BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN
Seiko is renowned for its diving watches; it makes tons of them in all different varieties for people to choose from. One thing people can’t say they’re lacking in when it comes to Seiko’s watches is a range of choices of diving watches. It all started with the 62MAS, which came around in 1965; they’ve since re-issued it and re-interpreted it numerous times through the Prospex range over the years, drawing on their illustrious heritage in the process. Now, for 2024, they’ve issued it again with revised proportions and movements.
All three of the new watches come with the same basic case, that being a 40mm x 13mm brushed stainless steel affair with their “super hard” coating for improved scratch resistance compared to regular steel, which is made of butter I guess. The quality is high, though, with aluminium inserts for the unidirectional diving bezels and curved sapphire crystal over the dials providing real-world usability. The depth rating of all these watches is good, too, at 300m, up 100m from the previous generation. There’s always some discussion to be had regarding whether that’s ever going to be put to the test by the buyer, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.
The different Prospex references available each have a different dial and bezel combination. SPB453 is likely to be the most popular model with its black dial and black bezel, standard but in a likeable way. SPB451 is the blue model complete with silvery hands and markers, just like SPB453. Lastly, there’s the reference SPB455, a 100th anniversary present from Seiko to itself, which has a charcoal grey dial and bezel combined with gold-coloured hands, markers and bezel indices. All watches feature a slight sunburst effect on their dial and luminescent paint on their markers and hands. I also like that Seiko went to the trouble of colour-matching the date wheels for these watches. Not so many manufacturers do that, but it makes a difference usually.
Inside all three watches is the automatically wound calibre 6R55, an in-house calibre usually reserved for the higher-end models in the Seiko lineup, but these new Prospex watches have it. The 6R55 runs at 3Hz and has a power reserve of 72 hours.
The watches come with a three-link stainless steel bracelet as standard, bu SPB455 also has a fabric strap thrown in. The strap is colour-matched to the rest of the watch and made from recycled plastic bottles and is woven using a traditional Japanese weaving technique known as Seichu. According to Seiko, this type of weaving is up to four times stronger than their standard NATO straps, this one is presented in the standard NATO strap style for fastening.
The price of the SPB451 and SPB453 is $1300 and they’re a part of the current lineup. The SPB455 costs $1400 thanks to that special strap.
