I’m only giving this watch five stars because the Serious Watches service was exceptional, 10/10 through and through. They even included some Netherlands food in my parcel.

Now onto the watch itself. I own a very first gen Seiko Sumo, reference SBDC001 from 2011. This early watch predates the “Prospex” branding of today, which Seiko used to move upmarket. But this SPB343J1 right there is premium Prospex juice. Or is it?

First, it has a Sapphire crystal. A very rare occurrence at Seiko. Then, a beautiful mix of colors, between bezel, dial and the included (thank god) rubber strap. Super soft rubber with beautiful ion-plated hardware. Quite a step up from the bracelet, but I’ll get back to that. The Lumibrite is beautiful.

But then, you start to notice some glaring cost-cutting stuff that should have no business being on a watch of this level.

First, the caseback. On my 15-year-old SBDC001, everything there is fully engraved. But on this SPB343J1, Seiko LASER ETCHED every single piece of text. Laser etching is the single cheapest form of putting text on a caseback. It has no relief or grooves to it, when you put finger to it it’s just a smooth surface. It’s also likely to fade after years of daily wear. Last time I’ve seen this was on a 98€ Lorus from Amazon: not great but understandable. However, for a limited run of 500 serious watches like here, using this technique to engrave all text including the serial number XXX/500 is laughable.

Then we have the bracelet. I know Seiko bracelets are usually so awful, that people built entire businesses out of selling aftermarket Seiko bracelets (to new owners).

But I wanted to give this one a try, to have a little faith and to not cross-shop at Strapcode this time. I like the murdered-out look, plus the only black Strapcode for Sumo is DLC, meaning not the same black coating as the ion-plating we have here. And upon unboxing, it is indeed rather nice, with a mix of brushed & polished black surfaces. But Seiko had one last trick up its sleeve to ruin everything still: Pins & collars.

I wasn’t expecting screw pins from Seiko: I know better. Push pins it is. Except it wasn’t, in fact, push pins.

I’ve seen a lot of bad things in my numerous years of watch collecting. Bad ideas, bad designs, bad quality, but this takes the cake. This system isn’t just bad, it’s EVIL. It serves no purpose except for you to have the worst resizing experience, ever. If you do lose one collar, well where I live that’s 27 euros a pop.

After hours of turning my workshop into a sweatshop, I managed to add the last 2 links to have the bracelet to my size. But even then, wearing it would mean dealing with the anxiety of having pins or collars falling off without me noticing, and then before I know it the watch is on the pavement.

I’ve salvaged the original Seiko clasp from the god awful bracelet (and tossed the rest), since it can apparently be installed on the Strapcode DLC (which is now on the way). Having a little faith in Seiko bracelets is mistake I won't be repeating in this lifetime. While waiting for the Strapcode, the included rubber strap will serve this watch much better than the original bracelet ever could.

A beautiful and capable professional watch, but with despicable cost-cutting decisions that would already look bad on a watch half the price. It’s crazy that Seiko can still get away with this. I’m not sure any other brand could.

Thanks Serious Watches for the Serious Service, especially to John for making this happen. I’m still very happy with the watch despite all this!