Thursday, September 1, 2011

Found: An Affordable Military Inspired Watch


I’ve been on the hunt for an affordable military inspired watch for some time now and finally found it in the Seiko 5. Did I mention that it has automatic movement and cost under $60.

The watch comes with a 2 piece black strap but I quickly switched it for a Blue NATO.

The clear back gives you a great view of the inner workings of this automatic watch.


Night Vision


Good marks all around for form and function. Well done Seiko.

13 comments:

  1. I want to say I may have seen this on Dappered.com, but your detailed shots may have sold me on this. I had a Citizen Eco-Drive a year ago, but gifted it to a friend. This looks like a good looking (and cheaper) replacement.

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  2. Wow, I knew that you could get a Seiko 5 for that price on Ebay, but didn't know you could also do it on Amazon. Nice.

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  3. I purchased this exact watch a year ago and I wear it about 40% of the time. It has served me well in and out of the pool. Mine has run one minute fast every day so requires an adjustement every few days, but nothing out of the oridnary for a cheap automatic.

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  4. Is yours a brown dial? If so, I love it!

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  5. I've worn a steel banded Seiko 5 for the better part of two years and it's my favorite watch. Even watch geeks find it to be a very reasonable and reliable movement and pretty much the top of the class in that price range.

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  6. The only problem with these it that they're actually quite small at 36mm. Make sure you know this before you order one; I'm not a fan of large watches, but this was way too small for me.

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  7. 36mm is not for everyone but it's the same size as the J.Crew Military Timex.

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  8. There's a 38mm version as well - the SNK809.

    ..Water resistance on both is 30m, so good enough to swim in, but not (doh) scuba

    ..Both watches can be "regulated" (i.e. simply adjusted - it's a matter of tweaking a couple of screws by a fraction of a turn) by a watchmaker. Seikos with this mechanism normally regulate to within 10s a day - sometimes much better.

    ..If you have problems finding the 38mm version then there's a guy in Hong Kong with a great rep on the watch forums for selling Seikos. His mail is yobokies@yahoo.com.hk and beside the vanilla version he offers a very classy custom model for not a lot extra:

    http://www.thewatchsite.com/index.php?topic=14958.0

    ..A nice extra with these watches is that the Seiko 7s26 mechanism they use is good for around 20 years without a service.

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  9. This is an awesome price for this iconic poor man's watch. I jumped.

    As far as I have been able to find out, they are all 38mm in diameter. Certainly this one on Amazon

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  10. amazon doesnt seem to carry the red dial anymore...can you post a new link to the red dial

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    Rothco

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  12. with the original strap sewn shut, how did you even remove it?

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