You're winding me up! (Seiko Watches)

Member Name: pjs21

Product:	Seiko Watches
Date:	15/05/01 (2695 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Stylish, No wind up worries

Disadvantages: Expensive to replace, Expensive to repair

My Seiko Kinetic watch was a Christmas present to me four years ago and it never leaves my wrist.

This range of Seiko watches is very stylish, and not as clumpy as you would imagine them to be. They have a single colour face and a curved strip to the right-hand side, which is a different colour again. The individual minutes aren't marked, so you literally have those for every five minutes, or each hour, depending on how you want to look at it.

There are no snazzy little specials with this watch, it is purely a time-telling piece with the usual date function.

For someone like me this watch is the perfect watch. I have always had wind-up watches, my parents said to have a digital watch was lazy, so all my life I've had to try and remember to wind my watch up to keep it going. Me, being me, I never remembered, or I remembered too often and over-wound it.

The Seiko Kinetic watch is a clever little fella, relying purely on your own natural arm movements to wind it up. I think I spent the first day swinging my arm violently back and forth (looking cool Mr P. looking cool) in order to make sure this worked. It did and after awhile I realised that only the slightest movement was enough. Even raising your hand to scratch you nose makes the mechanism whirr quietly as it winds itself up.

I just read another review on these watches where the writer said his watch wasn't working properly after a few years, I have to say that so far I have had no problems at all.

It is well worth shopping around before you make your purchase, as prices seem to vary depending on the colour of the watch you buy. The cheapest I have spotted was £195. Mine cost £350, and some seem to cost up to £100 more than that. They are not the cheapest of watches on the market, and I'm not for one minute going to suggest that they're the best. (but they do look good!)

They are expensive to repair. I recently had my st
rap replaced as the original one had snapped. The replacement was a poultry £70. Which, after picking myself up from the floor, I paid. The watch had to be sent to Seiko in order to keep it under guarantee, but if you're not worried about this, you can probably find a local man (or woman) who'll do it cheaper. It also too three weeks to get an estimate from Seiko, then a further four weeks to fix. ut it didn't get sent to the right shop for me to collect it. I was without my watch for a total of 11 weeks.

As much as I love this watch, I can honestly say this: I wouldn't have brought it for myself, and when this one dies, I won't replace it with one of the same. Mainly because I can't afford to, but also, is it really worth spending that much more money on a watch that winds itself up? I can get a very nice watch for less than £100, and all I have to do is twiddle the knob on the side once in a while.

To conclude this rambling review ? Yes, I love my watch. No, I wouldn't waste my money buying a replacement. Make them £80 - £100 and maybe I'd think about it. £195? £295? £350? I don't think so.

Although, it does glow in the dark.

What?

They all do that?

Do they?

Darn!

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