It’s no secret: Seiko has been doing a bad job of managing their product line for ages. They discontinued favorites like SKX and SARB/SARX, pushed prices up to the breaking point, and generally seem to have lost their way. But there’s hope at Seiko, a shining ray of hope.
The Seiko Prospex Speedtimer Mechanical Chronograph comes in two models, SRQ035, and SRQ037. As the name says, the movement is an automatic mechanical chronograph.
The movement is the 8R46, equipped with a column wheel and vertical clutch, with 45 hours of power reserve. The left subdial has a 30 minutes accumulator, and the right subdial is the running seconds. The central chronograph seconds records time in 1/4 second intervals.
For SRQ035, The white dial is marked with seconds at the 10, 20, 40, 50, and 60 marks. The cardinal 3-6-9 are used for subdials and a date at 6. Lume dots are present at the hour markers. The chapter ring for the watch bears the tachymeter scale.
The pushers are large, and do not screw down. It’s unclear if the crown screws down, but the whole thing is water resistant to 100m.
SRQ037 uses a charcoal dial with black subdials. Instead of numerals marking the dial, there are applied metal markers with rectangular lume plots. The hands are dauphin style with large triangular lume.
Both models are worn on a stainless 3 link bracelet with semi-oval links. The best way of thinking of these two is that 035 pays homage to the 1964 Seiko 1/5th seconds stopwatch, while 037 draws on the best of Seiko’s 1970s work. 037 is a permanent part of Seiko’s collection, and is priced at 3000 EUR. The 035 is a limited model, made in 1000 pieces, and will be priced at 3200 EUR. Both will be available in November 2021, in Seiko boutiques and at Seikowatches.com
