Seiko Teamed Up with a Denim Brand to Create the Ultimate Affordable Casual Watch

Like a pair of blue jeans, a Seiko sports watch is always in style.

Published October 25, 2024

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One of the best things about Seiko’s 5 Sports collection — besides its affordability, good looks and robustness — is the amount of experimentation that occurs within the line through outside collaborators.

In just the past few years, we’ve seen Seiko team up with such diverse partners as Rowing Blazers, Street Fighter, and even its own fans for unique takes on Seiko 5 Sports models — all to solid acclaim.

Now, the brand has linked up with Dutch luxury jeans brand Denham for a particularly stylish take on the Seiko 5 Sports that draws heavily from the world of premium denim.

seiko watch — Using three different shades of indigo, Seiko’s new affordable watch takes lots of inspiration from the world of premium denim.

Blue Jean Baby

Denham is what I would refer to as an international denim brand. It was founded in Amsterdam in 2008 by an English jean maker, Jason Denham, and it takes inspiration from Japan’s acclaimed denim industry while also utilizing fabrics from mills in both Japan and Italy.

The new collab with Seiko is intended to be a “jeanmaker’s watch.” So what does that look like, exactly? Well, in this case, the concept is executed via some heavy use of denim-inspired indigo throughout the watch.

The dial, bezel and strap all use different shades of indigo, mimicking the traditional dye used for coloring blue jeans. The strap is particularly interesting, as it’s a nylon NATO strap — i.e., it isn’t made of denim — but it features contrasting gold stitching to really sell the blue jeans connection. Eat your heart out, Patek.

This gold-stitched pattern also shows up more subtly on the chapter ring of the dial, while the dial’s indices are filled with black lume. Black lume is notorious for its poor luminosity, but it certainly looks cool in the daytime — particularly paired with the dark indigo sunburst dial here.

The triangle index at 12 o’clock is inverted from its usual position and contains Denham’s scissor logo, which also shows up on the crown. The red seconds hand recalls the red rivets used on Denham’s jeans, and the display caseback features the brand’s slogan: The Truth Is in the Details.”

Pricing and Availability

Whether you’re into Denham or not — and, truth be told, it’s not exactly a household name — this is a pretty solid release. Blue jeans have been cool forever, and porting over some of their stylistic cues to a watch in a subtle way, like Seiko has done here, feels like a hit.

The watch combines the casual vibes of both sports watches and denim to create what might just be the ultimate casual watch. And since it’s a Seiko 5, it’s also extremely affordable. Priced at just $430 and limited to 2,000 pieces, the Seiko 5 Sports Denham Limited Edition will go on sale next month.