Nerdy, ridiculous, and I love it…

Just got the Seiko 5 Ultra Seven “Ultra Guard Terrestrial Defense Force” watch and it put such a stupid smile on my face. A total man-child move, I admit, but as an Ultraman geek and Seikopathic watch nerd I was powerless to resist. Huge props to Seiko for not doing a lazy “slap a logo on it” collab but instead designing something to look as if it could have been on the wrist of the characters in the original show. My two super-nerd nitpicks are that it should have the 60s Seiko 5 logo instead of the 2020s version, and the day indication should be shown in kanji instead of English, but otherwise, this couldn’t be much better. The size is perfect for me, it looks great, the logo on the transparent-red caseback is very cool, and nobody else really knows that it’s secretly super-dork cosplay. A great bonus is that my limited numbering on the caseback also happens to be my birthday (10/21)! The packaging carries the theme through nicely as well.

Silly for a grown man to get an Ultraman cosplay watch? Absolutely. But if we’re all being honest with eachother, it’s no sillier than a grown man getting a moon watch…or a Sea Dweller, or a Daytona, or a Monaco, or an IWC big pilot or any of the Omega “Bond” watches and pretending they’re not also engaging in childhood fantasies of being astronauts, divers, race-car drivers, jet fighters, and action heroes. And given that the Seiko costs less than 10% of any of those options, this watch doesn’t take itself as seriously and doesn’t forget the “play” in cosplay.

All-in, this brought me back to when I first fell in love with watches in every way. Big thanks to @RandomRob — this is the same example you reviewed. When you called out the 1021 serial number and mentioned that it was sent to you for review by Exquisite Timepieces, I immediately reached out to them to ask if I could buy the one they loaned you. They were fantastic to deal with and the watch arrived a few days later in absolutely perfect condition.