u/matyidenisz

Repairing a puncture of my bike 🙂

Hi everybody! I'm so glad to finally be a part of generally watch and Seiko in particular comminities, 2 days ago pulled the trigger and bought my first watch, it is the Seiko SRPD55K1. Previously I only had smartwatches from Amazfit and a Garmin currently.
Well, not entirely, I also had a few dollars knock-off quartz watch with a Volkswagen logo, but it doesn't count :D

Adding a little context: I've been fully into watches topic for the last month. I spent every day learning about watches, watching videos, interviews, reading reddit and so on. I'll omit the path of how exactly I can to this choise throghout that journey, before the purchase, I knew that it likely should be a Seiko. Seiko seemed to me like a wise choice, it has great quality, has some heritage, has a great community, a lot of spare details, modding, warranty network and stuff.

Initially I was thinking of a Seiko 5 DressKX after all the reviews and chats with Gemini, though for the last few days I started also thinking about a seiko field watch, noticed a few of them in Reddit :). Anyways, I was walking in a Mall nearby and absolutely accidentally noticed a seiko boutique. I wasn't dressed appropriately to walk in, actually it felt very stressful to step in, I was feeling like I would be judged or kind of rated by the dealers. It wasn't the case actually. I went in, I had a really great chat with the seller. I got a really big surprise seeing the watches in life. They are absolutely different from what you see on the photos. The DressKX, kind of obviously as of now, turned out to be much more elegant. I thought of it as the ultimate GADA watch, but after I saw it I knew right away that I wouldn't be able to wear it everywhere. The watch was screaming that it should be worn with a nice suit or at least a white shirt. Controversially, I wasn't considering much the SRPD, I was thinking it will be a big watch, it's 42.5mm and my garmin was 43mm(which was at the highest end of acceptable dimensions for me). Nonetheless, I tried the SRPD, the lug size really matters. It looks and feels just right. I tried the black one and the blue srpd. Tried the DressKX as I mentioned, tried the smaller version of SRPD, I don't really remember the ref number, but it is mentioned here often, ~38mm version. And it looked really small on my hand, so I returned to the black and blue srpd. I can exlain this feeling only like the watch was literally speaking to me, the watch was screaming that it's the right one, that I could wear it with literally everything, everywhere.

I checked some other brends too out of curiosity, like tissot and longines, but basically I just surrendered and bought the SRPD55k1 and I am enjoying it alot :)

The price was quite big, 127000 HUF(~410 USD), but I didn't mind it much. I knew that if I bought it used or cheaper somewhere else, I wouldn't feel right and I was afraid of buying a Feiko. I wanted a genuine piece that would be mine and only mine.

I received all the certificated for warranty(and btw the dealer made a mistake there, the case no was wrong, I returned next day and the documents were replaced). Btw, I saw in some posts that people were saying that silica gels inside the box are a sign of fake, but i had it in the genuine box, The AD was listed as a premium seiko partner, so I doubt it's fake.

An interesting observation is that previously the serial number would be decodable, so you could know the manufacturing date, but my watch serial starts from a letter D. I read that it's legit and such cases started happening since 2024. Does anybody know how to decode the serial now? And do I need to register the watch somewhere additionally?

My piece also has English + Kanji day complication.

Regarding the watches, they really shine great. The SRPD online looks absolutely dull and flat, but in reality, the mix of brushed and polished surfaces is just right. It is suitable for everything and looks just great. And the rotating bezel.. My first experience was really weird and confusing. It felt like it's glued, but it turns very roughly and clicky, which I didn't quite expect.

Anyways, I just wanted to share my experience, I've written here a much longer story, but removed it as it's a little off-seiko topic, rather just my journey into watches.

By the way, how do you guys take your time to appreciate your watches? It's been only 1-2 days, but I already have the itch and a lot of sounds in the head like what if I bought the wrong size, what if the 38 mm version would fit better, what if this black color is actually not the one I should have bought and so on. Basically just bought and looking further exploring options, which is definitely wrong and I am absolutely not willing to be spending and replacing this watch.

And one more observation, the diver dial is so (confusing?). I am struggling to read the time from it a lot :shy:
Maybe if it had the numbers at 3 6 9 12, it would make it easier. I know how to read the time on analogue watches obviously, but it is really wear, I look at the dial and confuse the hour marks a lot, is it a thing even here, has anybody else experienced this?

And from what I noticed, the accuracy is around +4 seconds a day (including a 20 km gravel ride).
Do you guys cycle with mechanical watches btw?

And one more question, how much do you trust the water resistance? I know that the 100m is not quite 100m. But do you go swimming with not fear with the watch? Could you jump into water from 2-5 meters? and so on

Thanks for everyone's attention who has read to this point.