Amazon.com Customer Reviews
Chic without being too pricey - Review written on April 11, 2006
Rating: 5 out of 5
63 customers found this review helpful.
As I was shopping for a new watch, I had a certain number of criteria in mind.
1. It must be affordable
2. It must be from a recognized brand (for quality purposes)
3. It must be stylish without being too fad-ish
4. It must be multi-purpose and lend itself to almost all
styles of dress, be it casual or formal.
I found all of this in this little Seiko watch. At first, I was setting my sights on a no-battery type of design, but after reading about both kinetic and solar watches...and finding out that both do require replacement of either a lithium ion battery or capacitor, neither of which were guaranteed to last longer than a regular battery operated watch...I decided to stick with the regular quartz.
The watch itself looks better than its picture. The dial is listed as white on the website, but it's actually a silver tone...similar to what you see on Rolex brands (which it's supposed to mimic). The gold has a nice shine to it, with particular sparkle coming from the marked hours and the pie-cut bezel around the watch face. There is luminous material on the watch hands and hour markers, but a very minimal amount. My guess is that they didn't want to detract from the shiny finish, but you do lose some ability to see the watch face at night. There's enough to see the watch hands...just barely...but the hours are really hard to make out in the dark. Oh well, if checking the time at night is a real issue then I suggest looking at some Timex Indiglos. ***REVISION*** While it is hard to see the luminous hands and markers at first, they do get brighter once your eyes adjust to the dark. I found myself waking up early this morning and could clearly see all the marked hours and hands of my watch face with no problems.
This watch also comes with a day and date calendar. Some have said it's hard to work, but I actually found it to be really easy. The instructions are very easy to follow and I had the calendar and time set up in about 2 minutes.
This watch is surprisingly lightweight and very comfortable to wear. The catch opens without breaking any nails off and the band is very roomy. I have a medium to large sized wrist and wear my watch in a slightly loose "bracelet" style, but I still had to get a couple of links taken out.
My verdict: a good watch at a good price. It goes with everything in my closet and is from a company that's known for excellence and durablility. Five Stars!
P.S. When I wrote this view (a year or two back), it was sold by Amazon and was only 65 dollars with free shipping. So don't think I'm crazy for citing it as "affordable".