant, Blue Dial, Luminous Hands : Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry

First few days with the SNKN37 and I have to say I'm impressed. This Seiko is my first automatic watch. Previously, my entire watch experience incorporated a few fashion brands and Swatch watches. Nothing wrong with that, but I decided that I wanted a new watch with some horological significance behind it. After going through several weeks of discovery and research I decided upon this Seiko.The immediate impression upon opening the box is it's large steel case. Its' big, and without actually trying the watch in real life, I was surprised by its footprint. I was a bit skeptical about how my wrist would wear it, but after a few days of use, I can safely say it sits at the very edge of what I can actually wear without being comically bulky. At 43.5mm, the lug to lug distance on a 6.5 inch wrist is just acceptable. What helps disperse its huge size is the band width and its somewhat thin case. But, for those with small wrist complex, this might be too big. I should probably stick to 42mm sizes and under, but that being said, I like this watch enough to keep. The watch has a heft to it as well. I like it. Some may not.The dial is lovely, but what the Amazon.com has for pictures of the product is a far cry from the actual hue of the dial. The watch has a sunburst, deep blue dial. The case is brushed steel while the lugs are a shiny, clean finish. The band is made of calf skin (Chinese) which is both thick and dark tan. The band will have to be worn for a while before it gives. It's a stiff affair at the moment trying to loop the band into the appropriate hole for a snug fit. That being said, sniffing a brand new piece of leather is always intoxicating (forgive me fellow vegetarians).The dial has a day and date complication with options for Spanish or English day languages. I love the added blue/red lettering for weekend days. The hands are supposed to have a lume, but if it has it, it's non-existing. The crystal is Seiko's own Hardlex window material which will be a step up from the other types of non-sapphire mineral crystals. I haven't banged my watch (and hope to keep it that way) against anything to test out its sturdiness. I wouldn't recommend it either.The real attraction to this watch though, and the reason I bought it, is its automatic function. With a rear case display window, you can actually see the inner workings of the watch. It's no master class, mechanical watch like a Patek, but man is it cool to see an industrial-like workmanship of a watch of this type. By far the best feature of this watch is seeing the inner guts of this thing move around. This sort of movement elevates watches from mere tools to something akin to artistic engineering. If you appreciate the complexity of machines and what causes the tic to toc, then any automatic watch, just like this one, will fascinate you.Overall, I like this watch. It's an retro-looking watch with an attractive dial. It might be too big for some, and the heft could be distracting, but if you like the complexity of automatics and well made things, you can't go wrong. I will do an update in a month to see how it holds up.Update: Added a photo because the stock photo on Amazon isn't representative to reality.Update #2: So I've had this watch for over a month already, and I have to say it still is a great watch. Although, it does carry some caveats.I've gotten great compliments while wearing this watch. My cousin has grabbed my wrist twice on separate occasions, and just stared at the watch in wonderment. My wife at first wasn't too keen with it, but slowly she has turned around. She calls it an "adult" watch. Hey, as long as she likes it. And most importantly, I like it. I've done the whole looking at the dial while the traffic light has turned green and the cars behind honk at me. It's a neat looking watch and the blue dial is fantastic, resplendent and eye-grabbing. Even its heft, is forgivable. It's a solid piece of machined steel that just feels right.Even though the look and feel of this timepiece is well crafted, there are a couple of things that still keep it from becoming perfect. For one, the stated 40 hour power reserve is actually close to 16-24 hours. The 7s26 movement takes a while to achieve high enough reserve power to last a whole day off your wrist. I've found that wearing the watch about 10-12 hours a day will yield a power reserve of 16 hours. Meaning I can take it off around 10PM and it will last enough that I can pick it up by 10AM without fear of dying on me. However, forget about seeing it running after a whole day, it just wont last. It's tedious to reset the time every other day of wear because the power reserve wont last past a day. If you aren't someone that will wear an automatic every day, this might not be the watch for you. You will need to wear it daily to keep it running.Second, I do wish there was a lume on the hands, but it's not a major problem. It's mostly for practical purposes, but it's no deal breaker. If you really want a good lume you should probably get a diver watch.Overall, I'm very happy with this watch. It's my first taste of automatics and it is a learning experience, but it's intricacies are attractive enough to keep this watch on my wrist.

I like this watch. Given the price, it's a bargain. It's often been said that Seiko is the best non-Swiss watch manufacturer out there. This watch is a great example of why many think that. But, you have to keep expectations realistic, and understand this is not a hand assembled in Japan Grand Seiko model. This is a fun, casual, budget Seiko. The movement is a Malaysian assembled 7S26C movement, not one made in Japan, and the case is not made in Japan, either. Nowhere does the watch say "made in Japan", so I assume it's not. Seiko has done a lot of offshore manufacturing of their budget models, and appear to be doing it without sacrificing quality. But, even without the "made in Japan" cachet, this is a good quality Japanese designed watch, with the movement designed in-house by Seiko, and manufactured by them, albeit not in Japan. The 7S26C does have some quirks, though, which are common in older Japanese watch movement designs, but may seem strange to people accustomed to Swiss, or even Chinese produced movements. The oddest thing is the lack of hand winding. To simplify the design, the ability to wind the watch through the crown is absent. It's an automatic, and only an automatic. This means if it runs down you have to do the "Seiko shuffle" and rock it back and forth a bit to get it going. The next thing you find on vintage or budget Seikos is that there's no hacking function. "Hacking" is then the watch movement stops when the crown is pulled out to set the time to within a second. The 7S26C does not do that, either. So, you can't set it to an absolutely accurate time. Hacking didn't become common of Swiss watches until the late 1950s, so I'm accustomed to this oddity from vintage Swiss watches. So those are two things about the function that you should know. It's automatic winding only, and it lacks a hacking function. Seiko is starting to use movements with manual and automation winding, plus hacking, in a lot of their lower priced mechanical watches now, but this one is not one of them. I actually think these sort of anachronistic shortcomings are a good fit for the retro design, since a 60s or early 70s vintage mechanical Seiko would also lack those two functions.The case is large but feels remarkably small on the wrist. A lot of this is due to it being fairly thin for the diameter, and having a flush mounted crystal. It's very comfortable despite the size, and just heavy enough to feel solid and substantial without feeling like a boat anchor. The polished lugs and grained body of the case provide a nice subtle contrast that delineates the cushion design, and I also like the through-holes on the lugs for the spring bars, which is another nice retro detail to the design.The exhibition back on the case shows the rather plain movement, but I like this modern touch, even with a basic workhorse movement like this. One element that is plainly visible is the Seiko "magic lever" type reverser for the winding system. It's an elegant bit of simplified and economical design which Seiko invented, and it's nice to see it clearly in operation.The dial is fantastic. The polished applied indicies on the chapter ring are not mirror flat on top, as often seen on high end watches, but are instead somewhat wavy and soft edged, which really fits the retro look and budget price point. Perfectly flat mirror finished indicies would look too austere for such a casual design. The microprinting on the inner dial is crisp and precise. The deep blue sunburst dial finish is very eye-catching, and the crisp step between the chapter ring and the inner dial adds depth. It's a really good dial for the price point, and the details fit the casual retro design well.I've been wearing it constantly for five days now, and have seen no issues with power reserve or accuracy. However, I did put it on a winder and ran it a 1 rpm for about 20 minutes first thing out of the box to develop a good base level of power. Having a good pre-load on the mainspring helps maintain good accuracy. With a watch which can be hand wound, this is simple to do, but with an automatic only movement, it's not so easy. I'd really recommend giving this watch a good initial winding via rotation before setting it and wearing it. Dont just wobble it barely enough to get it running, and then wear it. A good initial build up of power reserve will help ensure accuracy, and keep it from running down overnight. Take the time to set it up properly, and you'll be rewarded with the famous Seiko reliability, don't and you may find it losing whole minutes because it's hitting the bottom of the power reserves intermittently.Overall, this is a great budget automatic watch, one with good fit and finish, a great casual design, and even functional quirks that are pure 60s/70s Japanese watch.