Are there Seiko Alternatives for Beginner Enthusiasts?

But you can't see the rotor swinging and the hairspring beating! And where's the day?

Otherwise, yeah, the Seiko 5 advice predates the available cornucopia of Chinese brands.

Addiesdive,Steeldive,Pagani Design are all well made watches for the price.

The Seiko SNK series is too, and has been around for years and is somewhat of an icon in the affordables category.

I have examples of all and each one is worth every penny.

Oddly enough I was curious about that myself, and I have an Addiesdive on the way. I really wanted to see how the Chinese have progressed. I've tried a few times before, but the Chinese watches fell slightly short in terms of build quality and the movement. 

I'm curious to find out how an Addiesdive compares to a recently purchase SRPD.

I would be enormously interested in that also. I would be really grateful if you could post about that once it has arrived! 

What kind of Addiesdive have you Attained?

Of course, I agree the SNK series is still very much a classic and can look fabulous on the Wrist.

But so do the Chinese Watches you have just shown us! I find the Yellow Steeldive particularly interesting! To me, it looks like it might be a Homage to the Rolex Oyster Perpetual 36 Yellow?

Yellow is hard to pull off, but if you can it's that extra touch of colour that we´re all looking for ain't it 😉😂?  I´d be interested to know about the wearability of the watch, as that is the only thing I am not overly pleased with my Addiesdive. 

It's called an MY-H9. I don't have it quite yet, but I would expect it to be here within a week. (I got the most generic looking model w/o the Mercedes hands.)

Seiko has actually offered a new Seiko 5 with the SNK dial, which is more of a pilot's dial, the Seiko 5 SPRH series. Here is the SRPH33.

A watch that falls in between the Addiesdive you purchased and the Seiko SRPG or the Seiko SPRH would be the Orient Flight. It exceeds the Seiko 5 slightly and is lower priced in general. This version is $134 on Amazon currently.

It has a screw down crown, but still has only 100M WR and mineral crystal instead of sapphire. It is not as good a value as the Addiesdive, but Orient does have a rich heritage and you are getting an in-house movement, if that matters to you. FYI, the SRPH is priced the same as the SRPG. Also, these both have the Type B dial instead of the Type A dial.

I do feel Orient is almost there in terms of becoming the new Seiko, as in great watches for an attainable price.

I do think Seiko still has many historic watches that the Chinese brands or even Orient cannot offer as of yet, though most of those watches are a bit more expensive.

I seriously am waiting for a Chinese brand to really step up their game, it'd be interesting to see how Seiko responds.

I have the same watch and i really like it and wear it. But there is a few annoying things. Mine is running at +30 sec for 24 hours, the clasp is bad, but i already purchased better one from AliExpress and the last thing is the lug to lug appear a little longer than expected. But for that money i am ready to completely dismiss these disadvantages and focus on the great specs that this watch offers for such a great price. 

Well seiko have seemed to cornered the market in the sector of affordable watches,reliable,brand history ,marketing etc. But the Chinese micro brands do seem to offer more bang for your buck ,especially when it comes to bezel and glass materials,but how good is a sapphire glass from a Chinese manufacturer compared to seikos own hardflex,I don't know. One thing seiko has got going for it (on about dive watches here) is that the glass sits below the bezel so a lot of knocks hit the bezel before the glass ,top design seiko. But you'll find it hard to beat the Chinese on price point due to mass production, labour costs, cheap energy buying in or making movements in vast quantities, in fact in that sector of the market there's only orient who are able to to compete and although their range is small I'd have no problem in recommending them go  a couple of their divers and their brilliant and half the price of the equivalent seiko, and you get history,good specs,in house movement (allegedly),and their own designs,not many western companies can compete with the east for prices and if they do all the components will be from the east. Enjoy your watches and enjoy hunting the ones you like.

Lots of fantastic micro brands out there who use Seiko movements 

in some cases the actual watches are better made better specs and no QC issues

Heimdallr, San Martin, Steeldive, Seestern and one of my favourites Duxot 

My Addiesdive also runs about -30 sec a day, and I immediately changed the bracelet to a leather strap. But I´m not a huge fan of Bracelets anyway. The watch is far from perfect, but for the price, it truly is a great entry-level mechanical watch!

I actually find myself drawn to Orient a lot more than I do towards Seiko!

 Orient is also a Classic In-house watch brand and some of their watches seem a lot classier than Seikos. Even their tool watches often look a lot better - this orient Flieger or the Orient Defender 2 for example! sadly, 42mm Diameter is usually much too big for my tiny wrists😢.

Yes, I think that the Question I was posing would have been a lot more Controversial had it taken Orient as an example. They do make great high-quality watches that, most importantly, look really good AND have an original Design! Seiko lately seems to be just re-releasing old models that have been slightly tweaked.

Me too! I think that many of the Chinese Watch brands are Playing it too safe, only releasing Homage watches. San Martin and Guanqin seem to be some of the few outliers that at least Sometimes release watches with a somewhat original design.

Whilst I do think my Addiesdive does offer a great value, you can rest assured that, when buying from Islander, you are probably getting better Quality Control!

I love homage chinese brand for the "value for money" thing, but I thought I need seiko, orient or citizen too.

I might try an Islander watch sometime. I have bought from Long Island Watch before, and have been quite satisfied, but never bought their own brand. They do offer some features that Seiko doesn't have, as well as unusual designs, so I will probably give that brand a try sooner than later.

Oh yeah, I can definitely agree with that! I have 15 Islanders in my collection. It is my favorite microbrand currently. 😀

The answer to this question sits firmly, I believe , with Orient as more than a few have suggested.

Original designs excepting perhaps some of the divers , in house movements, great specifications and unarguably great value for money.

Best of all in my opinion is that outside of the confines of watch enthusiasts Orient remains relatively unknown, at least in the UK.

I like that! Only a fellow watch nut will recognise your sound choice!

If you like relatively unusual designs  maybe check out their Linen Dial Dress Watch. Its quite interesting.

Yes, I love the Defender! I have both a Defender I and a Defender II. Here is the latter. I like this watch more than the Flight.

Orient is a favorite and I have 7 or 8 Orient watches in my collection, including one Orient Star.

Check out Escapement Time and San Martin. ET chrono 40mm and SM 39mm. 7 1/4" wrist. Beautiful watches. Great prices.

Orient,  certainly,  ia a top contender for your entry level piece. 

I love the Escapement time Flieger, it encapsulates everything one could wish for from a Quartz watch!

Heres my Addie's dive watch with a sterile dial I love it quality wise I would say it's roughly the same as Seiko 5 just unfortunately theirs still a stigma around Chinese watches that they really don't deserve.

Orient is the best alternative I can think of for the money. 

Orient is the new Seiko.

And yes Addiesdive, Steeldive, San Martin, Baltany are filling in Seiko's shoes now that they have gone way up in pricing.  So what if they started or still at homage watch territory but damn such value in these timepieces.  I mean a 6105 homage from Steeldive with NH35 going at less than 100$? 🤯

The quick answer on that last question is Citizen divers equal Seiko divers at the low end of the market.

And give you a name brand into the deal, rather than a Chinese brand with questionable resale.

I just bought this one with the same band and addiesdive logo it looks good.