The power reserve is acceptable at 41 hours, but at one point it would be nice to see an improvement to carry you over the weekend for instance. Produced entirely in-house, this workhorse beats at a frequency of 21,600vph. Working away diligently under the solid caseback is the all-too-familiar Seiko Calibre 4R36 automatic movement. Everything is covered by a slightly curved Hardlex crystal that has a subtle bevelled edge to it. The only change to the dial is the printing in the lower section, which now reads ‘Sports’ in blue, with ‘Automatic – 24 Jewels – 10BAR’ in silver. The shapes, colours and proportions are a direct copy of the 1968 version, which is very cool! You get faceted hour and minute hands, a red lollipop central seconds hand, a faceted frame around the day-date window and the vintage Seiko 5 logo at noon. The hour indices are applied and given a LumiBrite coating and are ‘integrated’ with the silver minute track on the outer edge of the dial. The matte black dial is somewhat basic perhaps, but is identical to the one in the original Seiko 5 Sports from 1968. With this in mind, the new SPRK17 comes full circle and celebrates the 55th anniversary of the original Seiko 5 Sports in style. The sports-oriented spin given to the 5 in 1968 also welcomed innovations such as a new mainspring and shock-resistance system and the Magic Lever for more efficient winding of the movement. To this day, those 5 elements still hold up and it has cemented the 5 as one of the most important collections in Seiko’s history. All watches under the Seiko 5 range are designated to have a mechanical movement, a day-date display in a single window, water resistance, a recessed crown and a robust bracelet or strap. And perhaps ruining the surprise the new Seiko 5 Sports 55th Anniversary Limited Edition SRPK17 is even better in person!Īs we’ve explained before, the Seiko 5 collection was introduced in 1963, with the beefier Seiko 5 Sports following in 1968. So, a quick call to our Seiko contact, a little wait, and here we are, going hands-on with it. And this one seemed a very good one by the looks of it. And while some might move on, I still love a good Seiko from time to time. It’s widely considered a gateway mechanical watch, one that introduces loads of people to the world of mechanical watchmaking. The Seiko 5 Sports has been, and still is a very important collection to Seiko, and I’m sure pretty much all of us came into contact with one at some point in life. What I was looking at, on paper until then at least, was a faithful recreation of an iconic watch. When Seiko recently introduced a re-edition of the very first Seiko 5 Sports from 1968, I got quite excited, to be honest.
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