Seiko

Or perhaps led by "watch-buying guilt" to contemplate a set of watches that include someone besides yourself.

Did you start with two-tone Rolex Datejusts?  Or perhaps could it have been the Father - Son Big Pilot set by IWC? 

As seen on Wrist Scan this morning ( at 6 am! ) here are a pair of Seiko Sports 150 watches in matching blue and gold.

Here is a look at the inexpensive Seiko sports watch movement, known as 5H23A

This is the equivalent in Mrs C's watch, the 3Y03 movement.

After changing both batteries, I managed to get them set to the second (see below for the serendipitous photo of my satellite clocks) and 10 hours later as I write this, they are still in sync.

Both watches have day date displays, and you can see those two wheels are slightly different colors (consistently, on each watch). The date has a lighter brighter background. You can see that my wife has worn hers more and scratched up the blue-anodized bezel/retainer. 

I have taken hers apart several times and cleaned sand out of the bezel ratchet. PE teachers are tough on watches!

The SEIKO QUARTZ SPORTS 150 labeling is identical with the Hers fonts being proportionately smaller than His.The lume is fairly weak and under a loupe it appears to be deteriorating.

Although the watches have a bit of a dated look styling wise, they do feature good readability, very comfortable straps, rotating bezels, reasonable size (38 mm and 29 mm by 10 mm thick). Like many Seiko models, they have the crown at 4 o'clock instead of 3 o'clock -- perhaps to keep the day/date area of the movement free from interference with the stem and setting mechanism.

The serial numbers reveal that these watches were made in December, 1987. They are more than 25 years old - that's a shock. A search of the web turned up the original price was about $400 for the men's watch.

I decided it might be nice to photograph these watches on the counter where the rest of the Seiko portfolio has resided, so here we have some views of them together.

Here's a look at the stainless steel, screw-on case backs. The wave design in the center indicates the 150M water resistance (15 bar).

Here you can see the gold-tone crowns, bezel and hold-down screws. The crystals are slightly domed on both watches. Each has a crown guards.

The bottom of the case and the blue-toned retainer are made of "base metal". From this angle you can see that the Hers watch is not just a smaller version of the His watch. The blue retainer has a different shape.

We can take our comparison out to the end of the strap(s) where we see that both of them have flexible blue rubber, a double-bar, sliding retainer and a stainless steel buckle. 

The larger buckle is more generously labeled, since they had more room on which to write...  Very unusually, both straps have 9 adjusting holes, so anyone can get a good fit without having to punch holes of their own.

In an extremely helpful way, Seiko also documents the brand, location, and size (10 or 18 mm)  of the strap with this molded in label. The wavy portion of the strap contributes a modest amount of stretch which makes the watch comfortable to wear all day long.

Here's a final look on the counter.

And a final look at the pair under real daylight

Cheers

Cazalea

PS - we DO NOT have matching Hawaiian shirts

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