More on watch madness - the Seiko SBDB001
Velociphile has a nice re-post of ten lessons from a watch collector.
One of them is
Just buy that Lange (or Patek, or Rolex, or Vacheron, or whatever your personal Grand Ultimate Fetish Object is) first, and save yourself some agony and expense. Once you’ve gotten The Best, you may be able to resist a lot of impulse purchases, and avoid cluttering up your house with watchwinders, cases, and so on.
For me, after much searching, this is it, my personal GUFU:
Here’s another picture, next to my current watch:
Update 8/8/08: Duncan McMorrin and gave me his pictures to add. Thanks, Duncan!
Quick factoids for you:
Why this one?
So, you ask, why this one? What makes it the GUFO for me?
Hmm. I like auto divers quite a lot. I love the SpringDrive movement; it’s a really cool advance from mechanical. Ten times as accurate as my current watch. I place a high value on legibility, and this has it in spades, both time and GMT.
I also fly, and for that a GMT hand and legibility are paramount. I have a pilot’s watch, but it’s so busy-faced as to be unreadable. I much prefer flying with my diver, which I can read instantly and in bad lighting.
I also like the fact that this is a really odd watch, so no one is going to recognize it. This is not something where even the average Seiko fan will recognize it, so it’s more internal gratification than external recognition; I like it that way. If you want bling, buy a Rolex.
If I get back into diving (likely), I dunno if I’ll have the guts to dive with this; its one more thing to worry about damaging. I’ll probably just wear my yellow-face diver instead. It’s nice to know that this one would dive as well, well past any depth I’ll ever get to.
The Bad News
The bad news: List price is 450 thousand yen. Discounted, that’s about three grand USD.
Wow. Here I used to disrespect the Rolex fanboys, and I discover this shameful need for a massively over-engineered and overpriced bit of newly obsolete technology.
Not to mention the fact that no real diver would ever spend this much on a watch when dive computers have replaced watches anyway. Then again, it’s a magnificent ode to a world passed by, and one hell of a cool watch.
More information
I highly recommend that you read these threee reviews. The first has a great deal of history, and an extensive comparison with the Marinemaster that preceded it:
Various and sundry thoughts on the Seiko 600M SpringDrive
The second is a bit shorter, and has more details on the movement and specs:
1 week with the Spring Drive Marine Master
The third is TimeZone, and quite good:
Seiko Spring Drive 600M Diver… Information and mimi review
The ever-trusty Watch Report has a nice one-pager:
The Seiko Marinemaster GMT Spring Drive (Ref SBDB001)
Lastly, Timezone has a great in-depth look at SpringDrive that’s quite interesting. The Watch Report has a nice writeup on SpringDrive as well.
Pictures!
Every good case of gadget infatuation starts with pictures; here’s are a couple picture galleries of this watch:
Got cash?
If you want one and (unlike me) can afford it, there’s only a couple of reputable dealers who can import it. (For reasons known only to them, it’s not sold outside Japan.)
Conclusions
It verges on criminally stupid to even consider spending this much on a watch, really. Then again, if we can’t save for things that make us happy, what exactly are we living for anyway?
We’ll see if my infatuation holds out, but it’s lasted two months so far and isn’t abating. Not a good sign for my future.
November 15th, 2005 at 5:36 pm
[...] According to this review on TimeZone, the SpringDrive in my GUFO might actually be a loss leader for brand prestige. [...]
December 3rd, 2005 at 1:41 pm
[...] As noted in my dive watch review, the Seiko fulfills #3, but that’s about it. The Orient and Omega both do the job, or close to it. There’s also the approach of a dive watch with a GMT hand, which provides 1,3 and part of 2. However, you have to keep in mind that this is really not necessary. [...]
December 26th, 2006 at 3:20 pm
[...] There’s more than one model of Seiko called ‘Marinemaster’, so to distinguish this one I’ll call it the MM300 to distinguish it from the 600M spring drive version. Both are part of the ‘Prospex’ line of watches, Seiko’s upscale diver line that’s only sold and marketed in Japan. [...]
August 30th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Hi,
i am philip from malaysia. i am very impressive with your web site on seiko sping drive with exclusive details. i also wonder does higuchi.com is a reliable dealer. i do intend to get one from them and again how much in US dollars u get your marine spring drive 600m and marine master 300m.
again, thanks for your prompt response.
February 9th, 2008 at 6:06 pm
The best diving watch IMO. Mine keeps +1s per month!!! No watch out there even comes close to this beauty.
May 19th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Hi, just purchased the marinemaster 600 SD and was wondering where i could purchase the black strap shown on these beautiful photo’s ??? Keep up the amazing work it’s really appreciated by us lesser fellows ! Kindest Regards Carl
May 19th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
The strap is the DiModell Chronissimo, about 80USD, see http://thewatchprince.blogspot.com/2007/09/di-modell-chronissimo.html
June 5th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
Fredawatchstraps………. Avoid them ! They sent me the strap, but it wasn’t what i ordered and i cannot get a reply from them after 7 emails and 2weeks ! Simply put they’ve took my money and run ! Christ its only 67 dollars and my new Seiko MM 600 SD is very lonely … ordered the same strap again today from a reputable UK dealer and its a bargain for £20 … $38, brand new chronissimo ! Cheers, Carl