New Seiko Monsters Spotted

A friend shared with me a rumor that the Seiko Monster will see new life with a redesigned dial and a new caliber (4R36).

Basel 2012: Underwhelmed

After owning Basel in 2011, both Seiko and Citizen left me underwhelmed this year.  Its been only one year since the earthquake and its not too hard to believe that this tragedy has had a serious impact on product development in Japan.


Here is a link to the Seiko Basel 2012 web site.

Here and here are links to the Citizen Basel 2012 web site.

Basel 2012: Seiko Astron GPS Solar SAST003 SAST009

Presenting the new Seiko Astron GPS-Solar model SAST003

Big news coming out of Tokyo this morning...... SEIKO has released their first ever GPS-Solar watch under the coveted "Astron" name. You may recall that Seiko's first quartz watch released in 1969 was named the "Astron" and ever since the name has been closely associated with the company's foray into the lucrative and game changing world of quartz timekeeping. The Astron has seen a few limited edition releases, namely in the year 2000 and most recently, in 2010, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first commercially available quartz watch. While the last 2010 "Astron" rendition was powered by the Grand Seiko caliber 9F62 thermo compensated quartz movement (Rated to 10 seconds a year accuracy), the Astron of 2012 is a slightly different animal.... Here we have GPS/Satellite atomic time synchronization and solar charging which removes the requirement for frequent battery changes.