Seiko 5 Review
Over the past decade Seiko has been moving up in price point and away from more affordable unique watches. One thing many Seiko enthusiasts loved about the brand was that they could collect a handful of well built automatic watches and have something new/fun to wear regularly. Although Seiko isn’t moving away from producing high quality luxury watches within the Seiko and Grand Seiko collections, they decided to listen to their fans and came out with the Seiko 5 collection.
The Seiko 5 collection was introduced in 2019 with the praise of many Seiko enthusiasts. As the name alludes to, the Seiko 5 collection is comprised of 5 sub collections. Those include Sports Style, Suits Style, Specialists Style, Street Style, and Sense Style. We’ll go into detail of them all later in our article.
What Seiko 5 watches provide is tons of value packaged in a price point of $265-$600. Each of these watches has a unique style that is sure to speak to buyers and can handle being a daily driver for most. What you’re not going to see in Seiko 5 watches is the accuracy that comes with the Grand Seiko collection but the accuracy will be better than most at the price point these automatic watches are sold at.
Seiko 5 Automatic Movements
Seiko has provided all in-house movements for the Seiko 5 collection. Although the average daily accuracy ratings for these movements are -20/+40 seconds per day, it’s actually not all that bad considering two factors. The first is that these automatic watches are being purchased mostly at the $350 price point. You’ll have a hard time finding an automatic watch at that price point that can provide much better accuracy. The other is that the Seiko 5 watch owner is one who most likely has multiple watches that are worn throughout the week. Considering these watches have roughly a 40 hour power reserve, chances are you’ll be powering it back up before you’re resetting it.
Case
What we really enjoy about Seiko 5 watches is the case design. On all Seiko 5 watches, the crown is located at the 4 o’clock position giving it a more sportier look. To add to that, we also appreciated the size with most being between 39mm to 41mm in diameter.
Outside of the dimensions and crown, what you’ll notice when shopping for a Seiko 5 watch is that there are many different looks to the cases in terms of color. Of course there is the stainless steel look but there is also a rose gold tone, black, and even colored for the Sense Style references.
Dials
If you like fun dials then you’ll love the Seiko 5 automatic watches. Within the 5 sub collections, there are many different types of dials. The Seiko 5 Sports watches have the classic dive watch dial colors, the Seiko 5 Street dials mix colors and black in beautifully, the Seiko 5 Sense watches are just vibrant and unique, and much more. If you like personality with your watches, the Seiko 5 watches are you for.
On all the dials there is luminescent materials applied to both the hands and the hour markers. This provides adequate legibility in low light conditions. There is also a day date function at the 3 o’clock position that pairs really well with each reference.
Collections
There are 5 sub collection to the Seiko 5 collection. Below we’ll give a brief overview of each one plus a link to discover more about each collection.
Seiko 5 Sports
Arguably the most popular sub collection within the Seiko 5 collection is the Sports Style. These watches have a classic dive watch look and feel. What we love about the Seiko 5 Sports watches is the available bezel and dial color combinations. There are so many fun ways to add color to dive watches and the Seiko 5 Sports collection has done an amazing job.
The first thought that came to our mind when we first interacted with the Seiko 5 Sports collection was this watch is a daily driver. At the price point of $295 MSRP and the manufacturing of Seiko behind it, you should feel comfortable putting this watch through anything.
Visit Seiko’s website to view the entire Seiko 5 Sports collection.
Seiko 5 Street
Definitely the most fun sub collection of the Seiko 5 watches is the Street Style. This is simply because all of the Seiko 5 Street watches have some great color combinations and comfortable strap styles. Priced between $275 and $335, the Seiko 5 Street Style is perfect to buy a couple and wear each on appropriate occasions.
Most of the watches within the Street Style references include either black or grey tone with contrasting dials, hands, and hour markers. Our personal favorite is the black case with red accents.
You can view all the watches within the Seiko 5 Street collection at Seiko’s website.
Seiko 5 Suits
To add a touch of class and sophistication to the Seiko 5 collections, a milanaise bracelet has been added to creat the Suits Style sub collection. These watches have dials that are more tamed compared to other Seiko 5 watches but are still beautiful.
Overall the Seiko 5 Suits watches are meant to be worn in both a casual and dress setting. With a price point of $295 to $350, it would be easy to purchase one of the these watches to match a suite rather than buying a suit to match your watch.
You can view all the watches within the Seiko 5 Street collection at Seiko’s website.
Seiko 5 Specialists
The Seiko 5 Specialists collection is the only one that has a gold tone to the case. This makes this sub collection, in our opinion, the chosen one for dressier situations. Although the Suites collection can pair well with both dress and casual, the Seiko 5 Specialists watches pair best with dress only occasions.
You can view all the watches within the Seiko 5 Street collection at Seiko’s website.
Seiko 5 Sense
If you’re into wearing a watch that is 100% unique and most likely you’ll never run into anyone else who has the same one as you, Seiko 5 Sense watches are for you. There isn’t a consistent pattern within this collection but rather seems like just really cool designs that came to mind. Personally the Seiko 5 Sense watches aren’t something for me but I trust Seiko knows its clients.
You can view all the watches within the Seiko 5 Street collection at Seiko’s website.
How Much Is The Seiko 5
Seiko 5 watches cost between $295 to $550 MSRP. Most of the Seiko 5 watches typically cost between $300 to $400 MSRP if you buy new. If you search the web you can probably find these watches at a slight discount.
How Long Does The Seiko 5 Last
The movements on the Seiko 5 watches are like most automatic watches. They’ll operate for about 5 years before they need maintenance. What an owner needs to decide is do they pay more to maintenance the watch than what the watch originally costs. That is why most owners consider the Seiko 5 watches to last anywhere between 4-5 years.
Where Are Seiko 5 Watches Made
All Seiko 5 watches are made in-house at Seiko’s Japanese manufacturing sites.
How Accurate Is Seiko 5
Seiko 5 watches have an accuracy rating of -20/+40 seconds per day. Although this isn’t excellent compared to luxury mechanical movements, this is a pretty good rating for automatic watches in the $300 price point.
What Is The Difference Between Seiko and Seiko 5
There is no difference between Seiko and Seiko 5. I believe this question is asked mostly because Seiko may be confusing to some people. There are multiple lines within the watch manufacture with quality ranges varying widely. Seiko 5 is the value line and they do a great job at it.
How To Wind The Seiko 5
Since the Seiko 5 watches are automatic mechanical watches, they can be wound two different ways. The first is simply wearing the watch. The kinetic movement of wearing the watch on your wrist will wind the mainspring on its own. The other way is to unscrew the crown and manually wind it to give it a full charge.
Seiko 5 Mods
Seiko watches are known for their aftermarket mods. The Seiko 5 collection is no different. We’re not directly aware of the proper places to go to get a Seiko 5 mod but we’ve seen some impressive mods on youtube.
Summary
Overall we’d have to say that Seiko 5 watches are great for what they are. They are fun, easily wearable, and can be bought at a great value. We recommend anyone who wants a daily wear that can be worn without worry to take a look at the Seiko 5 watch collection.
