Thursday, October 31, 2013

Seiko 5 SNKL07K1 - It Is A Hardy Design And The Accuracy Is Surprisingly Good; A Review

Having going deep into the watch collection hobby, I realised that I don't have in my collection a model using the classic Seiko workhorse movement the 7S26 caliber. As I am only interested to have in my collection the caliber itself, I decided to search for a simple watch. I found it in the form of the Seiko 5 SNKL07K1.

The standard watch came with a stamped  steel bracelet. If you have been used to solid bracelets, the one that came with this watch was atrociously yukky. I quickly replayed it with a black Nato strap. More about this later. 


This is how the watch looks like straight from the box.
The watch is 38 mm wide with an 20 mm wide lug in an all stainless steel construction. The crown is a simple push-in located at the 3 o'clock position and like all Seiko 5, it comes with day and date functions. The hands are luminous silver tone and the marker are luminous as well. The dial is dark blue in colour.



The crystal used in the Seiko proprietary manufactured Hardlex material. The case-back is see-through and uses the same Hardlex material.

For completeness, although I have not added any photos of the original stamped bracelet, it uses the push button deployment clasp system.  

The day function has a choice of either English or Roman numbers.


Note the slight bunching of the Nato strap at the lugs. Unfortunately, I only had a 22 mm wide Nato strap. If you want to replace the bracelet, take note of the size.

Note the Roman numbers used for the day function in the photo above.

At the outer rim of the dial, a more detail marking system using both Arabic and indexes are used. Every minute is further broken down to 1/3 of a minute.

The thickness of the watch is approximately 10.5 mm. In the photo below, the crown is simple without any markings and protected by metal shoulders. You can also see the crystal is protruding slightly above the bezel. Any side swipe will hit the crystal first before the bezel could protect it. So just be weary.


The lack of a screw-down crown meant this watch has a water rating of just 30 meters. Adjusting the functions and time is easy. Pull the crown out from the rest position to the first position. Turning the crown clock-wise changes the date and counter-clock-wise changes the day. Pull the crown a second time and it will be in the second position and from here, users can adjust the time.

The 7S26 caliber provided with this model is a 21 jewel movement design. Whole designed and manufactured by Seiko. This model is a basic caliber and does not have hand-winding nor second-hand hacking capabilities. The main springs gather energy by the movement of the watch. From a complete dead position, you need to shake the watch to life.

The power reserve is approximately between 24 to 30 hours only.

This watch is unbelievably cheap. Despite the cheapness, it is a hardy design and the accuracy is surprisingly good. It is definitely a good piece if you want to get your kids interested in mechanical watches.

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