Seiko's funky Spirit Advan homage SARB005

Seiko's new Spirit models are looking quite exciting. This SARB005 is an homage to some of the wilder designs of the 1970's. The faceted crystal and the sunburst dial are trademarks of the funky advan designs in the past.

The case is quite large and everything on this watch seems well proportioned. Ticking inside is the new Seiko workhorse: calibre 6R15 which is a 7S26 with an additional handwinding and hacking mechanism.


The dial is nicely executed with a caramel/ale colour that darkens as it reaches the perimeter. The polished hands have a white stripe in the middle to ease legibility and the elongated minute/ hour hash marks remind me of the SUS line of Seiko watches of the mid 90's. In fact, the dial markers bear a strong resemblance to the SUS GMT automatic shown below.

SUS GMT


The bracelet is all solid and the clasp is very well designed. There aren't too many watches in this price range that offers such quality and most of all, such originality.