My life with a Seiko SBCM023

[Haqnut]

New to this forum so - I apologise if some of these points seem futile but humour a noob!

I am fed up with consuming watches year after year - have had several lowish end types but they have all gone their own way one way or another, water ingress after shower/swim/snorkel, lost (3x due to broken strap) etc etc. Had one of the first Quartz Heuer divers watches bought in Singapore in 1980 but it eventually went kaput soon after official service center in Sydney assured me that it should and would not have a screw down crown, then repaired it (removing the screw down feature!) despite me reassuring them that it did indeed have such a feature from new 10 years before! It was then stolen after a break in!! I digress. To sum up, I just want to buy a good quality watch that will match the following criteria.

What I am trying to find is a watch that will address all the following needs.

- Robust
- High reliability
- Preferred service interval more than 5 years
- Availability of parts in 10 -15 years (or ability to purchase complete new movement as a spare!)
- High accuracy +-20secs pa or less
- Battery life (if needed) more than 5 years
- Waterproofing suitable for snorkelling to depths of 4m and immersion in Hot spas
- Perpetual calendar
- Ability to add or subtract whole hours only when travelling to different time zones
- Mid size 38-40mm overall case diameter
- Bezel case for diving not required
- Strong synthetic moulded rubber strap
- Non flashy (read discrete) case design
- Titanium case preferred
- Minimum 3 year international warranty
- Budget up to US$2000


I have perused a few forums and the corresponding links to seiko and citizen high end quartz watches but it takes hours and hours to checkout all the above points so I am posting to this forum in the hope that someone may be able to point me towards a shortcut method of finding this watch on the internet. I am not wedded to Japanese watches. Thanks in anticipation of your reply.

[Bruce Reding]

Hi overlandr. Welcome to the forum!

Others may have different thoughts on euro possibilities. I'll start things off though by suggesting a "The Citizen" Chronomaster. It has most or all of the properties you're looking for. Very robust (100 meters water resistant, for instance). Very accurate at 5 secs/year. Has perp. cal. Can adjust the hour hand only. Can be had in titanium. Caveats as follows:

battery rated for five years but not longer
some would call the current design a bit flashy, but it's still pretty simple
have to buy your own rubber strap
price is pretty close to your budget, if not a bit over

Here's a link:

http://watch.citizen.co.jp/the-citizen/

You can use Babelfish to translate it.

[Frode]

Seiko Alpinist?

[Haqnut]

Hi Bruce

Thanks for the suggestion - yes I saw this already. Parts for quartz watches seem to be a bit of an issue many years (+5-10 after EOL) for quartz watches. Is this one of the reasons why people hanker after automatics ? Am concerned about investing that sum and then after say 10 years parts becoms unavailable! What are the chances of being able to source a complete new movement only for a lower end Seiko quartz?

Hi overlandr. Welcome to the forum!

Others may have different thoughts on euro possibilities. I'll start things off though by suggesting a "The Citizen" Chronomaster. It has most or all of the properties you're looking for. Very robust (100 meters water resistant, for instance). Very accurate at 5 secs/year. Has perp. cal. Can adjust the hour hand only. Can be had in titanium. Caveats as follows:

battery rated for five years but not longer
some would call the current design a bit flashy, but it's still pretty simple
have to buy your own rubber strap
price is pretty close to your budget, if not a bit over

Here's a link:

http://watch.citizen.co.jp/the-citizen/

You can use Babelfish to translate it.

[Bruce Reding]

Hi Bruce

Thanks for the suggestion - yes I saw this already. Parts for quartz watches seem to be a bit of an issue many years (+5-10 after EOL) for quartz watches. Is this one of the reasons why people hanker after automatics ? Am concerned about investing that sum and then after say 10 years parts becoms unavailable! What are the chances of being able to source a complete new movement only for a lower end Seiko quartz?

As it happens, Citizen guarantees that they will have parts for the The Citizen for the life of the owner. The only possible hitch is that you need the official owner's card. Can't answer on the other question. Maybe someone else could chime in. A general comment I'll make though is that quartz watches will work for decades. Not uncommon to hear of watches still working after thirty years.

[lysanderxiii]

I have several watches with ETA quartz movements that are over ten years old and parts are still available.

Even if they weren't, ETA tends to keep the hand-fitting and dial feet locations static, so newer movements can be swapped out with no modifications.

Note: A new quartz movement will cost less than (or in the case of chronographs or other complicated movements, equal too) a service of an automatic.

[bobechs]

1. High accuracy- in effect that means thermo-compensated quartz or similar

2. Perpetual calendar

3. High maintainability- in effect a major brand with service organization

4. Long battery Life

5 Etc.

I say you have four viable brand choices. Citizen, Seiko, Longines and Omega. The first two have been dicussed in this thread, so I'll comment on the Swiss contenders.

The Longines VHP, which has been much-dicussed here, uses the Thermoline ETA 252.611 movement, L546 to Longines. Lithium battery gives ten years between changes, perpetual, classic good looks in steel, with dial options. Somewhat hard to find. Damned hard to find, in fact. Out of production, it looks like. Damned shame. Discrete whole hour adjustment thru a push-crown.

Omega Constellation and Constellation Double Eagle Perpetuals. Same movement as the Longines, except silver-oxide battery, good for five years. ETA 252.511 a/k/a Omega cal. 1680. Styling is more out-there, steel or tu-tone. Get your own rubber strap. Widely available, and discounted below your price ceiling. Same push-crown hour adjustment as Longines. Also watchmaker rate-tunable in .33 second per month increments.

If you are willing to give up perpetual calendar (and I would not, if I were you) there are a number of Breitling ETA Thermoline based watches with blingy styling, maybe even some titanium. There are a number of Breitling enthusiasts on this forum who can guide you, if you move your sights to that target area.

Good Luck.

[stockae92]

Seiko Alpinist?

i think of that too

put on a Strong synthetic moulded rubber strap and you are good to go

[baristaman]

Seiko Alpinist?

Ditto to that. I own the Alpinist, The Citizen, and Longines VHP. It sounds like you want to have one watch that will do everything, and the Alpinist would be my pick. I got mine from Higuchi-inc.com, and it has everything you've asked for except for the rubber strap, which of course, you can always buy separately and add on. Actually, I'm not positive right now about the warranty length, but I have yet to hear about an issue with a quartz Seiko (except for some of the earlier Kinetics). I use mine as a travel watch that can do double duty as a sport or dress watch.

What's more, at about US$350, you could buy five of them with money left over, with your budget.

http://www.higuchi-inc.com/sbcj019.html

My 'The Citizen' is much more watch and is one of my very favorite watches. It also meets your criteria, but as I didn't purchase it new, I'm not sure if is available in titanium within your budget.

I like my Longines VHP Flagship, but with only a 30m water resistance, I take it off when I wash my hands, much less snorkel. I understand that they have 100m and 200m WR models, but not with perpetual calendar.

[ppaulusz]

...I really like my Longines VHP Flagship, but with only a 30m water resistance, I take it off when I wash my hands, much less snorkel. I understand that they have 100m and 200m WR models, but not with perpetual calendar.

My Longines Conquest VHP Perpetual Calendar (9mm thick) is rated WR 100m. There is an other version of the Conquest VHP Perpetual Calendar (12mm thick) that is rated WR 200m.