Detailed review of Seiko SBQJ015 - High-End quartz 8F56

[safi_cz]

I have written this article for Czech watch portal Chronomag.cz. Original English translation is posted on my blog watchpassion.spaces.live.com and on this forum.

Enjoy it! Martin

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Story began one day in year 1959, when management of Seiko decided to form team of engineers, who will be responsible for development of the first quartz wrist watch. Consequence of this decision and 50 years of technical development are watches with certified deviance 5 seconds per year!

History of quartz
First prototype of quartz watch has been developed by Swiss engineers. But it was Seiko, who has placed first quartz wristwatch on the market. In year 1958, Seiko began to experiment with quartz technology. Year later, engineers were forced to decrease size of single components of quartz movement to fit mall wristwatch. Movement had to be more accurate than best mechanical wristwatch at that time, and had low production costs. Ten years later, on Christmas 1969 Seiko has placed first quartz wristwatch on the Japanese market - Seiko 35SQ Astron. According to Wikipedia, “Within one week 100 gold watches had been sold, at a retail price of 450,000 yen (US$1,250) each (at the time, equivalent to the price of a medium-sized Japanese automobile).”


Source: Jayhawk’s Watch Photograph Database

My way to high-end quartz watches
Almost all my articles and reviews were focused on mechanical watches (except Traser GMT Pro Blue). Main reason was that majority of produced quartz watches are boring: low-end Asian production in price of few USD, fashionable watches produced no matter where and also cheap models of renowned brands (with high profit margin).

In my mind quality watch was always connected with mechanical painstakingly decorated movement – combination of technology and art. What has changed my mind? Watchuseek High-end Quartz forum.

No matter how developed, decorated and expensive mechanical watch you have, in most cases you will have to live with two significant disadvantages of mechanical movement:

• Accuracy – even the most accurate mechanical movements gain +-30 seconds per month
• Source of energy – in case that you don’t own A. Lange 31 you will have to wind/wear your watch daily or buy watch winder

Even the cheapest quartz movement don’t have those disadvantages, but only high-end quartz watch will give you the same feelings as watch with inhouse beautifully decorated mechanical movement. What is high-end quartz? You can find official WUS definition here, but I think it should contain little bit more criteria:

• Annual accuracy guaranteed by producer has to be mostly 20 seconds (per year”). Some movements like Seiko and Citizen will lose/gain only five seconds per year. Many ordinary quartz movements have monthly accuracy guaranteed +- 15 (for example Seiko 7T62). High end quartz watches are several times more accurate
• Movement is equipped with thermo compensation methods to eliminate effect of temperature changes to watch accuracy. Watch can also have low sensitivity to changes of temperature
• All parts of movement has to be made with sufficient design to guarantee decades of operation
• Design and manufactory quality of remaining parts of watch have to be on high level

Super accurate quartz movement are produced by Breitling (based on ETA movements), Seiko, Citizen and some other Swiss brands. Below mentioned picture shows hand assembled movement 9F62 used in Grand Seiko models. Service intervals are guaranteed to 50 years (except change of battery).


Source: Ebay

You can find similar movements in Grand Seiko SBGX039 with magnetic resistance 40000 A/m. According to ISO 764, watch can be classified as an antimagnetic with magnetic resistance 4800A/m.


Source: Jayhawk’s Watch Photograph Database

Only few renowned brands use thermo compensated movements in its models. In most of Omega Seamaster quartz models you will not find high-end quartz (but in omega). Initial investment to new watch with high-end movement is around 1500USD, average price of high-end quartz is between 2000-3000USD. One of exceptions are watches equipped with Seiko 8F family movement (8f32, 8F56...). These watches can be bought in price below 500USD.



Seiko SBQJ015

Seiko has already produced about 40 models with movement 8F56. I have chosen SBQJ015. Why?

• Curiosity – I wanted to have watch with high-end quartz movement, but I was not sure if I will not sell it in one week
• Excellent readability – black background of dial in combination with simple white hands and indexes. I do not know why, but overall design of watch suggest design of pilot watch
• Titanium case and bracelet covered with technology Diashield, which should be much more harder than steel 316L
• Maximum annual deviance +-20 sec (according to official manual)
• Perpetual calendar until 2100
• 10 years battery
• GMT indicator
• You can easily adjusted summer time and time zones without any impact to position of minute hand

Case: size
Case has reasonable diameter 39mm with height only 10,9mm. Case is relative short – length of case is only 45mm because of short lugs. Therefore watch looks compact.

Case: front view
Forget drown out curved lines of case and lug as have for example Rolex oyster. Seiko case has shape of whisky barrel. Upper edges of case are beveled and polished. Beveled edges end three millimeters before end of lugs. On right side of case you will find two crown guards with polished surface. Crown guards optically tie up to beveled polished edges of case. This design detail is used also in Seiko Alpinist models, where it looks little bit more beautiful than on Seiko SBQJ015.



Case: side view
Dominant part of watch is bezel. It is optically separated from the rest of the case and it looks like it has been ticked to case few minutes ago. Side profile of bezel has simplified shape of “>”. Total diameter of bezel is 40 mm, what is one millimeter bigger than case. Basement of bezel has diameter about 37mm. Bottom parts of bezel are polished. Upper side of bezel consists of two beveled surfaces, outer is polished and inner is brushed.



Lugs have rounded endings and are drilled-thru to make band/strap changes easy. Line of case between lugs is not rounded, but narrow. On following photo you can see how bezel goes over this line.



Surface of watch is mostly brushed, only edges of bezel and case are polished. Absence of large polished areas in combination with dark grey color of titanium gives watch decent and elegant appeal. It is real pleasure to see how light is playing on beveled edges. Based on position and orientation of watch and light source you can see mirrors and flashes caused by beveled edges (as you can see on next two photos).



Glass
Glass is flat, made from sapphire crystal. Crystal is not equipped with anti-reflective coating what I evaluate as a minus of this watch.

Crown
Crown is partially protected by case. Crown has simple design, it is polished and without any mark or sign on it. Crown fits to watch, but is without any idea or attention to detail. It seems, that designer of watch was very tired, kicked and left by muse when he was working on design of crown. Another small minus.





When you pull-out crow to position one, you move with hour hand (jumping movement). Position of minute or second hand does not change. By moving hour hand, you can set up date (increase or decrease date). This position is designed to set-up actual local time during traveling or set-up summer/winter time.

When you pull-out crown to position two, second hand will stop (hacking). You move with minute hand. When you move minute hand, GMT hand and hour hand move, but not date. This mode is used for initial set-up of minutes and GMT hand. When minute hand and GMT hand are set-up, you have to push crown to position one to set-up hour hand (because it moves when you move GMT hand).

GMT hand is designed to be set to home time. When you travel, you will easily change hour hand to actual local time (crown in position one). Setting time and date could be solved easily.


When you pull-out crown to position one and push it back immediately, watch will show you set-up of perpetual calendar:

• Second hand will show number of years since last lap year
• Date indicator show you month for five seconds (for January it shows “1”)
• Watch still measure time. When indication of perpetual calendar setup finish, all hands jump to current time.

Video is here.

Dial
Black background, white indexes and decent signs are key elements of perfect readability even with GMT hand - no matter what light conditions are. Indexes have white luminous filling surrounded by polished borders. Biggest index is on position “12”, bigger indexes are on position “6” and “9”. Date indicator on position “3” has black background and is also surrounded by polished border.

Dial indicator is supplemented by shortened index. Seiko has crushed-down perfect design of some models by using wild combination of date indicator hour labels (Some Seiko SARB models). Luckily, Seiko made good job here. I really like black background of watch indicator, white background would broke design concept and kill watch.



Inner beveled bezel contains white second indexes and also seconds labels in five seconds intervals. Inner GMT scale contains white even hour labels. Odd GMT hour labels are printed as dots. Background of GMT scale is grooved (as Breitling do).

Logo of manufacturer is silver and polished, “Perpetual Calendar” label is white, “GMT” label is red (GMT indicators have traditionally red color).

Hands

Watch is equipped with GMT hand. GMT hand can be used to:

• Indicate home time or as am/pm indicator (time to be at work/time to drink Pilsner Urquell)
• Show time of different time zone or UTC time (used by pilots)

GMT hand is classical arrow hand, painted by shiny red color equipped with luminous filling. Hour and minute hands are black&white with luminous filling. Second hand has shape of long triangle and is made of silver metal. Night reading is excellent; you can see what time is it even at 6:00 morning.







Bracelet
Watch is equipped with titanium bracelet with Diashield technology. Titanium is softer than steel and is very easily scratched. Diashield gives titanium higher hardness of surface than steel 316L. Diashield is applied also to case, but not to mechanism of bracelet clasps.



Scratch resistance has been tested by sharp edge of scissors under soft pressure. Scissors have left small hair scratches on steel 316L, but not on titanium with Diashield. Diashield will protect watch against hair scratches, but it does not protect against damage caused by hard pressure or crash. Energy will deform soft titanium under Diashield and Diashield too. In case that wedding ring with sharp edges hit case of watch, it will leave the same dig as on the steel (personal experience).

Bracelet is inspired by design of oyster bracelet. Surface of bracelet part is matt, except two narrow polished strips. Sides of bracelet are also matt. Thick of bracelet parts is aprx. 3,2mm, width of bracelet is 22mm, width of clasps is 18mm. All bracelet parts are very well made with minimal distances between single parts. Clasp is standard Seiko clasp with two buttons. “Seiko”signed. Buttons have adequate resistance. Inner parts of clasp are robust. Big minus of bracelet are end pieces. Pieces itself are very well made, but holes between end pieces and case are big for such producer as Seiko is.





Package
Watch is packed to grey paper box with cappuccino color inside, manual and guarantee card.



Conclusion
In category of High-end quartz watch you will not find new model which will offer you interesting movement, developed design and Diashield titanium for 400USD. Seiko SBQJ015 is perfect entry to world of high-end quartz watches. But be prepared, if high-end quartz will catch your heart, next purchases will be much more expensive.

Maybe collecting watches is not your hobby and you just need to buy new watch for everyday wearing. Your choice should be Seiko SBQJ015.

Watch could be interesting also for core opponents of quartz watches. As I can say from my experience, after few days I was not irritated by jumping second hand and realize that high-end quartz is a really good idea….

Next year I have plans to buy vintage Rolex Oyster…maybe I should buy some quartz Grand Seiko…

[f4nt0m4s]

Awesome and detailed review! I've been eyeing the SBQJ015 as an attractive GMT watch that I may be able to afford as a next watch purchase. It really is a gorgeous looking watch, my only concern is that it might be a little too small.

[safi_cz]

Originally Posted by f4nt0m4s

Awesome and detailed review! I've been eyeing the SBQJ015 as an attractive GMT watch that I may be able to afford as a next watch purchase. It really is a gorgeous looking watch, my only concern is that it might be a little too small.

Thank you how large is your wrist?

[f4nt0m4s]

My wrist is around 7.5 inches. I can pull off 39~41mm with dress type watches so I think it would fit fine. The GMT, sapphire crystal, and 10 year battery life really make the price a bargain in my opinion.

Your gorgeous pictures of the watch are sooo tempting

[safi_cz]

Thank you My wife has made photos I have similar wrist and SBQJ015 is ok for me. It is about personal preferences. I often wear Grand Seiko with diameter 36mm, so 39mm of SBQJ015 is ok for me

[Catalin]

Originally Posted by safi_cz

When you pull-out crown to position two, second hand will stop (hacking). You move with minute hand. When you move minute hand, GMT hand and hour hand move, but not date.

I have found that on my SBQJ015 when I get the crown in the second position and move all hands the date (at some point) will also advance or get back ...

Also the moment when the date advances at night seems to be variable on SBQJ015 - unlike for instance on all Citizen perpetual calendars calibers that I have, which all advance the date precisely between 00:00:00 and 00:00:05 ...

[IcedOut]

Wow, thanks for the great review and awesome quality pics. Much Appreciated!!

[DavidSeattleWA]

I really like this watch and I'm seriously considering ordering it. Just a question about titanium. Do any of you see any disadvantages to titanium watches? A lot of people feel that less weight is better when it comes to a watch. I've also heard some say that the lack of weight makes the watch feel "cheap", suggesting an overall feeling of poor quality. This is obviously a great watch but I just wonder if the titanium aspect of it bothers you in any way (not having the "heft"). It would seem like the watch would be rather "flimsy" because it's so light - regardless of the kind of band you have on it. Also, I'm already aware that titanium does tend to scratch a lot easier .. but I'm not concerned about that with this watch since it has the diashield coating - which is supposed to help. Also, you can always change to a leather band if scratches on the bracelet bother you.

Would appreciate your thoughts,

Thanks!

[dnslater]

One of the most thorough reviews I have seen, nice photos........

[yotiao]

Hi there,
and thanks for the awesome review. I have one question - could you estimate if this watch would look OK on a 6 inch wrist? I like it, I want it, but my hands are skinny and anything 40mm and up may look strange.

cheers
yot

[DavidSeattleWA]

My wrist is 6", too and this watch fits PERFECT

[DavidSeattleWA]

My wrist is 6", too and this watch fits PERFECT

[yotiao]

Originally Posted by DavidSeattleWA

My wrist is 6", too and this watch fits PERFECT

All right! Thanks for the good news (and no need to answer to my question on the other thread

cheers
yot

[Jeje3325]

Thank you for this great review. Excellent!

[phamornmarnop]

thanks for useful info.

[webvan]

Nice review, thanks. How has the accuracy been since you got the watch?

Does the 8F56 movement have a digital trimmer in the back like the 9Fxx ?

[STEVIE]

Dear Safi:

An excellent review of this watch

I have just unpacked my second order of this model today. The first SBQJ015 I gave to my grandson for his birthday in November 2008. I liked it so much I now have this one which I shall use as a daily beater.

Big pros for this are the sapphire crystal; the toughened coating over the watch and bracelet; the true GMT function and ability to set the hour hand without stopping the movement.

All in all great value for money.

The guy in TYO is very good and the package took just 4 days to get to me from the order placement.

Stevie

[Beyond 'The Box']

A truly splendid and meticulous review. I have never had an appreciation for quartz until reading this. This watch would be mine had it not been for the lacking in size. I shall now be on the search for a large mid-level or high-end Seiko quartz. If you should have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

[rgott]

Outstanding review. You have really set a standard in your attention to detail, and for how comprehensive the review is. The photography is excellent as well. Thanks for taking the time to produce this review.

After reading your report, I think it's time for me to take a much closer look at HEQ!

[webvan]

About to jump the gun, it's at $438 at Seiya and $428 at chino-watch - Seiya seems like the safer bet ?