Seiko Presage and fear of big watches

The Bambino is 41mm which is on the larger side for a dress watch. They did release a 38mm which is a better size for a dress watch.

The models you have listed are all 41mm and 42mm side models which will be definitely on the bigger side if you found the Bambino big for your taste.

The Presage model you own is SARX041. Its 40.5mm case but being a Seiko, their watches usually wear smaller than the size suggests.

I would suggest go for watches between 36-39mm. Its would not feel big and will be more perfect for your wrist.

Aside from just generally going after watches that are 36-38mm in diameter I would also suggest being on the lookout for watches that have thicker bezels relative to the size of the dial. A smaller dial can fool your eyes into thinking a watch isn't as large as it actually is.

I have the Sarv001 and it looks pretty big on the wrist due to the large lug-to-lug distance of 51mm.

I have a 7 inch wrist and it‘s fine for me. For an everyday watch it might be a little bit too big. But it‘s still a very cool watch.

SARB033 & SARB041 & SARB017 Alpinist… All JDM watches .

I came here to say this. The presage, the older version of the bambino and SPB143 are all the same size, 40.5mm.

It’s the bezel which essentially shrinks the dial size thereby giving the impression of a smaller watch overall.

I find as I go farther down the line in my watch journey, I have started paying attention to how a watch wears.

I used to not wear a watch bigger than 40mm. But watches such as the SPB143 wear closer to that of a 38.5-40 because of how the bezel and lugs play with the dimensions.

In the case of the cocktail time, it will most likely wear LARGER because of the lack of bezel.

Conveniently, I’ve actually owned every watch you mentioned. While I loved the original bambino, I ended up getting the 38mm version which is significantly better in terms of build quality and how it wears.

The cocktail was gorgeous but again, just wore too big for me. It’s not that it looked out of place, but I personally found that when I looked at it, it stood out for reasons beyond its dial.

I have a 6.5” for your reference.

Also they do make cocktails in smaller sizes.

The first is a 34mm watch. The second is a 38mm.

Considering the Timex Marlin is 34mm and that used to be a normal size for a men’s dress watch, I’d pick one up in your position.

I ended up getting the 38mm bambino and the 31mm LORIER Zephyr.

Big watches are a modern thing and for generations they were a lot smaller for good reason. They started as function over form and grew recently because of vanity. They want big and visible with time being the secondary point. Action movies started it with a huge watch on the hero. Males can not pull off a lot of jewelry to show wealth like females can so the bigger watch is all they can show.

So the easy answer nobody’s mentioned is to try them on first. I’m not big on going to stores to try on watches, but if you have concerns about how a watch will look on your wrist, trying it on is the only way to know.

And I’m glad to see folks mentioning bezels and how a watch wears. I think a lot of people miss that dial size does a lot to determine how big a watch seems to be. For instance, I’m wearing a 38mm field watch that would look ridiculous at 40mm. But I’d have no trouble wearing a 42mm diver or Speedmaster.

Thank you! Now I know the model :)

Yes, it's quite hard to find the 38/36 models, seem to be out of stock everywhere.

Thank you all for your insights, great community here:)