This is the most beautiful dress watch I've ever seen and I own a SBGA413 Shunbun. I was able to pick one up for $1,900 and I believe that is a very good price for this beauty. This is my Monday - Friday watch now. A beautiful recreation with nostalgic elements. I have a crush on this watch.
Oh and before anyone moans about the price and says you should just get a Grand Seiko for this money... 1) You Cannot buy a New Mechanical Grand Seiko for $3,300 Retail 2) This has a much thinner case than any Automatic GS you can buy at the moment If you really want to compare this to a GS, look at the SBGW231($4,300) that is literally it's closest comparative. The KSK Reissue retails for $1000 less, is thinner and automatic and has more WR. Thinner even vs. a manual wind GS, same full zaratzu polish, also genuine crocodile leather strap w/milled buckle, also box-dome sapphire. Oh and the KSK reissue is also still arguably a better looking watch with more complex dial, hands, and case too AND it has a 20mm lug width unlike the 19mm on the SBGW231.
I bought this watch too. Beautiful. I also have the vintage. No date window which l prefer. 19mm strap is nicer on this watch. I also have the sbgw231. I also bought this for 3k+ after discount. The 9s64 is a way better mechanism. Nevertheless, l am very happy with this piece.
I live in Canada and very few coming to us because our market is relatively small. I managed to get one without paying sales tax. It is a very well made and beautiful watch and definitely not an overpriced Seiko.
I own this and wear it on a Milanese mesh bracelet as my everyday dress watch (well, most days, anyway). It is absolutely gorgeous, keeps excellent time (mine runs at -4) and is just a delight.
Congrats brother, killer watch and thank you for showing us this watch. It’s simply fantastic, I would take this over any Grand Seiko! Enjoy it, and don’t scratch that Zaratzu polish.
Nice review. Great to hear someone who knows their 5hit re Seikos. I'm tempted by this - wish it didn't have the date, but man is it beautiful. I agree, only Longines is close to this, but the finishing is not as good (though in UK, they're cheaper). I think people miss the fact that these high-end Seiko re-issues are GS quality and better finished than any Swiss watches for the same money - you'd need to buy Omega or JLC to get finish like this (although the movements would be superior at that price).
I think many comment comes from person who has not seen the watch on thier hand. I was surprised to see the quality finish level of this watch is way higher than than most Swiss watches like DJ and Tidor
yep it seems like an over priced cocktail time, pass, you can get a decent Grand Seiko in a better case or not far off this price on the secondary market. Sorry but the dial is not that exciting either
I would pick the SBGW231 because 1. I much prefer manual winding 2. I hate the date window 3. 9S64 is a better movement 4. Lugs of KSK look too bulky on my wrist Sure the price difference is there, but I am willing to pay the premium happily.
For $75 you can get a very beautiful KS homage under 10mm thick, with VH31 (quartz ticking 4 times a second) and heat-treated blue second hand. Well, it's sold out atm, but new batch will arrive in May, the guy says.
This is not a collector's watch, this is a daily wearer's watch. There's a hundred years worth of polishing in that crystal. Wear it to wind it, manual winding feels rubbery and unsatisfying. It's not a GS wannabe, it's a genuine King Seiko. Wear it daily or just don't buy it. My humble, as an owner.
Thank you for your reply, I have ordered the watch and am waiting for it. I wanted to buy a grand seiko deployant clasp for it. I did not know if I had to get an 18mm or 16mm.
Very nice, but not $3K nice. I've got a Soprod (exactly the same) movement in my Lorier with added GMT complication for only $800. Obviously the KSK also has very nice finishing which helps justify the price a little more. Also, part of the reason the movement is so thin is that it does not use a magic lever, but Swiss style reverser wheels.
The Soprod A10 is based off of the 4L25, the 6L35 does have some improvements. The 6L moved away from the double cone incabloc and upgraded to Seiko's three sided Diafix. Nice catch on the magic lever though, you're correct, the 6L uses reverser wheel design, like Grand Seiko's 9S6x and beyond.
@@mrdisco99 well, the value isn't just in the movement, the cost isn't either. Soprod was able to just buy a design, while Seiko had to develop it, and also support a lot more employees. A movement manufacturer and Microbrand only have to buy and sell within their target demo to remain profitable. Seiko are true watch makers, start to finish, being fully integrated isn't cheap.
@@AverageBros so the big multinational needs to charge more than the micro brand? I don't think that's how this works. Seiko has the advantage of being able to undercut micro brands by producing higher numbers with infrastructure that's already in place under their ownership. Being fully integrated costs more up front but less over time. This movement was developed over 10 years ago by a company over 100 years old. They didn't start from nothing. Surely they're not still financing it, particularly given Soprod helped pay for it. And they're not selling it for less than it cost to make.
All that said... I'm having trouble finding anything around that price point that's any better, so maybe they're onto something. I just feel like above $1000 or so you hit a cliff of diminishing returns until you start getting into true luxury in-house stuff.
I am disappointed in the case back. In this day and age, it is not that difficult to have the threads calibrated so that when the case back in on snuggly, the top of the case back lines up at the 12 o'clock position. This is called the "moment" of the screw threads. Also, I think the rated accuracy is not acceptable for a "King" Seiko, nor is the water resistance of 5 bar. The frequency at 4Hz is good, but the power reserve is poor at 45 hours. I also think the face would look better if the Applied Name tag said King Seiko and forget about printing the King Seiko name again at the 6 o'clock. Just saying.
I agree with everything, except not showing 'King Seiko' at 6 o'clock. That's how it was on the original. Please be more respectful to the pedigree of vintage Seiko! But you are right, the specs are shit!
Pls always give the price difference between watches like the Presage and the King Seiko. Why spend so much more? It looks so much like the Cocktail Time JDM. Worth paying over 6 times as much for?
Worth no more than $1500, considering the SJE073 with the same movement, better dial and proposition was priced at $2200 and sold for less than that, as any Seiko does. Not to mention it was made in smaller numbers , LE 1881..
Wrong. This watch has better proportion compared to SJE073, but dial yes I agree 073 is better. Smaller production numbers doesn’t mean it is rarer and more desirable. 1881 vs 3000, the king seiko lovers I bet will be 100x more than this 073 lovers, and that makes it even rarer. 073 retails at USD2200, 083 retails at 3300. I know not everyone gives a damn about prestige or history, but king seiko has its prestige from 1960s, while 073 mostly related from sarx055. For me it is an easy choice. You wanna go for better value between the two, 073. But if you even value prestige at all, 083 is a no brainer with just 1000 usd more.
@@nicks8026 value's at your own wrist and that's the end of it. Took me a while to learn this, but now I'm over a decade into flipping and I've kind of stopped being a snob.
@@andrei-cosmin.popa85 nothing to do with being a snob. Everything to do with patronizing a company that makes its money off the back of someone else’s intellectual property. Not respecting IP is your prerogative but don’t try to spin it as some sort of noble act.
Why wouldn't they just add the KING above the SEIKO? Ruins the dial, along with the date window. Must've been the same guy who decided to stamp the logo all over their exhibition cases. WTF are they thinking???
Nice showing of the watch but your comments can be more critical to make it a more neutral review. The watch is apparently another LE product to rip off its fans by playing the heritage card. Why can't seiko make it a production model since this is not a 1-to-1 reissue? Just look at its recent LE European Alpinist, isn't it too much to make everything into LE? Naruto, street fighters, etc etc and even its GS line makes season, lake, mountain, clouds, gozilla into LE. I just find this plain ridiculous.
I'd liken this to the SLA017 62MAS reissue, very similar to the original w/slight bump in scale and quality level fitting of a limited edition. So, if Seiko decided to down spec a restyled production unit later, under the Presage name, like they did w/the SBDC101 under Prospex line, I would be totally fine with it. People didn’t want to pay $4k for the SLA but now they’re trading at double that, great news for collectors who paid the premium and because the SBDC101 was different enough, none of them were upset about the release and if they wanted to down grade, they could easily get their money back and more. As for the Euro Alpinist, that’s more of an isolated incident, making essentially the same watch a non-LE, adding a bracelet and charging less for it. Not a great look but only really highlighted because dealers were adding such huge markups, especially to export them outside of Europe, which made things a lot worse but not really Seiko’s fault. That’s more of a dealer issue, plus poor decision by Seiko Europe to release an up spec’d non-limited for slightly lower list price, but as a Seiko fan, it actually benefits those who missed out on the original strapped run, due to not willing to pay the dealer markups.
Guys who are complaining about the price, please stick to Tissot or Raymond Weil. This is a re-issue of a legendary piece. Stop dreaming and complaining, preferably just move along into oblivion.