Christmas Gift to Myself- Rotary Seamatic Strap Review

Review time! It's been 3 days now since I got my Rotary Seamatic, and I figured this would be a good time to review it and give you all my thoughts on the watch. Without further ado, let's get into it.

Case: I was a little concerned with the Seamatic's size when I ordered the watch. The Seamatic is a 42mm x 13mm x 48mm beast and is far bigger than my only other automatic watch (37mm Seiko 5 dress watch). I didn't have any experience or reference point to base my max watch size on, so I just decided to send it, and hope it wouldn't look disproportionate on my ~6.6in wrist. and while as you can see in the picture below the watch is objectively a little outside the sweet spot for my wrist, I have found it wears on the smaller side, and wouldn't say it overwhelms my wrist at all. I have actually found I like the larger size compared to my smaller Seiko.

The case finishing is great, with very well-polished sides and nice brushed accents here and there. The ceramic bezel is well-made and has good resistance with basically no backplay. The case back has a cool design that celebrates Rotarys 125th anniversary which is a nice touch.

The crown guards add some bulk to the already hefty Seamatic but I like the look and I think they fit the watch well.

Dial:

The dial on this watch is stunning. I'm a sucker for white dials, and this one is executed to near perfection.

I love (almost) every aspect of it. The skeletonized handset isn't for everyone, but I love the Seamaster vibes they give. The blue lollipop second-hand helps the watch to pop, but my only gripe with the handset is that I wish the blue of the second-hand was just a slightly brighter blue. In darker environments, it can sometimes look as though the second hand is black, and if they just made the second hand a little lighter, it would help to make it stand out a little more. The indices, and chapter ring are well done, and I love the shield style 12 o'clock marker. Rotary has also done a very good job with their logo + text, which are clean and don't detract from the watch at all. The only major issue I have with the dial is the date window. It is small. Really small. I am young, and have 20/20 vision and I struggle to read it at a glance in some circumstances. My theory is that because they had a cyclops on the older almost identical Henley seamatic model when they redesigned the old model they never increased the size of the window. This is by no means a dealbreaker, but for me is a little annoying.

Movement:

Nothing crazy here. The Seamatic features the cheap but reliable Miyota 8215. it has the famous stuttering second hand, which at first I really didn't like, but after seeing it lose under 30 seconds over the past four days I'm starting to see the stuttering as charming and unique rather than a negative of the watch considering how accurate it has stayed. I do think I would have rather had a NH35, but that's just me nitpicking.

Strap:

Rotary's strap was one of the most pleasant surprises of the watch. When I saw pictures of the strap online I wasn't a huge fan and assumed I would change it out for something after I got it. Instead, I have found myself enjoying the strap. It feels high quality to me, and what I thought was ostentatious branding in the online pictures is not bad at all in person, and makes the band look cool.

Lume:

The Seamatics lume does not disappoint. I don't have much to base this on considering I'm comparing this to a $100 Seiko dress watch... but it's far far better than the Seiko. I'll throw a lume shot below and let you judge for yourself, but I have been very impressed with the lume on this guy.

Conclusion:

I LOVE this watch and would recommend it in a heartbeat. It checked every box for me, and it hasn't left my wrist since I got it. It does have some small downsides, but when looking at the watch as a whole, it's incredibly well done, and at $325 (I got it for $250 on sale) you really can't go wrong. Well done Rotary.