| The Seiko 5 Men's Automatic Black Strap Black Dial Watch is a stylish timepiece with the convenience of automatic movement. A uniquely designed, black dial features white Arabic numbers marking the hours on an inner circle and the minutes on an outer circle, while small, bar indexes encircle the dial on an outside minute track. Silver-tone hands with luminous fill make it easy to tell time day or night, and the slim second hand is detailed with a red accent. For added convenience, a day and date display are set at three o'clock, and this modern timepiece offers a peek at its inner workings with an exhibition caseback. The polished stainless steel case extends to meet the black nylon strap, which wraps comfortably around the wrist and fastens with a traditional buckle. Water resistant to 330 feet (100 meters), this high-performance watch is perfect for everyday wear. |
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 Great watch, but the WR30M could be an issue for some ... |
| Review Date: March 15, 2010 |
| Reviewer: Lonchodomas, La Mesa, CA |
Seiko offers two similar versions of a mechanical "military" watch:
The SNK809 (which is black, but there are other colors). This has a 21 jewel movement (generally the 7S26B, but the earlier models have the 7S26). It has a 36mm case (excluding the crown) and18mm wide band.
The other model is the lager SNZG15 (which is black, but there are other colors). This has a 23 jewel movement (generally the 7S36B, but earlier models have the 7S36). It has a 40mm case (excluding crown) and an 22mm band.
Both of these watches are gray market. You won't see them for sale in US stores.
I've owned my SNK809 for several months and love it. Its very accurate for the price. Mine gains about 5 sec/day. You'll have to spend a lot of money to do better than that in the mechanical watch world.
Two of my friends own the SNZG15, and they seem to gain about 10 sec/day. Note: The fact the SNZG15 has 23 jewels doesn't mean its more accurate than a 21 jewel movement. It's larger, pushes more mass (bigger hands), and thus I speculate is inherently less accurate than the smaller SNK809.
I got my SNK809 on eBay for $45 + $25 shipping (2009). However, it was shipped from Hong Kong. It had to clear customs, shipping takes about three weeks, and has more inherent risk. I'd expect to pay more on Amazon if it was shipped from within the US. Similarly, I've seen the SNG15 for as little as $105 with free shipping, shipped from Singapore.
What I did not appreciate at the time I bought my SNK809 is that its water resistant rating is 30 meters (WR30M). 98 ft. That seems sufficient unless you're a serious scuba diver, right?
Wrong.
Look up water resistant ratings for watches on Wikipedia.
30 meters is the static water pressure for the test conducted in the ratings lab. The working/dynamic pressure rating will be much less. You should not even shower wearing a WR30M watch, let alone swim with it. WR30M is considered splash resistant only. I have splashed my watch, it still runs great, but depending upon your lifestyle, this may or may not be an issue.
The bigger SNZG15 is rated at WR100M, which you can swim and skin dive with. The smallest rating you should swim with (but no skin diving) is WR50M.
The other aspect of the SNK809 you should be aware of is that its smaller than most watches are today. In the 1960's an 18mm band was typical. Today its small, aesthetically, particularly for a person with large wrists.
When I first got my SNK809, I was taken aback by how thin the band looked (and I have smaller than average wrists). I have read the market Seiko is targeting with this model is teenagers in Asia. That market base probably has smaller wrists than the average American male.
But after wearing it for awhile, I noticed I wasn't banging it into things like I do with my larger watch. And it fit under my shirt sleeves better.
Its notable that my friends say the 22mm SNZG15 is a bit bigger than they wish it was.
I've concluded I like the 18mm band. I'm an outdoorsman (when I can be), and do wish the SNK809 was at least WR50M. Other reviewers will say they wish it had a hacking mechanism or a sapphire crystal. Those are not issues for me, and for the price, let's get real.
This is a phenomenal mechanical watch for what you'll pay. I wear mine to work every day. I wear it to meetings and snicker to myself as my second hand moves at six clicks per second, while others sitting at the table suffer the one second lurch of the ubiquitous quartz movement. Yes, I'm a watch geek. Just be aware of the smaller width of the band and WR30M rating. If those aren't big issues for you, you can't beat it. |
Great simple watch
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| Review Date: July 17, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Christopher G. Ludwig, |
I bought one of these a couple years ago in Singapore. I love it. It is my staple everyday watch. They are tough and withstand a fair bit of abuse. I wore mine while training and flying aerobatics up to 6Gs. Still works. The movement does tend to be fast, some say by 5 to 15 sec per day. My experience is that I notice it is running fast by a few minutes every little while and then I correct it. Not an issue especially since it is an automatic watch. If I go more than a day without wearing or shaking it, it stops anyway, so who needs longterm accuracy?
I love it. I'm buying a second one in dark green. ...May start a collection. |
One out of four
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| Review Date: June 29, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jan Husdal, Molde, Norway |
| This watch comes in 4 models, SNK 803 with a beige strap and dial, SNK 805 with a green strap and dial, SNK 807 with a blue strap and dial, and SNK 809 with a black strap and dial. What I like most is the red tip on the seconds hand that sweeps continuously across the dial and not in steps for every second like in most analog watches. Also cool is the untraditional numbering of the hour markings, where the 5-minutes are more protruding than the hours. The strap looks better in the photos than in reality, but it's still very nice and tough-looking, although it is narrower than you think when you see it on the guy's arm in the pictures above. The see-through case is a gimmick I could do without, but anyway, nice to watch the watch work. Buy all four and you have one to go with every occasion and dress colour/code. This item sells on eBay for 30-40 dollars. |
Decent Entry Level Automatic
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| Review Date: July 14, 2010 |
| Reviewer: JT, Long Island, NY USA |
This is a nice little entry level automatic watch. Upon opening the box it came in the first thing I noticed was the size of the watch itself and the band. The watch itself is somewhat small but not too bad. its slightly larger than a quarter. The band however is much smaller than I expected. I have tiny wrists so It doesn't bother me too much but someone with a larger wrist may find it odd looking; it's really just preference and shouldn't make or break the deal as the band can easily be swapped out. The watch has a nice heavy weight to it and doesn't feel cheap like some other larger automatics I have. One strange thing I noticed right away when I picked up my watch was that the weight that spins the mainspring slides against the interior of the watch as I move it. So I can feel the weight as it moves around. This doesn't bother me but I hope its normal and doesn't mean I got a faulty watch. Everything is working fine at the moment (I've only been wearing it for a day) and I see no other problems or peeves about the watch. I'll break down the pros and cons here:
(PROS)
+ Overall nice looking watch. As most watches; the picture online just doesn't do it justice.
+ Watch has a nice weight to it.
+ It's an automatic for under $100; thats a bargain, especially for a Seiko.
+ The luminous hands are pretty good and last for a good 20 minutes. (Not as good as a Seiko Monster but what do you expect)
+ Comes with a 3 year warranty (although the retailer warranty card I received was not filled out by Amazon, not sure if this matters)
(Cons)
- Both the watch's body and strap were smaller than I expected.
- Hardlex glass is not exactly the best material, it suffices but Mineral would've been better. Sapphire is good too but thats a little too much to ask for in a watch of this caliber.
- Grindy mainspring weight.
- Malaysian movement. Although it says this watch has a Japanese movement in the specs; There is a Malaysian movement in them. I believe these are designed in Japan and built or assembled in Malaysia; either way the movement is definitely not made & assembled in Japan. If this was already common knowledge I apologize.
- Water resistance is sub-par. This watch should at least have the ability to withstand swimming and not just be resistant to minor splashes.
All in all it seems like a nice watch. As long as that weight isn't defective and its normal everything should be fine. I'll post an update eventually to let you know how its held up over time.
*** Update
I've been wearing the watch almost everyday for a few weeks now. It's kept time perfectly only gaining a couple seconds a day. It's by far the most accurate automatic I own; even more than some of my Swiss ETA movements. As far as the quality of the watch it seems almost perfect. I love the size and look of it. The Hardlex has held up and I still have no scratches on the dial or caseback (More time will tell how well it really holds up) The only problem I have with this watch is that it seems theres still some friction between the weight and the inside of the watch body. This has been causing it to sometimes keep the weight stationary at some points rather than spin around as it should. It still spins with enough force but some normal hand movements have not been enough to keep the weight moving. That being said it hasn't been a big enough problem to cause the watch to stop on me. It still keeps ticking long after ive put it down. After some research I realized this watch uses the same movement as the famous Seiko Monster & is a bit of a workhorse for seiko. |
its not that good....sad face here....but i still wear it
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| Review Date: June 26, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Robert Gutierrez Jr., Les Etats-Unis |
| it winds itself beyond the point of no return...it starts to speed up and you have to continuously set it back like twice a day...otherwise it is great...you should invest in the Seiko Kinetic or the other Seiko model and not this one...I know the Kinetic is like 600 dollars but i guess it would be worth it...No more setting back your watch twice daily. |
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