Seiko May Have Quietly Released The Attainable Dress Watch Of The Year

As someone who typically leans towards the toolish side of Seiko’s offerings, there was something about the watch I bring you today which stopped me in my tracks for an inexplicable reason. Perhaps it is explicable (perhaps in real time while writing this) and I may figure out a way to explic...I mean, explain it. Yes, I am coming to you to introduce a new Seiko Presage Classic model. It is called the SPB478J1, and I think it just might be the attainable dress watch of the year.

Okay, taking a step back for a moment, I am a Rolex guy and a two-tone guy. I regularly wear a two-tone Rolex Datejust on a jubilee bracelet so I certainly have a type. And you can see from looking at this watch, the Seiko SPB478J1, that it fits nicely into this category for me. Getting my biases out of the way, let’s dig into the watch.

So Seiko, as we know, calls its watches by their reference numbers. But it also gave this one a nice little descriptor on the website: Delicate Cream Silk. I mean, come on, that’s amazing. It’s almost like it could be the alternative name of a band consisting of Bruno Mars and Anderson Paak.

The name actually refers to the watch’s dial because, of course it does. The dial texture is “inspired by unbleached natural Japanese silk, a material which has long featured in Japanese home décor and clothing since ancient times.” The brand calls this a ‘Shiro-Iro’ colored dial. 

Moving to the watch itself, it features gold-colored accents for a mixed-metal (read, two-tone) finish, which I think is both handsome and tasteful because it isn’t true two-tone in a sense. I say this because it doesn't carry over to the bracelet. Instead it bolsters the look of the case and dial, and allows a watch that might otherwise fall flat to communicate a certain dressiness, hence my hot take at the top of this article.

We get this thin, gold-toned ring on the also-thin bezel, which is matched by the golden hues of the markers and hands, and cemented by the creamy coloration of the dial. Then we move to the bracelet, which really speaks to the Jubilee lover in me. Seiko calls this a seven-piece multi-row bracelet, inspired by 1970s retro metal watch bracelets. The brand also says that each piece of the bracelet is only 6mm long, allowing for greater movement and comfort.

Going back to the dial, it is physically curved, as is the sapphire crystal which gives this watch a vintage-effect and allows it to pick up really interesting reflections and distortions depending on the lighting scenario. 

Inside the Delicate Cream Silk beats the 6R55 calibre with a date aperture at three o’clock (the date nicely blends with the dial even if it isn’t color-matched). Seiko rates this as accurate to -15/+25 seconds per day, and it has a three-day 72-hour power reserve, which is also indicated via the dial text.

Overall, this is what the name suggests: classic. It is a timeless design which Seiko has proven to be very good at crafting within this segment of the Presage line. The steel seven-piece bracelet give this watch both a versatile feeling and a dressy one which is bolstered by the two-tone flourishes. It doesn’t appear that this watch has hit the U.S market yet, as it is listed as £900 on the Seiko UK website, but we will keep our eyes peeled for when it crosses the pond and will be sure to let you know. For more information, you can visit Seiko online.