Essay on Seiko's Spring Drive timepieces

I have a Seiko Spring Drive GMT watch and think it is a great watch. Love the design and the accuracy. I think it is a beautiful watch and glad I was able to get my hands on one.

The best thing I like about seikos in general and especially hi end seikos, is that they offer a product that is manufactured fully in house, and are realistically priced, for the level of quality they offer. Of course, there will be those who would not consider an Asian product over something manufactured in Europe, but If you want a product that is functional and of a very high quality without the utterly ridiculous prices of some of the swiss brands, many of who outsource for movements, then you can’t go past a hi end seiko.

For those who argue that Japanese watches are simply inferior to the swiss brands, one could argue that many of the swiss brands are inferior to many of the now defunct American brands such as hamilton who generally offered a higher quality product. Compare the price of a 19 jewel Hamilton medallion 982 tanq movement against a Omega T17 movement. The hamilton will cost a tenth of the price, yet is a far superior movement to the omega 15 jewel T17.

Another example is the propensity of the swiss to manufacture movements, for example all of the in house Omega automatic calibres- the 1000 series being the last before the ETA takeover, to use a steel rotor post that invariably wears and scratches the movement. It is a problem other swiss makers- such as the Felsa 4007 automatic, as well as seiko solved many years before. My Calibre 1010 omega hi beat- great watch, but I like my seikomatic P’s and R’s much better.