Pulled the Trigger on a Seiko Gunmetal Kinetic Diver SKA427P1

Won for $179 and $25 shipping on Ebay, this $204 Seiko Kinetic Diver has been on my mind for a few months now and has an undeniably iconic look about it. I love the white round indices, which should give great lume. The bezel is supposed to be 42.5 and the overall case is supposed to be 47mm. I'll be curious to see how big it plays on my wrist. If it's Black Monster size, that will be good enough for me.

Now I have 4 automatic/kinetic watches. Two, the kinetic Seikos, have a 6-month power reserve, so I hope I won't have to worry too much about keeping them energized enough to stay running.

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Comments

[Gary]

That's a nice looking watch. I wonder if the placement of the lume on the skeletonized hands will be to your liking.

This Seiko Solar Diver, which I had mentioned before, also has round hour markers. It gives a very clean look. I also like the unusual bezel shape on this one. It seems like a decent deal for $160.

http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-Mens-SNE107-Solar-Watch/dp/B004JONRWG/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1354654244&sr=8-4&keywords=seiko+solar+diver

[Jeffrey McMahon]

Gary, I had the rubber strap version of that watch and sold it because it played too small on my wrist and I was less than impressed with the feel and look of it. Seemed cheap somehow. I could be wrong. I imagine the bracelet version plays better.

[jonnybardo]

Awesome watch. I was actually watching that one on Ebay, although with no plans to buy it - glad you did. I still think I'd get the silver SKA371, but that gunmetal is really nice.

Re: four autos, my two kinetics are almost enough. I can see getting one or, at most, two more. But you're right, the power reserve stores up nicely. I just put my SKA425 on for the first time in over a week because I had been wearing my SSC015 for a couple days and then the Monster arrived and I've been wearing that ever since. But even just after a week and a half of wearing the SKA425, it seems to have built up a month or more of power.

One request: Can you take a photo of this with your SUN007 and possibly Black Monster and/or SKA267? These are all watches I'm considering and would love to see how they look side by side.

On a side note, one thing I've noticed is that there are very few kinetics with chronographs. There are a few but the default seems to be non-chrono.

[herculodge]

I'll provide those comparisons, for sure. I'm curious how this SKA427 will play compared to the 007 and others. I feel the SKZ267 plays like a 46 or 47mm.

[jonnybardo]

The SKZ267 looks huge. The SKA425 is actually 47mm, I believe - the biggest of my Seikos (although the SNAD05 is just as big across, but not as thick).

[Angelo]

Looks like dark gunmetal----dark gray bordering on black as opposed to lighter gray with silvertones. I like it very much. At a first glance----to me, this looks like a quintessential divers watch. The debate I would have over whether to consider it truly quintessential is the metal bracelet. I think a traditional divers watch has a rubber strap. The case/face is iconic though---in having THE divers look I like best.

[herculodge]

For a bit less money, there is a rubber strap version, but I prefer the gunmetal bracelet.

[Gary]

Jeff - I prefer watches with smaller cases than you do; 42 mm is plenty big for me. The Seiko World Timer that I bought in 1994 has a 39 mm case, which was pretty normal back then. My nephew has a huge Nixon watch; it looks like he's wearing a clock on his arm.

The bezel on the rubber band SNE107P2 is missing the tick marks of the metal band version. I like the looks of the latter much more.

http://www.amazon.com/Seiko-SNE107P2-Rubber-Analog-Black/dp/B005HJQY22/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1354669910&sr=8-3&keywords=seiko+sne107

[herculodge]

I had the latter but it played too small for me. I should have sold it to you, Gary.