Seiko 5 Sports "Helmet" SSA283K1 - Re-crafted from an icon, A Review (Video)

The Seiko “Helmets” of the 1970s were a series of watches that have a unique case design that lent its nickname. Built tall with long sloping sides, it has some semblance to the German World War Two M1935 steel helmet. It is also sometimes known as the “Vader” of the Star Wars fame.

Recently, Seiko re-crafted a series of new models with similar line to the 1970s “Helmet” models. This set is placed in the Seiko 5 Sports line and has the designation of “SSA”. There are 5 models to choose from; SSA281, SSA283, SSA284, SSA285, SSA287 and SSA289. The first three models come with bracelets while the last three modes come with patterned NATO canvas straps.

My choice is the SSA283K1. The “K1” designation means that it is made in Malaysia. As highlighted earlier, this watch comes with the “SSA” nomenclature. Based on Seiko’s coding system, this watch is deemed to be “Enhanced” and is typical under Seiko’s Superior line of watches. However, the same nomenclature is also accorded to models under the Seiko 5 Sports series. Typical Seiko 5 with the newer 4R movements are usually referred with the “SRP” nomenclature.

Athaya Vintage AV001R:Type B Limited Edition Automatic Pilot Watch - A True Pilot Watch of an Bygone Era, A Review

My first love has always been dive watches. In my collection, the bulk of the watches comes from that particular genre (Click the following links for the list: http://easternwatch.blogspot.my/search/label/Diver & http://westernwatch.blogspot.my/search/label/Diver). However, in the last year or so, my interest has started to shift towards pilot watches.

As you know, I bought a watch from Athaya Vintage last year, the Athaya Vintage AV002 Lamafa Diver Watch. I was quite impressed with the watch, especially the price. A few months ago, Athaya Vintage announced a plan to relaunch its first offering, the AV001R Pilot watch subject to possible design changes. Subsequently, Athaya Vintage conducted a market survey and the majority of those surveyed wanted something similar apart from a better movement, better luminous paint and real heat-treated blue hands.

This latest incarnation has been given the reference AV001R. The additional "R" in the reference denotes a 're-issue' from the original model. This time around only 60 pieces will be made (original AV001 was 100 unites).

Like the Athaya Vintage AV002 Lamafa Diver Watch which is a close homage to the famous Seiko 6105 diver watch, the AV001R is also a homage of the classic German-style pilot watch (or known as 'flieger') produced by Laco and Stowa until the end of World War 2. For short history lesson on the B-Uhr watches, go to the end of this posting for more information.

Orient Star Retro Future Car Concept Automatic Power Reserve Blue Chapter Ring Skeleton Watch YFHAB001D - A square watch, bit pricey but wears comfortably, A Review

Under the premium line of Orient Star, there is a sub-line of watches called the Retro Future Series that is unique that set it aside from other lines under the Orient brand. Orient designers incorporate 1950′s industrial motifs, combining past and future into contemporary timepieces. This allowed the watches under this series to be designed outside the contemporary norm of a ‘typical’ wristwatch. Hence, the word “Retro” in the name that gives an insight to the philosophy behind the series.


Unfortunately, this freedom of design does produce some examples that do not conform to everyone’s taste. Nevertheless, this is the sort of reaction which the series was meant to get, a form of anti-establishment of a rebellious nature. What makes it more interesting is that it comes from a watchmaker from Japan, a country well-known for conformity.

Of all the Retro Future models available, I prefer the “Car Concept”. The most obvious aspect of this watch is its square shaped casing. The square-like shape is characteristic of 1950s design cars. Some other unique classic car-inspired designs on this model include the steering wheel-like skeleton eye, the speedometer-like seconds sub-dial, the automatic gear gauge-like power reserve indicator and the stainless steel band that recalls the textures of a whitewall Goodyear tire.

The model which I required is the blue chapter-ring version (there are two other versions available, red and black). Both the casing and the bracelet are made out of stainless steel with parts of it with either polished or brushed surfacing. The width of the watch, excluding crown, is 42 mm and its lug-to-lug width is 54 mm. Coupled with the height of the watch at 14 mm, this watch does have an obvious wrist presence. Its bracelet design, although standard in dimension to fit into the lug width of 22 mm, is unique enough to increase the wrist presence even more.

Grand Seiko GMT Green Dial Spring Drive Limited Edition SBGE033 (SBGE033G) - An excellent timepiece, A Review and Video

My first watch purchase for 2016 is this Grand Seiko GMT Spring Drive Limited Edition SBGE033 which has a beautiful green dial. This watch was specially made in honour of the 55th anniversary of the Grand Seiko, the most famous premier line for the Seiko Watch Company.


Grand Seiko quietly released this sporty new GMT watch, the SBGE033 without the fanfare it had with the 62GS Historical Collection back in 2015. This subtle marketing strategy is very common with  Seiko. The Company believes it is unnecessary to promote an excellent product. The product will naturally promote itself, if it was designed and made to impress by its sheer effectiveness and quality.

I believe this is one of the only few sporty watches under the Grand Seiko line of watches (excluding dive watches). Granted there are a lot of GMT Grand Seikos but this is the only one with a contrasting chapter ring colour compared to the dial (white on green). It also has luminous hands and markers which are not seen before on its GMT watches.

Apart from the GMT hand, there are two other additional complications such as a date function in an aperture at 3 o'clock and power reserve indicator located near the 7 o'clock position.

It is powered by the in-house 9R66 caliber, the GMT version of the Seiko's Spring Drive Technology 9R65 movement. More about this later.

The case is made of stainless steel. With a 41 mm diameter case, the surface has been given a special hand finishing technique known as Zaratsu. Only 500 examples of this watch were made.

Seiko Prospex SRP773 Turtle Diver - A beautiful case; Similar to the SRP775, SRP777 and SRP779, A Review

I have been following the progress of Seiko dive watches for some time now. I have in my collection quite a number of Seiko divers (you can view them here: http://easternwatch.blogspot.co.id/p/blog-page_4.html). However, it is one model of Seiko diver that I have not been able to get, the 6105, or more affectionately known as the "Turtle Diver".

Granted, it is still possible to get one in the secondary market but I try to keep my collection from pre-owned pieces. However, I am still open to homage pieces. For the 6309/6105, I got a homage by Athaya Vintage, the AV002 Lamafa.

For the last two years, Seiko have started to reissue (more like reinterpret) some of its classic models for the modern collector. This is very exciting for collectors such as myself as it gives me an opportunity to get watches that are no longer in production (Here are some of them which I was able to collect - SBEX001G, SNKN45K1 and SNKM79K1).

In November 2015, Seiko announced a modern reinterpretation of the classic turtle divers of the 1960s and 1970s. The reissue is more akin to the original 6309 than the 6105. More about it later.

Help support this blog!

From a career perspective, I have been a statistician since 1990. A financial analyst since 1994 and financial engineer since 2008. My love for horology only became full-bloom since 2010. On October 2013, I created this blog http://easternwatch.blogspot.com/ to write and document all the watches I own (and will own). I decided to operate this blog to share the beauty and wonders of watch collecting. 

At the moment the watches I bought to document on this blog is purely self funded. If anyone likes to contribute to help subsidize (even a little) of the purchase price of a new watch, it would really be a great help to me. I am currently averaging one (1) new watch a month. Since I started blogging, I have review 55 watches (@October 2015), an average of two (2) watches a month.

If you like to contribute some funds to help me in future purchases, you can contribute via the payment gateway provided by PayPal (see below):

Any contributions is appreciated!

Seiko Prospex 200m Diver SRP637 (or SRP637K or SRP637K1) Shrouded Black Monster (a.k.a. Monster Tuna) - A modern transformation of the original Monster to something bigger and stylish, A Review

I just love the metallic shrouds on high end Seiko dive watches. I have collected three shrouded diver examples from Seiko over the years; the SBDX011 ‘Emperor Tuna’, the SRP653 ‘Baby Tuna’ and the SUN019P1 'Vader-Tuna-Turtle' (although I got another shrouded watch from Seiko, the SBDC011 Fieldmaster is not a diver hence the reason I excluded it from the list). A few years ago, Seiko incorporated the shrouded concept to the Monster series with the launch of the SRP233, SRP234 and SRP236. However, what put me off from looking into that series further was the fact that the shroud was made out of plastic. Nevertheless, the price point and size were just nice to be able to be an affordable and wearable wristwatch to many people.


This year, Seiko answered the request by its legion of fans to come out with a new series of shrouded Monsters by introducing the SRP637, SRP639 and SRP641 series. This time around the shroud is made out of metal! What makes it even more special is that it has been upgraded to be under the Prospex series of professional tool watches.

I immediately made the necessary inquiries to get the best price possible from some of my trusted suppliers. However, the demand was so great that the initial consignment for Malaysia was sold out in a matter of weeks. As it was also the same time since the introduction of GST into the country, I was not willing to get a unit from my overseas suppliers as I was not comfortable yet with the new custom rules and procedures for imports. So, I waited for the supply to catch up with demand.

After a few months I finally got my hands on the Seiko SRP637. The watch is sizable. It comes with a diameter of 47.5 mm (excluding crown) and a lug-to-lug distance of 50 mm. Coupled with a thickness of 14 mm, the watch makes it presence obvious on one’s wrist.

Orient Automatic Flight - Aviation Type Pilot - CER2A003 (CER2A or ER2A series) Black Dial - Value for Money Pilot Watch, A Review

I bought a watch from Solar Time Sunway Pyramid over the weekend. It has been a few months since I indulged in acquiring a new watch. The watch that I got was the Orient Automatic Flight - Aviation Type Pilot - CER2A003.

Orient acknowledges that this is homage to the classic Pilot’s watch. Instead of being too stylish or try to put in their version of what constitute a Pilot’s watch, Orient’s version is a very simple watch. Apart from a date window, the watch has Arabic numerals and three hands. The dial has three scales; the outer scale has minute markers, the middle scale in the traditional Pilot’s watch numbering and the inner ring reads time on an hour scale.

If I was a pilot of yesteryear, the primary complication I need on a pilot watch would be either a countdown timer or a chronograph. This will allow a pilot (without the benefit of radio way-points and GPS satellite navigation) to accurately measure imaginary way-points in the sky by just using timing at specific speeds and direction. This particular complication is not provided by this model and as such, the only benefit it gives to a pilot is the legibility of the information. In this regard, this Orient model is very legible. Even in a dark environment the watch is legible. Luminescent material has been applied to every numeral on the outer ring including the primary markers, in addition to the hour and minute hands.

My Orient M-Force (or MForce) Collection - Varied but useful to a lot of users

A sub-brand of Orient that I have built a small collection with is the M-Force line. Currently I have three models (from L to R) the blue dial WV0021, the red dial WV0091E and the black dial DV01002B. 

Interestingly, all three models (they were produced one after the other) have different design philosophies. It is a very interesting study on the thought process within the design team in Orient. For a start, let us list out the major differences for these particular models.

	WV0021	WV0091E	DV01002B
Material	Stainless steel	Stainless steel	Titanium
Size	46 mm	47 mm	47 mm
Movement (Caliber)	40N5A	40N5A	4075A
Power reserve indicator & location	Yes, at 1 o'clock	Yes, at 6 o'clock	None
Crown location	At 4 o'clock	At 9 o'clock	At 3 o'clock
Date window location	At 9 o'clock	At 3 o'clock	At 3 o'clock
Primary markers	Flat-top obelisk markers in two sizes	Rectangle and round markers	Flat-top obelisk and rectangle markers plus Arabic numerals

In my personal view, if there is a need to reduce or drop a complication for a newer model design, I would drop the date window. For me, I get more value out of the power reserve indicator than the date window. Let's face it, once you know the date, in the next 24 hours, that date would not change regardless of how many times you refer back to it. On the other hand, the power reserve indicator tells you how many hours left before the watch stops functioning - this is a more important information in my view. I was therefore surprised that Orient decided to drop the power reserve indicator on the DV01002B.

Despite the almost random changes in successive models, am important factor remains - all three models (including the latest M-Force which is not in my collection) are still in production. This means that the general idea of the many options available is to fulfill practically everyone needs and wants. For example, the WV0091E would be better suited for those that like to wear their wristwatch on their right hand. For those that don't like a weighty watch, the DV01002B would be a good choice due to its lightness.

From a manufacturing point of view, a very complicated stock balancing system would have to be incorporated to ensure the stocks are available based on the demand. Since Orient continues to sustain the manufacture of these models, the demand for all three models must be consistent and justifies the manufacturing lines.

Movement: The Miyota 8205/8215 automatic

The Miyota 8215 (and its other variants such as the 8205) is a Japanese automatic wristwatch movement that is used by many watch makers. Miyota is part of the Citizen group of companies.

The Miyota 8215 is a non-hacking twenty-one (21) jewel three-hand with date movement with a uni-directional winding system (left rotation) with an accuracy of -20 to +40 seconds per day, and a power reserve of over 40 hours. The diameter of the movement is 26 mm and the thickness is 5.67 mm. It beats at 21,600 BPH or 3 Hz (6 half-cycles per second).

Below are some technical information useful for the understanding of the movement.

The specification of the Miyota 8205/15/0A/1A movement by Meor Amri

Blueprint of the Miyota 8215/821A movement by Meor Amri

Spare parts reference for the Miyota 8205/8215 movement by Meor Amri

My watches that uses the movement (or its variants) are:

1. MWF-Gruppo Gamma LE Watch; 
2. Citizen Promaster Autozilla 1000m Titanium Divers Watch NH6930-09F (NH6931-06E);
3. Citizen NY0040 200m Promaster Diver; and
4. Citizen Automatic NY602151E Divers' Watch 

I have not had any problems with the mechanism throughout the years. From a practical point of view, the accuracy is more then sufficient for normal timekeeping duties although some may argue its 'lack' of accuracy compared to other movements from Switzerland and Japan.