Seiko Landmaster SBDX007 Automatic Chronograph Review

Cazalea presents an in-depth profile of the Seiko Landmaster SBDX007, a robust automatic chronograph designed for adventurers and daily wear alike. This installment of the Seiko Profile series highlights the watch's tool-watch characteristics and enduring quality, offering valuable insights for collectors interested in Seiko's exploration-oriented timepieces. The author's long-term ownership experience adds a practical dimension to the review.

This installment of our SEIKO PROFILE series will cover the Seiko Landmaster (or Land Master) automatic chronograph. This Landmaster SBDX007 was aimed at explorers, mountain climbers, trekkers, fast drivers and regular old guys who don’t do extreme sports. This line of watches encompasses (pun intended) models with a bezel styling which features points of the compass.

I have had a kinetic Landmaster and a rare barometric/altitude indicating quartz Landmaster. I’ve gone after several other models, including ones with colored dials and/or ceramic bezels, but have never succeeded in "landing" one (pun intended).

It's definitely intended to be a tool watch, featuring beefy, smooth surfaces, drilled lugs for thick spring bars, screw-down crown, etc.

My watch shows surprisingly little wear considering it's titanium and I've worn it frequently for almost 8 years.

This Landmaster watch has features to interest most watch enthusiasts, including:

hardened bezel with compass degree markings

titanium case with solid back and bracelet

easily visible, luminous hands

sapphire crystal

screwdown crown

water resistance to 20 BAR

weight of about 100g on strap

The sharply-serrated, complex-shaped bezel must be removed to lift the movement out of the front of the case. I will not be doing that for this PROFILE, sorry.

In keeping with the Landmaster theme of exploration, the solid caseback is prepared for engraving the owner’s name, blood type, nationality and birth date. Just in case his body is found at the bottom of a crevasse …

This Landmaster Automatic has a Seiko 8L35 movement -- essentially a 9S55 Grand Seiko automatic movement with a bit less decoration. Here’s the 9S55 in my white titanium automatic Grand Seiko.

Although the 8L35 features 23 jewels and the same architecture as the GS movement, it is not adjusted in 6 positions nor tested for 17 days. Nevertheless, it's a nice movement that has 50 hours of power reserve and lots of muscle for swinging large, heavy hands around the dial. (Picture borrowed from the web)

Speaking of the dial, I love its look. Something about it really appeals to me - the hour, minute and second indicators are "hand"some (pun intended?).  There is a bit of irregularity on the edges of the minute hand, but it's nothing I've ever seen before taking these close shots with angled lighting.

The applied luminous markers are large and bright at night, or even in the daytime. I took this shot in our laundry room after holding the watch for 2 minutes in direct sunlight.

Like many other of my Seikos, this watch came on a bracelet. I prefer to wear it on a sting ray strap that complements the intricate bezel, but I located the bracelet for this post. Here's what the watch was intended to look like.

The solid titanium end links fit the case tightly (it's just resting here for the photograph). Five-segment links are nicely brushed, with an interesting pattern of shapes. The titanium buckle is better than the one on my Flightmaster, because it contains a micro-adjusting feature in the clasp. Here is the Landmaster buckle:

And here is the Flightmaster's simpler clasp:

It's considered a Prospex watch in the Seiko hierarchy, so the supporting materials and packaging get the job done with no nonsense or luxury. I'd love to show you a current photo, but I seem to have misplaced the boxes. Here's what they looked like back in 2006...