From a gentleman in Switzerland. Pics do not do it justice, the colours and reflections constantly change between subtle and spectacular, bright and dark, like is always the case with the Akebono pattern in these Sharp Edged Presage Seikos. I love these watches, from the face pattern and colours to the form of the case and the quality of the heavy braclet. Thats why I have now four of these, three standard in red, gree and purple, and a GMT in blue. When I think "men's watches", I think of these.
The black steel bracelet brings the dial to shine. Maybe the dial purple-gold would not work if it were a simple grey steel, but with this Darth Vader appearance it looks - well, surprisingly sporty, I did not expect that, thought of it as a 100% dress watch. It isn't. The gold is not overdone, its rose-gold and toned down a very bit in colour, sometimes its almost silver. Its perfect. A highlight in my little collection. But it certainly catches more attention than my other Sharp Edge watches.
The callibre of these watches however is mediocre, its robust, but difficult to callibrate, the watches leave factory with way to much lack of precision for this price class (1000 for Sharp Edges, 1450-1600 for GMTs). Thats what one needs to know with modern Seiko Automatics: you pay mostly for design and looks and brand name, not for the callibre. The design often is superior, market-leading. The mechanical and with some of their watch lines the crystal quality is not up to the demanded prices. Thats why Seiko's reputation is in a slide, since years. To me, its obviously worth it, I am about the colours and reflections. But I can perfectly understand if somebody says that for these prices he demands also better mechanical quality. I think especially of the normal Presage Cocktail Times, costing around 450-600 coins - often showing failing QC and offering not even Sapphire crystals. But with the four Sharp Edge watches I now have (and these have Sapphi glass), all was and is well, I just had to callibrate two of them, and that was a PITA. They are the reason why I learned how to callibrate, and how to use a timegrapher. The procedure is simple, but hitting the right spot is difficult, is trial and error and works worse than with other callibres, even with timegraphers. They also loose their callibration over time, I must redo it once per year. Personally, I am satisfied with anythign form -10 to +10 secs per day (mind you, I talk automatics, not quartz). I get them to even half those values, but for Seiko they already do fine with -15 to +25 secs per day - that is unacceptable for this price range of 1000-1600 Euros.
Still, this Darth Vader edition is a fantastic aquisition!
The Swiss gentleman even took the effort to cross the border and send it via German DHL, this way he saved me over 220 coins in customs, VAT and logistics fees. The watch is practically new, not much worn, less than one year old, I got it 20% below Seiko's listed price. Its a limited edition and practically no longer available as "factory-new". Japanese watch makers do limited editions inflationary, to push prices and because Japanese seem to love to own items of limited editions, it gives them a sense of owning exclusiveness but at affordable costs, so was the explanation I once red. Seiko almost abuses this, they constantly release "limited editions". This black watch was produced 2000 times. Not that exclusive at all, I would say.
I own another limited item, the red Blood Moon Sharp Edge, my favourite watch. It too looks fantastic and does magic to the colour "red".
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