The Seiko Presage is quite a popular watch that’s generally affordable to most. That sums up the entire collection, it looks good and is made well and is also reasonably priced. But it’s also a mismatched collection of watches, some of which look great while others are a hard pass. They’re also mostly presented on leather straps, if you type “Seiko Presage” into the search bar on WristReview, you’ll see that only three of the ten Presages we’ve covered so far sport a bracelet, not including this one of course. It seems fitting, then, that Seiko decided to present to us the Presage Sharp Edged Series.
This new watch is designed to be dressy, sporty and charismatic all in one hit, which is the point I pull out the term “Smart/Casual”, you may have heard of it before. Smart/Casual watches walk the tightrope between two distinctive watch genres. On the one hand, they’re dressy in their styling, no rotating bezels or overly complicated dials or mad colour schemes. On the other hand, they’re robust, dependable and capable of doing similar things to the dedicated sports watches. The Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra or a Rolex DateJust on an Oyster bracelet are both prime examples of this unique category. The Presage Sharp Edged Series of watches fits the Smart/Casual category nicely, as it both looks elegant and has a robust 6R35 calibre in it with 100m of water resistance. The watch has a 70-hour power reserve and a 3Hz beat rate, but the calibre 6R35 can only manage a pitiful +25/-15 seconds per day accuracy rate, but you’ll probably have your phone with you anyway.
The dials of the watches have an interesting pattern on them, as most Smart/Casual timepieces do. The name for the pattern is, of course, Japanese, it’s called Japanese Asanoha which translates to ‘hemp leaf’. Traditionally used for fabric, the hemp leaf is symbolic of strong and fast growth and was thought to bring good health in Japanese culture.
The watch comes with four different coloured dials too. There’s a choice between Aitetsu (indigo iron, SPB176J1), Shironeri (unbleached silky white, SBP165J1), Tokiwa (evergreen trees, SBP169J1) or Susutake (smoked bamboo, SPB170J1). The last of those options, Susutake, comes on a leather strap instead of stainless steel bracelet, and has a rose-gold colouring to the case, though it is not rose gold. The cases of all the watches measure precisely 39.3mm in diameter and 11.1mm in thickness, correct sizing is another part of the Smart/Casual watches category.
You can see the appeal with these watches, and where they get their name from. The pointy dauphine-style hands with the precise hour markers work well on the Asanoha backdrop. The hands even have a coating of LumiBrite so you can see the watch at night. The retail price for all four models is $1000.
