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83 of 85 persons found the following review helpful.
Great watch, but the WR30M could be an issue for a heap of …
By Lonchodomas
Seiko offers two similar versions of a mechanical “military” watch:
The SNK809 (which is black, but there are other colors). This has a 21 jewel motion (generally the 7S26B, but the earlier models have the 7S26). It has a 36mm case (excluding the crown) and18mm wide band.
The other model is the lager SNZG15 (which is black, but there are other colors). This has a 23 jewel motion (generally the 7S36B, but earlier models have the 7S36). It has a 40mm case (excluding crown) and an 22mm band.
Both of these watches are gray market. You won’t see them for sale in US stores.
I’ve owned my SNK809 for assorted months and love it. Its very precise for the price. Mine gains with regards to 5 sec/day. You’ll have to spend a lot of cash to do better than that in the mechanical watch world.
Two of my friends own the SNZG15, and they seem to gain regarding 10 sec/day. Note: The fact the SNZG15 has 23 jewels doesn’t mean it is more exact than a 21 jewel movement. It’s larger, pushes more mass (bigger hands), and thence I speculate is inherent less precise than the littler SNK809.
I got my SNK809 on eBay for $45 + $25 shipping (2009). However, it was shipped from Hong Kong. It had to clear customs, shipping takes in regards to three weeks, and has more inherent risk. I’d suppose to compensate more on Amazon if it was shipped from within the US. Similarly, I’ve seen the SNG15 for as little as $105 with free shipping, shipped from Singapore.
What I did not be grateful for at the time I purchased my SNK809 is that it is water immune rating is 30 meters (WR30M). 98 ft. That seems sufficient unless you’re a severe scuba diver, right?
Wrong.
Look up water immune ratings for watches on Wikipedia.
30 meters is the static water pressure for the test conducted in the ratings lab. The working/dynamic pressure rating will be much less. You ought to not even shower wearing a WR30M watch, let alone swim with it. WR30M is considered splash immune only. I have splashed my watch, it still runs great, but depending upon your lifestyle, this may or may not be an issue.
The larger SNZG15 is ranked at WR100M, which you may swim and skin dive with. The smallest rating you will have to swim with (but no skin diving) is WR50M.
The other aspect of the SNK809 you must be conscious of is that it is littler than most watches are today. In the 1960′s an 18mm band was typical. Today it is small, aesthetically, peculiarly for a person with big wrists.
When I original got my SNK809, I was taken aback by how thin the band looked (and I have littler than intermediate wrists). I have read the market Seiko is targeting with this model is teenagers in Asia. That market base in all likelihood has littler wrists than the intermediate American male.
But after wearing it for awhile, I noticed I wasn’t banging it into things like I do with my larger watch. And it fit beneath my shirt sleeves better.
Its noteworthy that my friends say the 22mm SNZG15 is a bit larger than they wish it was.
I’ve concluded I like the 18mm band. I’m an outdoorsman (when I may be), and do wish the SNK809 was at least WR50M. Other reviewers will say they wish it had a hacking mechanism or a sapphire crystal. Those are not issues for me, and for the price, let’s get real.
This is a extraordinary mechanical watch for what you’ll pay. I wear mine to work each day. I wear it to meetings and snicker to myself as my second hand moves at six clicks per second, while others sitting at the table suffer the one second lurch of the ubiquitous quartz movement. Yes, I’m a watch geek. Just be conscious of the littler width of the band and WR30M rating. If those aren’t big issues for you, you can’t beat it.
18 of 19 persons found the following review helpful.
Decent Entry Level Automatic
By JT
This is a nice little entry level automatic watch. Upon opening the box it came in the initial thing I noticed was the size of the watch itself and the band. The watch itself is more or less little but not too bad. it is somewhat larger than a quarter. The band nevertheless is much littler than I expected. I have tiny wrists so It doesn’t bother me too much but someone with a more prominent wrist may find it odd looking; it’s genuinely just preference and shouldn’t make or break the deal as the band may without apparent effort be swapped out. The watch has a nice heavy weight to it and doesn’t feel cheap like a good deal of other larger automatics I have. One strange thing I noticed right away when I picked up my watch was that the weight that spins the mainspring slides versus the interior of the watch as I move it. So I may feel the weight as it moves around. This doesn’t bother me but I hope it is normal and doesn’t mean I got a wrong watch. Everything is working fine at the moment (I’ve only been wearing it for a day) and I see no other troubles or peeves in regards to the watch. I’ll break down the masters and cons here:
(PROS)
+ Overall nice looking watch. As most watches; the picture online just doesn’t do it justice.
+ Watch has a nice weight to it.
+ It’s an automatic for beneath $100; thats a bargain, exceptionally for a Seiko.
+ The luminous hands are pretty good and last for a good 20 minutes. (Not as good as a Seiko Monster but what do you expect)
+ Comes with a 3 year warranty (although the retailer warranty card I received was not filled out by Amazon, not sure if this matters)
(Cons)
- Both the watch’s body and strap were littler than I expected.
- Hardlex glass is not precisely the best material, it suffices but Mineral would’ve been better. Sapphire is good too but thats a little too much to ask for in a watch of this caliber.
- Grindy mainspring weight.
- Malaysian movement. Although it says this watch has a Japanese motion in the specs; There is a Malaysian motion in them. I believe these are designed in Japan and built or collected in Malaysia; either way the motion is unquestionably not made & collected in Japan. If this was already mutual noesis I apologize.
- Water resistance is sub-par. This watch ought to at least have the capacity to withstand swimming and not just be immune to minor splashes.
All in all it seems like a nice watch. As long as that weight isn’t faulty and it is normal everything must be fine. I’ll post an update in the long run to let you recognise how it is held up over time.
*** Update
I’ve been wearing the watch closely daily for a few weeks now. It’s held time perfectly only benefitting a couple seconds a day. It’s by far the most exact automatic I own; even more than a heap of of my Swiss ETA movements. As far as the quality of the watch it seems almost perfect. I love the size and look of it. The Hardlex has held up and I still have no scratches on the dial or caseback (More time will tell how well it genuinely holds up) The only problem I have with this watch is that it seems there is still some friction among the weight and the inside of the watch body. This has been causing it to once in a while keep the weight stationary at a heap of points rather than spun around as it should. It still spins with sufficient strength but galore normal hand movements have not been sufficient to keep the weight moving. That being said it hasn’t been a huge sufficient problem to cause the watch to stop on me. It still keeps ticking long after i have put it down. After a heap of exploration I realized this watch uses the same motion as the widely known and esteemed Seiko Monster & is a bit of a workhorse for seiko.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Great simple watch
By Christopher G. Ludwig
I purchased one of these a couple years ago in Singapore. I love it. It is my staple each and everyday watch. They are tough and withstand a reasonable bit of abuse. I wore mine while training and flying aerobatics up to 6Gs. Still works. The motion does tend to be fast, a good deal of say by 5 to 15 sec per day. My experience is that I detect it is running fast by a few minutes each little while and then I rectify it. Not an issue in particular since it is an automatic watch. If I go more than a day without wearing or shaking it, it stops anyway, so who needs longrun accuracy?
I love it. I’m buying a second one in dark green. …May start out a collection.
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