Introducing: The New Seiko Prospex 1968 Heritage Diver’s GMT 60th Anniversary Edition SPB519
Seiko is marking 60 years of diver’s watches with a new take on its successful GMT line, the Seiko SPB519. Today, Seiko has released a new Heritage Diver’s GMT watch in the Prospex collection. The brand has been on a powerful streak of late with their Prospex line, including improving the calibers on offer.
The Seiko GMT 60th anniversary edition
This new 1968 Heritage Diver’s GMT watch is powered by the Caliber 6R54. That caliber features a GMT function and a 72-hour power reserve. Seiko makes this statistic very clear by stating 3 days on the dial, a recent development I am not a fan of, as it feels like one bit of text too many. Seiko states that the caliber’s accuracy sits within +25 to -15 seconds per day. These specifications, while not impressively accurate, are often bettered in real life usage as many a Seiko owner will tell you.
The 42mm case has a nice compact lug-to-lug of 48.6mm with a thickness of 13.3mm. We get a new crisp blue ceramic bezel gracing the stainless steel case. The case has 300 meters of water resistance, more than ample for any real-life diving or aquatic requirement.
A crisp look with a dive-worthy clasp
The clasp on the bracelet provides six steps of micro-adjustment, which Seiko says is equivalent to around 15mm of “true” adjustment on the wrist. Besides the clasp, we have a new dial with this GMT. The silver and white dial is quite stark, particularly with the blue ceramic bezel. The overall visual impression one gets is of something that would be relatively “fresh” on the wrist (i.e., a design that looks quite vibrant and suitable for summer). I personally like the combination of blue and white with a small dash of red.
However, perhaps the most striking element is the use of red coloring on the GMT marker hand and some of the lettering on the dial. The SPB519 is a fresh offering in a solid product line from Seiko. For the initial review of these Seiko GMTs, I encourage you to read my colleague Jorg’s story, here. In essence, we were rather impressed by the Seiko GMT’s offering of durability on an ergonomically-sound platform (it wears well), with decent specifications, particularly for the price segment it fills. Those observations equally apply to this edition.
Initial impressions of the Seiko GMT 60th anniversary edition SPB519
My initial impression of this new offering from Seiko is good. Essentially, we have an attractive new colorway on what has been a successful product platform, the GMT diver. It’s good to see Seiko providing lots of options in this space because I have a soft spot for GMT divers.
The other wonderful thing is the amount of micro-adjustment that is offered with that clasp. This is incredibly useful in real-world applications and provides a better user experience overall. For too long, Seiko has often found itself a little behind on the clasp offerings in its respective price tiers. It looks like this could be about to shift more in Seiko’s favor. The Seiko Prospex 1968 Heritage Diver’s GMT 60th Anniversary will be available for pre-order through Seiko Boutiques for €1,900.
