Not as simple as I thought

I don't own any San Martin watches, but I hear very little bad about them. If there is a model you like, at a price you like, you're likely not going to go wrong. The "dressKX" watches look nice, and if you get one at a reasonable discount you can't really go wrong.  

That said, there is zero reason to buy a Seiko just to own a Seiko. You wear a physical object, not "horological significance", "heritage", or any other fluff people throw around. 

I bought a Seiko SNK809 back in 2018 because I fell into the trap of believing everybody "has to experience a Seiko", and it turned me off the brand entirely. 

Get what truly speaks to you and you fall in love with, regardless of brand. I got the Seiko5 SNXS79 and SNKL41 because I fell in love with both, amidst the many great options available in the Seiko5 line.

That’s great advice thank you

Long Island Watch sells the watch Seiko should have made and does nice variations with the Seiko parts at a better price. Avoid the Chinese ones because the Seiko movements in them are the only good parts because of QC and warranty is spotty at best. If you do get a Seiko replace the bracelet right away with a better quality one.

The Seiko SRPE is a more unique design than what you'll get from San Martin. Mine didn't have any alignment issues, but it is something that can be remedied. I personally don't mind Seiko bracelets, but also bought an aftermarket presidential bracelet for the looks of it.

This being said, the SPRE has a decent modding support, which should also be taken into account.

Don't buy a Seiko because it's a Seiko, buy it because it's the Lego set of watches.

I own the dress KX. It is my only modern seiko although I own three vintage seiko 5s.

I can highly recommend it. No issues with alignment or QC. At the moment I have it on a Barton hybrid leather band but I've ordered a decent bracelet. It came on a decent grey nato buy I haven't used that much.

I think it is good value. I wore it to the London meet up abd several people commented on it. So go for it IMO!

The Seiko SRPE (dressKX) is the watch I recommend to anyone starting their journey into mechanical watches. There are a lot of good options out there for the same price but Seiko 5s for some reason does it better, probably because of the case dimensions, the overall quality you get for the price and easy maintenance. The new Seiko 5s come with decent bracelet/strap that is usable for the price compared to the older models. I don't think you will find solid end links at $200 from most established brands apart from homage brands from China. I have not seen much of QC issues in the dresskx range to my knowledge.

I own an SRPE55, it is basically a do it all watch for the price and I rotate it with my other watches frequently. The watch looks great on every strap you put on, 20mm lug width with drilled lug holes make it a strap monster. You can literally dress it up with a leather strap, casual on natos or just keep it sporty on a bracelet (a lot of sites offer specifically designed bracelets for the SRPE). The 4R movement is solid, it's a no-fuss easy to maintain movement and you can regulate it to very tight accuracy easily if you want.

Is your watch on the Barton hybrid band?

Looks really nice, almost like a leather nato strap.

Yes got it in a Barton sale recently. Around twenty quid I think. Pics attached!

Thx. Which LIW are you referring too