Seiko 5 Sports SNZG15J1 field watch

[GMT-Explorer]

I recently acquired a Seiko 5 Sports SNZG15J1 field watch as a "beater" to substitute for my Rolex watches while rock hounding, to prevent further scratches to their stainless steel bracelets, where scrambling over rock ledges, etc., while collecting specimens in the field.

I believe the accuracy specification on this 23-jewel automatic (7s36 caliber) is -20/+40 seconds/day. Any watch that delivered even half of that deviation would be unacceptable to me. I was led to believe, however, that even for this entry-level automatic mechanical watch, Seiko does a reasonable job of regulation, straight from the factory. And it certainly seems so . . .

Much to my surprise, this piece has been losing only 2-3 seconds per day, quite repeatably. This is well within the COSC chronometer specification at a fraction of the cost of my Rolex watches!

I have always preferred a watch to be slightly fast - if impossible to regulate dead on - because it then is a simple thing to pull out the crown and wait for the correct time, without disturbing the relative position of the seconds hand to the other hands for any watch with hacking. This low-end Seiko, however, does not have hacking and so, being slightly slow is actually desirable because it is a simple thing to pull the crown and slightly advance the hands to eliminate the error while visually matching the seconds and minutes hands to their respective indices on the chapter ring, albeit on the fly.

I couldn’t be happier with this watch, especially for the ~$140 USD price tag. Despite buying this watch for a beater, I’ve since added a black/red leather band and deployant clasp. It’s a nice watch, as it turns out, and has day-date complication which is absent from my Rolex pieces. I won't be foregoing my favorite Rolex for the Seiko, but I will definitely be wearing this "field watch" more often than just in the field!

Regards,
GMT-Explorer