The Seiko 5 SNK809 is a piece of horological history and seriously one of the best value-for-money watches that you still can buy – even though its production was discontinued.

My first watch was a flik-flak Swatch watch that had crayons or colored pencils for hands. I must have been 7 or 8 years old. I vividly remember wearing it to school thinking that it was such a cool thing to able to know the time by simply glancing over your wrist. The second watch I got had a bright yellow dial and a yellow/black fabric strap as well as a uni-directional movable bezel. It was given to me by a family member when I was 13 years old and made me fall in love with wearing watches every day. Unfortunately I broke it and stopped wearing it. There is a small chance that it still sits somewhere in my dad’s workshop though.

In the following years of my youth my wrist was graced with different kind of accessories like rivet bracelets but watches always had periodic returns like the time I received the classic Casio LA680WEA-7EF from my parents which I unfortunately also lost.

Fast foward to me starting university at age 21. I still loved watches and bought multiple fashion watches off of Amazon because I saw them as a fashion accessory mostly. After one of those watches broke I finally decided to look into higher quality watches. This was when I learned about automatic movements. I was absolutely blow away by the fact that those watches are able to operate just by the movement of my wrist in every day life.

This is done through a rotor that is winding the movements spring. As you can imagine I really wanted own one of those cool automatic watches. Upon putting in more research the Japanese company Seiko came up quite frequently – especially when it came to offer affordable mechanical watches. At the time I wanted to go for a diver style watch that was sized around 40-42 mm in diameter as I thought that this was the sweet spot for me size wise. So I actually got myself the Seiko 5 SNZF15K1 sporting the Kal. 7S36 automatic movement and its beauty and build quality was insane to me. Seiko had convinced me that they are producing quality timepieces on the more affordable side of things. And what you get for your money is nothing short of amazing.

Five impressive attributes for any timepiece

Seiko 5s are actually called that way as all of the watches include five certain attributes, which are

• Diaflex (referring to the unbreakable main spring in the movement)
• Diashock (referring to Seiko’s shock resistance technology)
• An automatic movement
• A day-date indication and
• Water resistance.

So essentially you are getting a watch that will survive most day-to-day use without any hiccups or problems. As stated before I was absolutely mesmerised by my Seiko 5 SNZF15K1 and it made me fall in love with Seiko. But the SNZF15K1 wasn’t even their cheapest model. I spent around 179€ for it which was a very fair price at the time. My obsession with the hobby got a lot stronger simply by owning and enjoying said watch and I became an active member of several online communities that revolved around the hobby. Furthermore one of my closest friends irl was also fascinated by these horological tools and we shared many awesome conversations over our favourites.

Every day while scrolling through the different watch oriented communities there was one watch specifically named that had started the obsession for many other watch enthusiasts around the world. And surprisingly enough it wasn’t some type Rolex or other famous Swiss watch brand. For quite the amount of people it was the Seiko 5 SNK809.

Priced 80€ and cheaper it was an incredible offer for a mechanical watch the sported all of the Seiko 5 attributes. Seiko had streamlined the production and produced the majority of parts in-house in order to be able to offer a compelling timepiece at such an unbeatable price.

For me personally the Seiko 5 SNK809 began to feel like a piece of horological history which I absolutely wanted to have in my personal watch collection. So I went on Chrono24 and checked prices, found one at my desired price point and pulled the trigger. After being shipped over from Malaysia within the matter of 4 weeks I was able to hold the watch in my hands and even though I expected a good product from Seiko I wasn’t expecting something as excellent as this.

The busy Flieger-style dial caught my eye and I was amazed by how clean the design was. All indices are easy to read through the stark contrast of black dial and white indices and hands. Color is only introduced to the watch tastefully through the seconds hand which was partly dipped in red. While the lume on the watch is not great it provides sufficient legibility in little light. The movement and dial is encased in a 37 mm case with a nice lug-to-lug width of 43 mm. It fits my wrist perfectly and over the years my personal taste started to prefer smaller watches between 36-40 mm.

My only real critique was the included bracelet. Most people recommend buying this watch on the NATO fabric strap which I nowadays definitely would agree with but at the time I went with the factory bracelet. Luckily enough the 18 mm band size allows to shop around for any after-market strap that suits your personal preference and style. I replaced the bracelet with some black after market strap which also included matte clasps in order to fit the sand blasted look of the case. This sand blasted case makes this watch the perfect daily driver as fingerprints only appear on the crystal and the rugged look can only be improved through scratches.

Inside the SNK809 Seiko’s Kal. 7S26 keeps it going and while it loses some seconds every day it’s still a very reliable companion. Amazingly enough Seiko even included a display case back in a watch that is this affordable.

Why do I love this watch so much?

Well in case it’s not obvious by the pictures I provided let me give you quick rundown why I think that every person that loves to collect watches or wants to start the hobby should get a Seiko 5 SNK809 for themselves.

For less than 100€ you get a quality time piece which does not require a battery to run and keep time. The size fits almost everybody from petite females to regular sized males. It comes with a day-date complication and is water resistant up to 30 m.

It’s very subtle and easy to match with any outfit.

And last but not least: The SNK809 is horological history and at some point in the future won’t be available for sale anymore.

What do you think of watches? How do you like the SNK809? Do you enjoy the photos I took for this post? Let me know in the comments.

Stefan 😁