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 An impulse buy that's been percolatin' for nearly four years.   Ricky Lee February 20, 2009 08:45PM |
Registered: April 2005 Posts: 1,846 (2009-02) |
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An impulse buy that's been percolatin' for nearly four years. Ricky Lee February 20, 2009 08:45PM |
Registered: April 2005 Posts: 1,846 (2009-02) |
Obviously, I was quite taken with the 7T92 module in general and the SND387 in particular. Yet somehow I never quite got around to taking the plunge. I intended to, and it was on my "short list" for a while. But time went by, and it kind of got put on the back burner. Ironically, I think it was partly because I was becoming more interested in mechanicals, the exact opposite of Jeff at that point. Still I never forgot it altogether...Quote
TakesALickin
A Tale of Two Seikos, SND387P1 and SNA225
Posted: Wednesday, 20 July 2005, at 10:24 p.m.
If you’d told me last year that I’d be sitting here today writing a review of a quartz watch, I’d have said you were nuts. I was deep in the throes of my mechanical bias at that point. I had a quartz watch or two, but like most collectors, I had a preference for mechanicals. Some of us soften a little with the passage of time That’s what has happened to me.
What’s even crazier is that this review I’m typing will feature two watches, both quartz, and both watches were purchased within days of each other. I don’t know why I’ve made an about face on the issue of quartz, but I suspect it most likely has to do with a combination of price and convenience, coupled with a growing sense that I have exhausted a lot of the lower priced mechanical options. Further ventures into the collecting of mechanical watches will probably mean greater outlays of cash. Quartz starts to look pretty good when you look at it that way. It sweetens the deal even more if you can find interesting quartz movements. That’s what I managed to do with these two new Seikos, I think.
The first of the two is the Seiko SND387P1, powered by Seiko’s 7T92 chronograph movement. I’ve included a pic by the seller here that shows the watch with the bracelet that it’s sold with, because I know many guys like bracelets and would be curious what the watch looks like with the bracelet attached. I wasn’t crazy about the bracelet - I’m usually not - so I took it off immediately and attached the tire tread strap you see in my picture. The bracelet is a folded link design (meaning that I like it even less), but not unattractive. Still, someone who likes bracelets would probably want to replace it with a nicer solid link attachment.
The watch itself is a pleasant surprise. I ordered it because I wanted something to wear to work that wasn’t an homage, that was designed to stand on its own stylistically. While the SND387P1 definitely is military inspired, it doesn’t look exactly like any other watch I’ve yet seen on the internet.
The case measures 38mm across the face, 40mm if you include the crown. Although I wear watches that are larger than this, it’s similar in size to the Omega Speedmaster auto. For my line of work, it wears comfortably and is not obtrusive. The case has a nice bead blasted finish, and is stainless steel in composition. Its most attractive feature is the compass bezel. Although it doesn’t rotate, rendering it useless from a functional standpoint, it does lend a nice touch to the look of the watch.
The back is plain and unadorned, save for the Seiko name, water resistance ratings and model number info. It’s notched, and screws off for ease of battery maintenance.
So what do I really like about this watch? The movement! The 7T92 movement includes a sub-dial at 12 o’clock that times in 1/20th second increments. When you engage the chrono, the hand on this sub-dial begins spinning crazily, one revolution per second. The sub-dial at 6 o’clock is used both as the minutes and hours totalizer. How can it do both? It has two hands! That wasn’t evident to me until I ran the chrono for a couple of minutes the first time and saw the hands begin to separate from each other.
All the sub-dial hands, as well as the chrono seconds hand, are painted red. This really works well with the standard black/white military motif. It does make them a little hard to see in low light, but I blame my 48 year old eyes as much as anything else. The hour and minute hands are skeletonized. This is a first for me. I’m getting used to it, and I can see that it does make it easier to see the sub-dials when they’re partially obscured buy the larger hands. Lume is very good, and is used on the hands as well as the Arabics. The watch includes a date window at 3 o’clock, with the dates displayed in white digits against a black background. Overall, everything blends nicely and the watch has a very business like appearance. It’s easy to see that the watch would look great on a variety of straps, and with 20mm lugs, I can fit most of my strap collection on the watch in the coming months.
Downsides? The crown is a little smaller than what I’ve gotten used to with mechanicals. The bracelet, as previously mentioned, is a little cheesy. Water resistance is rated at 100m, but lacking screw down crown and pushers, who would want to tempt fate? Otherwise, that’s about it. For what I paid ($70 plus shipping), it makes a great addition to my collection as a daily wear workhorse.
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Ricky Lee McBroom
Grrrrrrreat
Posted: Thursday, 21 July 2005, at 1:53 a.m.
..a model SNA113. Love the smooth sweep of the chrono second hand, too. You neglected to mention that the alarm can be used to track a second time zone. I use mine that way more than as an alarm.. usually I keep it set to GMT.
I have no problem at all with quartz.. indeed, I consider them to be superior to a mechanical, when considered purely from a practical viewpoint. So it should come as no surprise that I've been wanting a 7T92 for a while now. 'tis only my Inner Cheapskate that's stopped me. I've got three other chronos, and find it a little hard to justify a fourth. But if I find one as inexpensive as yours, I might not be able to resist. You got a great deal! Stole it, practically! Congrats!
-Ricky
The fit and finish of the SNDA65 was typical 
,
which is to say superb. The 1/20th-second sub-dial is fascinating to
behold, and the hour/minute totalizer is pretty darned cool, too. A
little research told me that, though the SND387 has apparently been
discontinued, they're still readily available on eFlay. The Buy-It-Now
prices ranged from ~ $80 to just over $100, but looking at completed
auctions told me that, with a little patience, I should be able to
score one between $60 and $70. Sure enough, a bit over a week later I
was the proud winner in a Singapore auction at $68 + $25 shipping. Not
exactly dirt cheap, but not too bad, I reckon, considering Jeff paid
$70 +shipping 4 years ago.
It's a power-saving measure, I suspect..., you just know it's gonna have good lume, and it doesn't disappoint;
, so it gets an unqualified 
from me. 
;
The light was fadin' and, though I took five wrist shots, that was the best o' the lot. 
But rest assured ye'll be seein' more photos of this one in future! 
An impulse buy that's been percolatin' for nearly four years. (views: 169) for that watch and ! (n/t) (views: 10)
Colby. I didn't know Seiko was licensing the 7T92 to others, though.. (views: 1) 
I am a fan of 7T62 and 7T92 movements. (views: 7) Chris. I have one of each module now... (views: 1) I've been eyeing several Quartz Watch chronos as well. (n/t) (views: 4) (n/t) (views: 5) I am smiling (n/t) (views: 4)
(n/t) (views: 5) Guess JohnnyT was right. Better move fast if.. (views: 1) (n/t) (views: 6) (n/t) (views: 7)
I already have a bunch of straps that'll fit the watch, for one thing.
And I figured if I didn't go with the bracelet, I'd regret it later on. I've seen. (views: 8)