Seiko’s New Affordable Dress Watch Takes After One of Its Oldest Timepieces

Nuanced details make this new watch a deep cut for Seiko diehards.

close up of a watch dial with roman numeral indices

Published February 3, 2025

·

Every product is carefully selected by our editors. If you buy from a link, we may earn a commission. Learn more

Seiko’s first wristwatches didn’t come out until the 1900s. But slender, oblong Roman numerals placed inside a dashed outside track have been part of the brand’s iconography since 1895, when it started selling pocket watches.

Today, the dial pattern is a signature feature of the Presage collection but a new reference, SPB495J1, takes that heritage a step further.

A 24-hour subdial placed at six o’clock recalls a dial design dating back over a century to the company’s founding. It originally housed the seconds hand, which was typical for pocket watches in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

a seiko presage watch on a desk — Seiko’s Presage line borrows aesthetic elements from the brand’s earliest designs.

Deep time

Seikosha, as the company was initially known, spent three years developing its first pocket watch just before the turn of the century. The Time Keeper was powered by a cylinder escapement and was released in 1895. Its dial has been a point of reference for Seiko ever since.

a 1895 seiko timekeepr pocket watch — An 1895 Seikosha Time Keeper from The Seiko Museum Ginza.

That initial dial design remained unchanged until Seikosha released Japan’s first wristwatch in 1913, replacing the Roman numerals with stylized Arabic numerals. However, the proportions and layout of the subdial stayed the same through the 1930s.

Precious dials

The SPB495J1 is not the first Presage reference to use a precious material for the dial. In 2021, Seiko released a collection of watches that used dials made from Arita porcelain, a traditional Japanese craft dating back to the 1650s, as part of the Presage Craftsmanship series.

a steel seiko watch with a blue dial and roman numeral indices — The Seiko Presage SPB267 was a limited edition from 2021 that looked similar to the SPB495J1.

Several of the Arita porcelain watches used the same hands as the SPB495J1 and sported similar dials. Two used the same Roman numerals, and two had 24-hour subdials powered by the same movement. But none were as faithful to the original 1895 design.

a seiko presage watch on a man's wrist — The Seiko Presage SPB495J1 comes on a black calfskin strap with a three-fold push button clasp.

Enamel has also been used in the past for Preage dials. The SPB403 is a current reference with a more modern aesthetic. It features the same hands and curved sapphire glass as the SPB495J1, but more subtle dash indices and a five-link stainless steel bracelet.

An antique with modern specs

The Presage SPB495J1 may have an old-fashioned dial, but the rest of its specs are inversely modern. It runs on Seiko’s 6R5H movement, which is lightyears ahead of the Time Keeper with an accuracy of -15/+25 seconds per day and a three-day power reserve.

Seiko’s enamel dials are designed by Mitsuru Yokosawa, a master artisan who can apply coats as thin as 0.1 millimeters. The enamel creates a brilliant white background unmatched by any other material. The dial is housed in a case made of hard-coated stainless steel.

a silver watch with a white dial and black leather band — The dial of the Seiko Presage SPB495J1 references Seiko’s first pocket watch from 1895.

Heritage is the ethos of Seiko’s entire Prestige collection, but this is as close as the Japanese watchmaker has come to its origins. At first glance, the SPB495J1 blends in with multiple pieces in the Presage collection. That said, nuanced details make this particular watch a deep-cut ode to the brand’s history.

Availability and pricing

The Seiko Presage SPB495J1 is only available in the UK and European markets for 1,500 euros. Pre-sale is open now, and the release is coming later this month. At the time of writing, the only authorized dealers carrying it do not ship to the United States. Unfortunately, American customers will probably have to seek it out on the second-hand market.