Seiko & Evisen’s Celebration [Photos Inside]

I have a lot of thoughts on this watch if you’ve got a couple minutes. Otherwise, feel free to just scroll to the pictures.

On the surface, this is definitely the silliest looking piece I’ve ever purchased, and it took me quite a long time to ultimately pull the trigger. This is the Seiko SBSA105, a collaboration with the Japanese brand Evisen Skateboards (April 2021). There were three different Seiko 5 Sports variations in this collaboration, but this one (limited to 700) is what really caught my eye. Perhaps you noticed right away, but this watch is sushi. Well, not actually sushi, but it designed to look just like it, down to the rice grain bracelet.

The caseback is neon green to represent wasabi, with a tiny black nub on the top of the crown symbolizing soy sauce. The lume (which I was unable to photograph well) is even green for wasabi on the second hand, with red on each of the other two to maintain the theming even in the dark. The whole sushi experience is captured in one fun little timepiece. Not everyone catches on right away (myself included at first glance), but that’s okay. The distinct lines mimicking the meat and fat layers of a fish are the real clue to tip off the viewer that what they’re looking at might be just a little bit more than just a watch. The bezel even fully rotates, with of course limited usefulness. This watch breaks rules that I didn’t even know existed and, like many brands before it, almost pokes a little bit of fun at the sometimes overly serious demeanor of horology as a whole. Every ounce of this watch drips with playfulness, with each detail feeling like a little dollop of “why not”.

But that’s what got me thinking that maybe I was looking at it the wrong way entirely - instead of asking “why not”, I should have been asking “why”? Is this just a novelty for sushi fans, or is there maybe something a bit deeper Evisen and Seiko were going for on this one?

While I would love to have said that real life sushi is what made me look at it differently, in reality it was me looking it up over and over again to confirm that, yep, Seiko really made a sushi watch. Eventually, I realized something a bit strange. Yes, tuna can have layers of fat that look similar to the watch. But most of the tuna that I’ve eaten (and the majority on the first bits of google images), while the same deep red hue, is generally more marbled with less pronounced fat lines. To me, it looked like red salmon (sorry Evisen!).

But, did it really even matter what kind of fish it was? The answer I came to is no, as long as you can tell that it’s sushi. It was at this point that I decided I liked it too much and tracked one down. The second I got it in my hands, I realized there was something I had overlooked completely that made me recognize that really, this actually is something completely different than I expected. I turned it sideways.

You can’t help but agree that it bears at least some passing resemblance to the Japanese flag. The dial even has a slight sunburst pattern to it, almost to lightly invoke ‘The Land of the Rising Sun’, and thereby the history or Japan and the Japanese people.

Seiko’s identity has always been deeply, inherently and proudly Japanese. Dating all the way back to their earliest products and growth to become the horological titan they are today, Seiko’s national heritage has always been central to their identity. Today this is highly visible in Grand Seiko’s productions, manifested in the incredible dial work that is so often inspired by the natural beauty of Japan. Seiko has also teamed up with classic Japanese artesian for other lines including the Arita Porcelain dials, further demonstrating a reverence for Japanese cultural history and growth to the global presence it is today, but especially tradition and nature.

Japan and its people have an incredibly deep and rich cultural and political history, and this isn’t Evisen and Seiko attempting to reduce that to a single food. Rather, I feel that this is the team using the symbology of the now near-globally recognized and widely-loved sushi roll as a way to celebrate both its own growth and that of Japan’s to a global cultural powerhouse.

Seiko, founded in 1881, survived through the 20th century and many of the horrors that came with it. It has seen Japan, itself, and of course the the watch industry as a whole experience dramatic peaks and valleys that have led to remarkable transformations from their past selves into (arguably) golden ages today. By teaming up with the much younger brand of Evisen (founded in 2010), Seiko unites its history with a new cultural wave, not trying to take itself too seriously in an overly serious watch world, and recognizing its position as a widely loved brand of the people. Evisen’s own logo on the dial and caseback, a motif of the prongs of a samurai helmet, inherently invokes feudal Japan - a nod to the legendary warriors’ cultural persistence today.

In fact, that past examination of history exactly what’s going on here. From Seiko’s own website, “[Evisen] has released a variety of products that incorporate humorously original graphics that incorporate ancient Japanese traditions and culture.” Modern sushi was said to be invented in 1824 in Japan, and was the fast food of choice of the class below the samurai, or the more common people. In some ways, similar to how Seiko is (or in some people’s eyes, was) the brand of the people. From well before Seiko’s time up to today, I feel that Evisen and Seiko utilized sushi to represent a common cultural thread uniting past and present. Unfortunately, I don’t know that anyone quite has a watch that can tell the future yet.

As a watch that at first caught my eye because of how fun and creative it had completely transformed into something larger, just as Japan and Seiko have as well. This watch is not very good for telling the time at a glance, but that’s not the point. Neither is the fact that the rotating bezel serves effectively zero function. In fact, I think the best part about this watch is that this watch isn’t about watches at all. And nothing brings people together like sharing a meal.

I unfortunately cannot read the character on the bottom of the dial / strap and don’t know what it says, but I hope you’ve enjoyed my discovery and rediscovery experience with this piece. Or at least the pictures. Maybe I just think too much and you think it’s just sushi. I couldn’t find anything confirming my flag theory, so let me know what you think. Originally saw this piece on the Watchfinder youtube channel, so thanks to them as well. And thank you all for your time if you chose to read.

Let me know what you think below