How does Steinhart compare to Marathon, Seiko ?

[Jon Butcher]

I'm about to buy my first Steinhart, an Ocean 44 in 90-95% condition from a fellow member. This will be my first ever Steinhart purchase.
I'm familiar with Seiko Automatic Divers and am pleased with their performance and asthetic appeal and have recently seen the Marathon GSAR and love it's looks.
How does Steinhart compare in terms of watches of equal value ? I'm sure this subject has been covered but couldn't find a specific link using the 'Search' function.
Am very excited to see the O-44 in person!

[KyleA]

I personally love Steinhart. Their quality/$ Ratio is really unmatched! The ocean 44 is a gorgeous watch and is on my wish list! as far as comparison, I do not own a seiko nor a marathon but both are great brands of watches as well and both have their place.

Now, IMHO I personally find the Steinhart name, design, and looks of quality to be better! But realistically I am sure they are about the same quality. But you get more for your money with steinhart.

Again, I cannot wait to have a Seiko Tuna SBBN015 and a Marathon JSAR so it's not like I am a Steinhart ONLY lover by any means.. I think once your ocean comes, you will be hooked on Steinhart for the rest of your life!

[Jon Butcher]

Thanks for the weigh-in KyleA, and I know exactly what you mean about the JSAR too. As an aside I just today discovered the Marathon SAR series and wow- great looking pieces of time. Not to digress too far from the subject but where are Marathons 'made'/ assembled ?

I personally love Steinhart. Their quality/$ Ratio is really unmatched! The ocean 44 is a gorgeous watch and is on my wish list! as far as comparison, I do not own a seiko nor a marathon but both are great brands of watches as well and both have their place.

Now, IMHO I personally find the Steinhart name, design, and looks of quality to be better! But realistically I am sure they are about the same quality. But you get more for your money with steinhart.

Again, I cannot wait to have a Seiko Tuna SBBN015 and a Marathon JSAR so it's not like I am a Steinhart ONLY lover by any means.. I think once your ocean comes, you will be hooked on Steinhart for the rest of your life!

[pusherman]

Jon my experience with steinhart is limited to one piece but i agree with KyleA about the quality/$ ratio.. i think they are rather seiko-like in that they offer a robust well-made watch for reasonable money.. my OV-GMT, which like my sumo is very well constructed, could have retailed for twice what steinhart asks.

[Ira G.]

Hello Jon, two favorites of mine are my Seiko Black Monster and Orange Monster. They are workhouses, well made and ultra reliable. They also have unbelievable lume. Strangely though I cannot say I love my Seiko's. I do love my Steinhart's (O1VR and Nav B II). They are awesome watches. I'm waiting for #3 to arrive, hopefully tomorrow, (Aviation Auto). I also have a few of those "status" brands but find my Steinhart's on my wrist more often than not. It's hard to explain but I'm sure you will understand once you get your hands on that Ocean 44. Good luck and do not forget to post some pics if you decide to get it.

[Jon Butcher]

Unfortunately the O44 deal fell through, in the interim I discovered the OVM- I'm in love! Went to the Steinhart site but they're sold out, a member had one but sold it before I knew which end was up- curses!

[Wild1z2]

Steinhart rocks. I have an ocean gmt and the 2893 is butter smooth. The lume on the Seiko diver is insane. I say get both. ;)

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

[Ed.YANG]

Brand/Label aside...
We'll end up comparing the movement quality between the West and the East. Each have their complexity and cost per quality factor.
For Seiko's case, their watches are generally budget makes, that with the price you spend on 1 Divers watch with Swiss movement, you may get 2 Seikos, or even 3... depending of the listing price. This is where the Swiss cannot out perform the Japanese. In the next few year or so... from what i had observed, Swiss movement watches in the market will most likely fall under 33% or so, as the Chinese makes(cloned 2824 movements thru ST18?) with lesser cost will be adopt by many other European makers, as well as American makers as well as mushroom brands.

On to Steinhart. Steinhart may continue with their believe that ETA makes quality movements, so am i. But with ETA keep raising their dispatch price of the movements, should Steinhart continue to stick with their choice... i have no idea when Steinhart will start losing their supporters when their watches price tag are going up north.

So at current stage, within my means, i shall try to get as much Steinhart models as possible... till that day come, which i will raise both of my hand, surrenders to the high priced Steinys... and say... "That's it!"

[adzman808]

Surely Steinhart will just switch to sw200 movements when eta becomes too expensive or not available? That's what a lot of other bands have done

[mew88]

The SW200 is a great option but I for one would love to see Steinhart move towards an in-house movement should eta be too costly or no longer available. Pardon the slightly off topic post.