Hey Guys!!
I've been collecting vintage digital watches for over 20 years now, but one thing I have not really done until now is purchase something truely, well, new. I got the urge a few years ago when I saw all the reivews of Seiko's EPD watch, especially so after the positive reviews and great photos from our own forum member Huertecilla really made me want to go out and get one for myself. Unfortunately the cost was just a bit too high for me to justify at the time and I had always hoped for perhaps a used one to show up that I could afford. In the meantime I purchased a Phosphor E-ink watch to satisfy my curiosity for E-ink as a watch technology and was impressed with what possibilities there were with this new type of display technology.
Fast forward two years and I came across these Limited edition Seiko EPD watches featuring some Anime from Lupin the 3rd and Golgo 13. Both of which were characters I remembered in my youth, Lupin was featured in a 1983 Laser Disc Arcade game called "Cliff Hanger" as well as an Anime movie called "The Count of Monte Cristo" and Golgo 13 I remembered as a NES game in the late 80's.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, here's some videos of the Cliff Hanger arcade machine, and how the game plays out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5MKWJ7j6Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tQqf8nciH0&feature=related
Oh, the memories of the old Laserdisc games!! Groups of us kids and teenagers crowded around arcade machines wanting to see and play the latest games we could find, and break the scoring records of our buddies and enemies... Good times!! Especially for me seeing and playing Cliff Hanger in the early 80's at the local mall our grandparents brought us to see really brought back memories. Also adding to the urge was the fact that these new EPD watches were lower cost than the Seiko Brightz I had yearned for just a few short years ago.
It didn't take long, a few days of research and I had made my choice for the Lupin the 3rd EPD watch, the SBPA007J model.
Upon recieving it the other day, I liked the black hard coating and the smooth metal bracelet, and the simple squared tv look of the face of the watch. I also liked that the face wasn't cluttered in any way, only the simple, elegently stated "SEIKO" label at the top of the display. One thing I noticed is that with this newer EPD module, it seems Seiko changed the font of the simple time and date display from the Brightz model. The digits were a little more thinner and in a different font than the Seiko Brightz epd.
Another feature I liked was the second time display that showed very large digits, without the shading effect that the Seiko Brightz had. For me, this modified second display helped make the watch more readable under certain lower light conditions without having to use the LED lights on the watch.
But the 3rd time display is what sold me for this watch. Each hour is illustrated with some of the Lupin the 3rd characters, something that's unique and fun to have displayed when you want to get conversations started!
I can't say too much about the quality of the radio timekeeping and solar power usage, as aside from a few changes to how the module displays things it seems to be identical to the Seiko Brightz module, with this Seiko Spirit though, it seems the font stayed the same as Brightz with the world time function, but the nice globe displaying the city in the Brightz has been replaced by a more simple flat map on the left side of the screen. I preferred the globe in the Brightz though lol.
The watch will count seconds just like the Brightz model, but only for a minute at a time. Then you have to press the top left button again to run another minute.
One complaint is that I did have some reservations about the domed hardlex crystal which is a significant part of the face of this watch. I would have liked to have had a sapphire instead, or a crystal that was more protected by the case. I wonder if most purchasers of this watch would not have minded, as they kept them stored away as the attractive limited edition watch they are, but that's not how I keep mine! :D I figure these were meant to be used and enjoyed, and so hopefully if my crystal gets too scratched up, I can get a replacement from Seiko years down the line... Hopefully. :)
Another slight complaint was that I had hoped the black hard coating over stainless would reach to the edges of each link in the bracelet, instead of just being on the top portions of the links, but it's still not a big problem for me.
For the future, I hope that watch manufacturers would get more creative with the E-ink medium, these watches would be perfect in my opinion if they had a simple moon graph option, and would show the position of the moon in the sky like my old Casio Moon Graph did. or perhaps a full calendar display showing the entire month.
But the way the prices are going down, these watches seem like a better value, especially if you avoid the special edition models and just go for the Stainless SBPA001 and SBPA003, which I think are around $450 and hopefully prices will get lower, and more features introduced as we saw with LCD watches as they progressed.
For me, this is a really nice new style watch, comfortable fit, neat smooth fonts and graphics, insanely readable at almost any angle from your eyes. But not too flashy, just flashy enough to grab people's interest, and look professional when it needs to. My new daily wear watch!! :D
I didn't have time to take any more photos, but if anyone is interested I can probably take some of the various screens and menus if interested. I had hoped to take some of my collection out and photograph this watch with them, but it will have to wait. :)
I've been collecting vintage digital watches for over 20 years now, but one thing I have not really done until now is purchase something truely, well, new. I got the urge a few years ago when I saw all the reivews of Seiko's EPD watch, especially so after the positive reviews and great photos from our own forum member Huertecilla really made me want to go out and get one for myself. Unfortunately the cost was just a bit too high for me to justify at the time and I had always hoped for perhaps a used one to show up that I could afford. In the meantime I purchased a Phosphor E-ink watch to satisfy my curiosity for E-ink as a watch technology and was impressed with what possibilities there were with this new type of display technology.
Fast forward two years and I came across these Limited edition Seiko EPD watches featuring some Anime from Lupin the 3rd and Golgo 13. Both of which were characters I remembered in my youth, Lupin was featured in a 1983 Laser Disc Arcade game called "Cliff Hanger" as well as an Anime movie called "The Count of Monte Cristo" and Golgo 13 I remembered as a NES game in the late 80's.
For those unfamiliar with the franchise, here's some videos of the Cliff Hanger arcade machine, and how the game plays out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc5MKWJ7j6Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tQqf8nciH0&feature=related
Oh, the memories of the old Laserdisc games!! Groups of us kids and teenagers crowded around arcade machines wanting to see and play the latest games we could find, and break the scoring records of our buddies and enemies... Good times!! Especially for me seeing and playing Cliff Hanger in the early 80's at the local mall our grandparents brought us to see really brought back memories. Also adding to the urge was the fact that these new EPD watches were lower cost than the Seiko Brightz I had yearned for just a few short years ago.
It didn't take long, a few days of research and I had made my choice for the Lupin the 3rd EPD watch, the SBPA007J model.
Upon recieving it the other day, I liked the black hard coating and the smooth metal bracelet, and the simple squared tv look of the face of the watch. I also liked that the face wasn't cluttered in any way, only the simple, elegently stated "SEIKO" label at the top of the display. One thing I noticed is that with this newer EPD module, it seems Seiko changed the font of the simple time and date display from the Brightz model. The digits were a little more thinner and in a different font than the Seiko Brightz epd.
Another feature I liked was the second time display that showed very large digits, without the shading effect that the Seiko Brightz had. For me, this modified second display helped make the watch more readable under certain lower light conditions without having to use the LED lights on the watch.
But the 3rd time display is what sold me for this watch. Each hour is illustrated with some of the Lupin the 3rd characters, something that's unique and fun to have displayed when you want to get conversations started!
I can't say too much about the quality of the radio timekeeping and solar power usage, as aside from a few changes to how the module displays things it seems to be identical to the Seiko Brightz module, with this Seiko Spirit though, it seems the font stayed the same as Brightz with the world time function, but the nice globe displaying the city in the Brightz has been replaced by a more simple flat map on the left side of the screen. I preferred the globe in the Brightz though lol.
The watch will count seconds just like the Brightz model, but only for a minute at a time. Then you have to press the top left button again to run another minute.
One complaint is that I did have some reservations about the domed hardlex crystal which is a significant part of the face of this watch. I would have liked to have had a sapphire instead, or a crystal that was more protected by the case. I wonder if most purchasers of this watch would not have minded, as they kept them stored away as the attractive limited edition watch they are, but that's not how I keep mine! :D I figure these were meant to be used and enjoyed, and so hopefully if my crystal gets too scratched up, I can get a replacement from Seiko years down the line... Hopefully. :)
Another slight complaint was that I had hoped the black hard coating over stainless would reach to the edges of each link in the bracelet, instead of just being on the top portions of the links, but it's still not a big problem for me.
For the future, I hope that watch manufacturers would get more creative with the E-ink medium, these watches would be perfect in my opinion if they had a simple moon graph option, and would show the position of the moon in the sky like my old Casio Moon Graph did. or perhaps a full calendar display showing the entire month.
But the way the prices are going down, these watches seem like a better value, especially if you avoid the special edition models and just go for the Stainless SBPA001 and SBPA003, which I think are around $450 and hopefully prices will get lower, and more features introduced as we saw with LCD watches as they progressed.
For me, this is a really nice new style watch, comfortable fit, neat smooth fonts and graphics, insanely readable at almost any angle from your eyes. But not too flashy, just flashy enough to grab people's interest, and look professional when it needs to. My new daily wear watch!! :D
I didn't have time to take any more photos, but if anyone is interested I can probably take some of the various screens and menus if interested. I had hoped to take some of my collection out and photograph this watch with them, but it will have to wait. :)