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| SNZF19 Seiko Auto on Maratac Strap |
I was riding the spin bike before work this past winter wearing my Polar RS101 heart rate monitor and I noticed just how haggard this watch looked. I have been using it now for 8 years, it does it HRM job well. But there is no chance I can wear it in the office. It is totally devoid of style.
I started my google-quest for a new HRM and that lead me to decide I really don’t need a heart rate monitor, just a stop watch. Since I run at lunch I wanted a nice looking watch I could also wear to the office.
Everyone raves about the Seiko Automatic watches as a great “tool” watch. And that seemed like a good solution to my watch conundrum. So I picked up an SNZF109 from amazon.com. It came with a stainless band. Which I must admit looked great, not so sporty. But the band had so much play in the links it sounded like I had bells on every time I moved my wrist.
I replaced the stainless band with a nylon Maratac Zulu strap. The watch looked great, I wore it at the gym, mountain biking, running and at the beach.
But the Seiko SNZF19 has some drawbacks which lead me ultimately to sell it. The auto movement has a bit of play in it, if you shake your wrist with it on, you can hear it knocking around. The day of week is available in two languages, so you have to set it right so it displays in your language most of the day. Not a big deal but when you take in to account the following problem it gets annoying.
The problem is the “reserve” of the auto is not very robust. So if you don’t wear the watch for half a day the time, date and day of week are off. I know you can buy a winder, but the winder would cost as much as the watch.
After selling this watch I ended up getting a Reactor Trident Titanium Watch and have been really psyched on that. I can’t say I don’t miss the Seiko, it looked cool and the auto was intriguing. If I were to buy that watch again I would instead get the “Orange Monster”.
But that Reactor Trident is just so nice, I won’t get another watch any time soon.