Seiko enthusiasts are a lovely bunch. They profess their love and devotion to things Seiko akin to religion. They can spot a "Feiko" from a mile away and, while some are very welcoming to the modding community, are very critical when it comes to copy cat watches. While Seiko themselves doesn't even bat an eyelash on watches that imitate their legacy, Seikoholics are the self proclaimed gatekeepers that supposedly protect the brand and save the people from these wannabe monstrosities that, in my honest opinion are not that bad...in terms of looks anyway.
Before you scroll down and look at these monstrosities, there are a few things that we need to understand.
The Island is a reality survival show hosted by "survival expert" Bear Grylls. Participants, who are supposedly regular Brits who have little to no experience in island survival, are marooned on pacific islands with only a handful of supplies and are expected to work out their survival on their own.
For 6 weeks, participants are to survive by building shelters, starting their own fires without modern means, hunting for food, and gathering fresh drinking water. The show is filmed entirely by the participants themselves with emergency response teams supposedly nearby on another island to provide support if needed. Bear explains it as an experiment. To show whether or not modern day Brits, who are so used to modern conveniences still has what it takes to survive.
From the first time I laid eyes on it, I knew I had fallen for the Seiko Alpinist SARB017. With it's beautiful green dial, the gold cathedral hands, and the inner rotating compass bezel, I imagined the day I would have it on my wrist.
Fast forward a few years and still the watch eluded me. A year more and it was discontinued. My heart sank as I saw the prices skyrocket to oblivion. And it was then I realized I would never have one, unless someone gave me one as a gift, or I happen to chance upon untold sums of wealth, both of which are unlikely to happen.
This is the Citizen Cosmotron Special. It's an electro-mechanical watch from the 70's. It has a special movement that is battery powered, but regulated by a balance wheel instead of a quartz crystal. While Seiko went on to develop the quartz movement around the same time, Citizen was dishing out these unique watches that, as far as I can tell, no other watch manufacturer made.
Buying watches online is a bit of a gamble. Sometimes you win, sometimes you loose.
I bought a quartz watch recently. It's made by Citizen, or at least I hope it was legitimately made by Citizen. I was attracted to the dial and the caseback. This watch has a stainless steel case and a screw down caseback. Not the typical quartz watch I am familiar with from this brand. Usually, quartz watches from Citizen, at least at this price in the used market, usually have base metal case and snap on casebacks. This one is different.
I use this for more formal occasions, but recently I wondered, "Maybe it was meant as a field watch and not a dress watch." There are a few reasons why I think this is a field watch.
1. It has large numerals. The dial features large numbers in black - very visible against the silver dial.
2. It says "Water10BarResist" on the dial. 10 Bar means 100 meters of water resistance. While I don't believe that to be accurate, I'm pretty sure the watch is at least splash proof.
3. Screw down caseback. Typically, a quartz dress watch has a snap on caseback. A screw down caseback means the movement is more protected from potential ingress of water. To me it also means a better quality watch overall.
Whether it was meant as a dress watch or field watch, this piece is pretty. I'm confident it can handle both being in a party and out and about in the field.
There is a fine line between making a homage and an outright fake. Somewhere within that line, are watch builders like me. This is an example of a homage, but since it's not a 1 to 1 copy, it's not considered fake, in my eyes at least. Actually, it's not considered anything. It's a watch with no identity, no heritage, no brand, no value apart from the sum I paid for its parts.
While some welcome homage watches and even those modded ones where an original is slightly modified to look like something else, others are very critical. Take this watch for example. The Seiko SARB033 inspired me to make this watch.
My homage to the SARB033; 36mm case.
An actual SARB033; 38mm case
Looking closely at the above images, it is clear that I took inspiration from the SARB033, but aside from the shape of the hands and the approximate color of the dial, these have nothing in common. They are only linked by my claim that inspiration came from the Seiko, but the watch I made is its own watch. I specifically chose a dial that had no branding. The SARB033 has a date window, while my build has both a day and date complication. A complication that is very useful to me.
The cases don't even resemble one another. The SARB033 has a 38mm case while my watch has a 36mm case that obviously looks like a case from that brand that has a crown.
Honestly, my build looks more like the SNKL23 than the SARB033. A fact I'm not happy about. My objective was to homage a watch that, for me, is out of my reach, but I ended up making a watch look like a budget watch that I could afford. While my watch is slightly cheaper than the SNKL23, I went to all the effort to put this thing together, and if I factor in the build cost, it might not be that far from the SNKL23's retail price.
Seiko SNKL23
There are a few features that my watch has that the iconic SNKL23 does not.
My watch has a Sapphire crystal. The SNKL23 has hardlex.
My watch is powered by an NH36, also made by Seiko, but has hacking and hand winding - both if which the 7s26 in the SNKL23 doesn't have.
My watch has a screw down crown. Which means better water resistance. I can potentially go diving with my watch.
I'm not saying that my build is better than Seiko. It may be called a homage, but it sure can't be called a fake. The above features I mentioned are surely things that even the most dedicated Seiko fanatic would want for their "originals".
For the critical watch enthusiast, my build may not be to their liking. They may outright say that it's a fake due to the fact that it was originally built with the SARB033 as an inspiration, but then again, all modern watches were inspired by something that was made long ago.
The only consolation I have is that Seiko still made some money from my build because of the NH36 movement that drives my watch. I'm not exactly sure what Seiko thinks of my build.
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