Bought this at Amazon. Great value as it would have cost 800 in Ireland. A beautifully crafted watch - very robust and it looks great. Only thing I don't like is that you have to manually change the date on months less than 30 days.

There is no question that this watch is strikingly beautiful. For a watch that does not come from Switzerland you will find no better in the Looks Department. The picture here does not really do the watch justice; I saw this watch (the #SNL012 version, stainless with gold trim and white face) at a jewelers and couldn't quite get it out of my mind. I've been wearing mine for about three weeks now and have received more feedback on it than I've ever had on one of my Omegas or my Rolex GMT. "Mod," and "Futuristic," are two descriptions I've heard which I think are true and fair. The watch is super heavy, but is not so bulky as to be a nuisance. The movement is made in Japan, which is obviously good; the bracelet is made in China, but I see no conspicuous compromise in quality. This watch has a see-through back, which is nice even though there are no glittering jewels back there. The front crystal is scratch-resistant sapphire, a signifacnt feature. Overall, the watch has awesome curb appeal and you'll probably be extremely pleased.

Next point: at the time of this review Amazon has the absolute best price on this watch. I went down to the L.A. Jewelry District, where watches are sold at bargain-basement prices, and this watch there was over $50 more out-the-door. And I'd rather buy from a reputable entity like Amazon than one of these jewelry vendors in the Jewelry District. Other brick-and-mortar retailers are not at present anywhere close to Amazon in terms of price, not to mention providing the free shipping.

Okay, the caveats: The watch unfortunately is of limited functionality. The form really precedes the function. The little subdial at the six-o'clock position: that is actually the watch face you'll be looking at to tell the time throughout the day. It is a small watch face to be sure, and if you are trying to glimpse the time in a subtle or fast fashion, good luck. Hopefully you won't be driving your car at the time. The little hands and the little watch face need more concentration to see and comprehend than a full-sized watch. That gets annoying quickly. I guess it does provide an excuse to gaze at the beautiful watch.

The next caveat: the so-called stop-watch function is very precarious. The minute register--which stops at 45 minutes--is so small that it is all but impossible to tell which minute the hand is pointing at: it would be very easy to misinterpret it by a minute, maybe even two. If you ever used this watch to time something important you would be setting yourself up to be sued for malpractice.You really would need a magnifying glass to see it close enough to be certain which minute-marker the hand is pointing at. But, again, that semi-circular shiny chrome subdial with the blued metal hand sure looks cool! But looks are as far as it really goes here, I'm afraid.

The final caveat: I was told by two different jewelers that these Seiko Kinetics have the "capacitors" go out on them after five to seven years. The capacitor is what holds the electric charge to run the watch. Can it be replaced? Yes, for a significant fee, unless the material inside the capacitor has burst out and ruined the other componenets in the watch. Then you have a complete throw-away. Apparently, and sadly, this happens with some frequency. Both jewelers emphatically advised me against a Seiko Kinetic for this reason. If this ruination of the watch occurs to me, I will be quite upset and letters will be promptly fired off to Tokyo (or wherever Seiko headquarters is located)! But the watch is so good looking I had to gamble and get it.

So far, I have no real regrets, but I wish they could have fine-tuned the concept a little more. At one-fifth the price of an entry-level Swiss watch you may find yourself content even if you only have the watch for five years or so. I want and expect more years (20 sounds reasonable), but I will have to wait 19 years and 11 months to tell you if that milestone is achieved!