These are not your typical Seiko watches

This might be a Seiko Watch Weekend here on Watch Chris because yesterday I did a review of my latest purchase which is the SLA-079, a new Seiko that I just purchased. Today we're talking about five really interesting Seiko. Now this is not run-of-the-mill Seiko. These are Seikos that no one is talking about. They're all interesting for different reasons. Seiko are usually known to be crowd-pleasers. They're affordable, reliable watches that aren't really all that interesting most of the time. Divers, field watches, chronographs, all of them reliable, all of them constructed well, but nothing too exciting. But Seiko does have a wild side and we're going to be talking about their wild side today. I have five watches that you've probably never seen from Seiko before unless you watch this channel. Let's flip the camera and take a look at five wild Seikos you've probably never seen before. In 2001, Seiko released one of the coolest watches that I had ever seen. I remember back when this came out it was so expensive at that point for me that I thought it was a grail watch and I could never ever comprehend spending this much money on a watch. It was the STP-005. It's a digital watch that's inspired by the film Final Fantasy which is inspired by the video game. This was a CGI film so the entire film was made with CGI and it was inspired by the wrist halo that was worn by Alex Ross in the movie. Now I watched the movie and I didn't even remember the watch, but when they came out with the watch in real life this really captured my attention. This wasn't a cheap plastic watch and that's kind of the reason why I really liked it. It was made out of stainless steel, resin, and of course rubber in the strap, but that strap even got a deployant clasp that was made out of stainless steel. So this was a pretty robust watch and it had a very distinct design. You read the time vertically it had a chronograph, an alarm, a countdown function, and it had this very unique look to it because of the buttons and how they were aligned on the side of the watch. It looked like a cuff. It was such a unique design that it's still very unique to this day. When you see this watch it looks so unique compared to everything else on the market. It has really held up to the test of time. These go for around $500 for ones that are in rough conditions because there are some that the straps break on so those do sell for a lot less money obviously and then there are ones that are in really good condition that can sell in the thousands of dollars sometimes over $1,000 around $1,200 and up depending on the condition. If it's brand new in the box you're going to pay a lot more money for that. Very cool watches. Originally these sold for around $1,000 so they were very very expensive when they first came out and with good reason. Lots of design and lots of interesting details went into these watches especially for 2001. If you love the watches that I talk about here on my channel you're really going to love the website that I'm about to tell you about. It's called Wrist Rebels. Wrist Rebels is a website that has all of those small micro brands and independent brands that are really hard to find all in one place. Brands like Seeker Design, Mon, Formex, Awake, and Bow Blue and many other brands you won't find anywhere else. Definitely check out Wrist Rebels at WristRebels.com. Also check out their Instagram at Wrist Rebels and if you end up buying something tell them that watch Chris sent you. Next is a watch that I've always wanted to own. I've always been impressed with this watch. It was one of the first really crazy watches that you could buy on the market. I remember when I first saw it it really captured my attention. This was the Think Earth. The Think Earth came out in 2001 as well. This wasn't just Seiko. This was actually a collaboration with the Think Earth Project. So it was commissioned by the Think Earth Project which was a non-profit organization that promotes earth awareness. I'm not sure what that really means. I would imagine it has something to do with the environment. Super high domed hard flex crystal that you got on this watch. Inside of that very very domed hard flex crystal was a model of the earth that rotated once a day. So every 24 hours this little earth that was on your wrist rotated 24 hours. Reading the time on this watch wasn't so difficult. There was a little hook that actually acted as the hour hand. So it was a small silver hook that you could see that was sort of peeking out from underneath the globe. Then you had a minute hand which was an orange dot and that was it. Very easy to read and the numbers the 24-hour scale was on the outside of that domed hard flex crystal. It was a 24-hour bezel essentially. That is it. It's a world timer because you could basically set that hook anywhere you wanted in the world and that would be your world time. It would be able to tell you what time it was at that part of the world because you had a globe that moved with that hour hand and that minutes hand. Very very cool concept and it was a quartz of course. These were on the more expensive side even back then. They sold for around $2,000. They still sell for around $2,000 to $4,000 depending on the condition and which version it is. There were just a few versions that were made. I think the original is the most desirable. They were large 45 millimeters but they didn't wear that large because they were essentially a little puck of a watch. So there were no lugs so it integrated into the case really well. They did not wear very large titanium and quartz. That's basically what this was a titanium case quartz movement. It was one of the first really interesting watches out there that you can buy and I always look at these as sort of great alternatives to Arnold & Son or Magellan which were very similar in style watches. They have these large globes in the center of the case under a very domed sapphire crystal. These are kind of similar but they're a lot cheaper and they are kind of the original. They were the first to do it. Next is a watch that I own the SLQ 009. Some people call this the Jay Leno because Jay Leno has been seen wearing this watch. It is a very peculiar watch made by Seiko that features a kinetic chronograph. However, this is a 9T inside of this watch and what that means is that it is a very high-end movement. It's really beautifully finished and it gets a separated out chronograph. So all of the functions of the chronograph are separated out on the dial usually using separate sapphire crystals. The 007 and the 009 all have this. There are a number of SLQs out there. They all sit under the SLQ moniker and all of them use a version of the 9T movement. 9T tells you that this is a very high-end movement because Seiko used the 9 as their highest end movement. So if you buy a Grand Seiko right now, it will have a 9 movement. 9R, 9S. This was a 9T. They don't make a Grand Seiko with a 9T movement because they don't make Grand Seikos with kinetic movements. So this was a Grand Seiko level movement finishing and technology put into a watch that had the Seiko name on it. These are integrated bracelet watches. They look very futuristic and I have to say I have always loved these watches for their designs. Their designs are wild. They recently released a reissue of this watch sort of in a roundabout way using a solar movement. I think those are cool but I think the originals are just way, way better. 42 millimeters. You get a display case back so you can see that movement which is very rare. Again, when a Seiko is using a higher end movement, they usually don't put a display case back on it because they don't want you to see it. They want to hide it from you. They want you only to get that through Grand Seiko and these cost between $1,000 and $5,000 depending on the condition. I have one that's in pretty rough condition. I paid under $1,000. You could definitely get this. Just one thing you need to be aware of is that the batteries on these because these are kinetics. They do have a battery. You have to replace them and they are hard and expensive to replace. Most of them will be completely, completely drained and they will not hold a charge. So, you will wear it. You'll be able to tell time but eventually, not eventually, almost immediately when you put these down, they will stop working. Most of them suffer from this problem unless you are able to find one that is new old stock which is very, very difficult with these watches. But with that being said, these are amazing, very cool watches and you can get them fixed if you want to. It is just pretty expensive. Yet another watch that I have owned. This is a direct drive kinetic movement. Now, kinetic movements, I didn't say it in the last watch that I was talking about the SLQ, are basically auto quartz. So, you have an automatic movement that is powering a capacitor and the capacitor is running a quartz module that runs the time. Kinetic movements have sort of fallen out of fashion. Auto quartz have not been very popular recently. There are a few brands that still use them. However, even rarer is a kinetic direct drive. The one that I'm talking about is the SRG017. They made it in a few different colors. The one that I owned, SRG021, that was a black case with a black dial and a black bezel and it had a perforated leather strap. So, this one came on a strap. Then there was the SRG09 which was a black dial and black bezel and then there was the blue version, the 017. That's the one that I have always loved. I actually own that black version. I sold it because I really wanted the blue version. What is direct drive? That's of why I'm bringing up this watch in this video. Direct drive allows you to hand wind a kinetic movement. On the dial, you see there is a large power reserve that goes all the way up to a month. You could literally just hand wind this kinetic movement. So, if you pick it up, wind it and now you have a month of power reserve. Just like that. Very, very simple. These were on larger side. They were 44 millimeters. They are dive style watches. They're really not dive watches. They look like dive watches. They weren't. They did get a sapphire crystal. That's how you know these were somewhat higher end watches for Seiko and you get 100 meters of water resistance. Like I said, it doesn't look like a dive watch and it's not. You're only getting 100 meters of water resistance. If you hand wind it or you wear it on a regular basis and you get that power reserve built up, you have about a month before it runs out of power. That is not as good as a traditional kinetic movement. However, this one you could actually hand wind. So, you pick it up and you wind it and you're done. It's very, very easy to do. With most kinetic movements, you have to build that up over time and you have to check that you have enough reserve. With this, you know exactly how much reserve you have because you can immediately wind it all the way up. These were such cool watches and I think really good looking watches as well, especially for the price. So, originally, these were $695. They still sell for that price today. So, when these come up on eBay, they sell for around $600 and $700 depending on the condition and that's because these were very, very popular then. They're very popular now. They did not make a lot of these. All of the other direct drives that they made were nowhere near as good looking as these and I just think that these are going to be future classics. I love these direct drives. Last but not least is a watch that I recently spoke about here on my channel. It's a Thermic. The SBET001. They made just a handful of these watches. Well, I say handful. They made 500 of these watches but for Seiko, that is a very low number. These were very high-end watches when they first came out and there's a reason for it. They were very difficult to make. The movements inside these watches were used once in these 500 watches and then they never used them again. These watches were very futuristic. You had a very steampunk almost design and it was an integrated bracelet. So, there was a lot of design that went into these watches. Really interesting looking 42 millimeter watches. They weren't huge. They weren't small. Even for back then when they came out in 1998 and like I said, they were very expensive back then. $2,800. These still sell for around $2,800. I've seen them sell for less. I've seen them sell for more but they do sell for a lot of money even though they are so old. Sapphire crystals. They had a lot of functionality and a lot of high-end functionality because these were perpetual calendars which is not typical for a Seiko. You had automatic power consumption. The watch went to sleep when it was not in use. When you picked it up, it came back to life and went back to the right time. It also had a mode selector that allowed the user to change the hour without hacking the seconds. This is something that they only used with Grand Seiko models and you never saw it again with a Seiko model. And the biggest deal here was that the movement was powered by your body heat. So essentially it was powered by your body heat and the ambient temperature of the room that you're in if you were outside. So the difference in temperature between your body and the ambient temperature around you. Really cool idea and a very difficult movement to make. So the watch in general was very difficult to make and that's the reason why it was so expensive and that's the reason why they currently are expensive. They did not make a lot of these. Only 500 were ever made. The SLA079. There's so many other iterations out there that have the 8L movement inside of it. This was a one-off. They made 500. That movement was never used again and it's an extremely interesting looking watch as well. Like I said, Seiko has a wild side and I think the Thermic is a very good example of their wild side. This was a crazy watch that had very ambitious technology. Tell me what you guys think of the watches that I told you about today. Again, I love making videos about this because these are watches that I've always known about and I love to talk about them with people who have never heard of these watches. Some really interesting watches have come out of Seiko over the years. This is not all of them. They have made so many other interesting watches. I'll make other videos about some of those very interesting watches and there are other brands that have done watches like these. These one-off watches that really were not money makers for them. They ended up costing them money in the long run and that's the reason why they stopped making them eventually. Tell me what you guys think down in the comments below. Please don't forget to like, subscribe, hit that bell icon. It's super helpful for the channel and I very much appreciate it. Anyway guys, thank you for logging on, thank you for watching this video. I'll catch you guys in the next video.