Seiko’s Quality Issues: Let’s play a game!

Misaligned minute ring, misaligned hour hand, misaligned day, dirty/damaged dial, a fibre on the hour hand.

Lume is complemented by white paint, not sire if that counts.

I was lucky with my Alpinist: it's all printed, so...

...there are only microscopic spots where the paint is missing. One index and one date number. Only visible under strong magnificarion, though.

This is why I’ve stopped buying Seiko, even if they are my favorite brand. 😢

dirty/damaged dial, a fibre on the hour hand.

That's on me - I didn't think of polishing the crystal first. 😀

Misaligned minute ring, misaligned hour hand, misaligned day,

Spot on!

Yeah, the QC is abysmal - I have a misaligned hour hand on my SPB153 is well. For the Seiko 5 I don't care much, because it's fairly cheap, but I was quite upset with the Prospex SPB153. (not to mention its 6R35 movement is total crap as well)

Seiko used to mean "quality" back in the day, but it seems they've lost their way.

Totally understand you. After having a lot of issues with the 2 Seikos I currently own I'm extremely wary of buying any more. (especially buying them online when it's hard to carefully inspect them)

I mean, at this age I consider the Chapter Ring a feature of Seiko … 🤪

Funny, I've no worries about Seiko's issues, genuinely don't bother me.

Try living with an Omega bezel action, it's shite 🤣 (but again, honestly doesn't bother me at all)!

The vocal minority is always the loudest. For one unlucky customer ending up with a donkey, there are 99 customers with a perfect watch silently enjoying their purchase.

I have owned 3 modern Seikos in the past couple years, two of them Seiko 5, and none came with a single misalignment, plus they all ran within +4s to +11s a day which is pretty good for an unregulated movement. It's the luck of the draw. You can end up with a donkey from any brand, any product, any industry.

If there's any issue just return it and draw again.

What are you all saying? I’ve been using Seiko for 5-8 years. I recently bought SRPD63K1, I’m not facing any issues! The alignment of the hour hand and minute hand is perfect. Should I be watchful?

It looks fine to me … considering.

These are all reasonable pain points to give you pause. Luckily, my experience with the brand has been overwhelmingly positive such that I still continue to buy Seikos despite subpar bracelets and straps on many models. The 6R movement issues don’t bother me as much because it can be regulated easily for minimal cost.

☝🏻 This comment exactly.

I have the same model, albeit the Japanese version in the SBSA57. I have no issues at all and my movement is at +2s a day.

Having said that, I can completely understand your frustration. I could be (and possibly was) a loud hater of the PRX. I haven't only gotten one faulty model but four with one of these being sent in for the same reason twice. Misaligned hour hand, scratches on the dial, metal splinters on an index, grindy rotor and then getting the "repaired" model back with another scratch on the dial at a different spot and a non-lubricated movement on top.

To cut things short here: Either return it or ignore the faults. Given the price of this Seiko model you can't expect Grand Seiko QC.

The vocal minority is always the loudest. For one unlucky customer ending up with a donkey, there are 99 customers with a perfect watch silently enjoying their purchase.

No argument from me. But I was just extra unlucky to get 2/2 watches with QC issues. 😀

If there's any issue just return it and draw again.

In the case of this watch it was just too expensive to return it (I got it from amazon.com and I live in Europe, so returns are rarely feasible). But in general you're absolutely right.

My SPB153 was a trickier situation as it used to run fine at first and started to lose a lot of time only after a few months. I noticed the hand misalignment there relatively late, as I had never thought to look carefully for something like this, and that's on me. I'll get it serviced, so it's not a big drama, but it's always a bit frustrating to have to deal with issues when you just want to enjoy your new watch.

Agreed regarding the reference to the price point. My quartz PRX has an inconsistently-printed minute ring. It's not that obvious, but you will notice if you pay attention. I've had slightly misaligned hands with microbrands, and I do believe there are worse bracelets than Seiko 5 bracelets. You will find thatb in this price class.

To be clear - I'm mostly amused that a single watch had several common QC issues. I totally get I was just unlucky (I've had a defective Tudor in the past as well and I was a lot more upset about it - at least with Seiko I kind of expect small QC issues).

I have the same model, albeit the Japanese version in the SBSA57. I have no issues at all and my movement is at +2s a day.

The movement of my DressKX runs similarly well. No complaints about it.

To cut things short here: Either return it or ignore the faults. Given the price of this Seiko model you can't expect Grand Seiko QC.

I've had the watch for a while and I like it well enough. As I said earlier I thought of this as a mostly fun topic, not some anti-Seiko rant. I still love them, I just learned to be more careful with purchases.

I've received a misprinted minute track and a misaligned bezel insert from Chinese brands. They don't have better or worse QC than any other brand.

Maybe we should stop making broad generalizations about an entire manufacturer based on the anecdotal experiences of a handful of users on a niche social media platform...

With respect, I disagree. My experience, which is specific to me and not a generalisation, is that Seiko watches often have QC issues but Casio and cheap Chinese brands don't.

"Anecdotal experience..." is what this watch forum is for.

Well, we can’t see a rate result and that is my biggest complaint about Seiko. BTW, my last two automatics from Seiko are not very percise. The Seiko 5 Sport runs 15 seconds off and the Ice Diver ran 90 seconds slow. That one went back but the 5 is within Seiko’s specs.

Seiko owners myself included have watched QC issues for some time. It would put me off buying another. I know many get lucky and good for them. If I was buying another I would be carefully looking at the returns policy from the company I bought from. Caught once is understandable, twice then it on yourself. I won't get caught twice.

Day & Date not centered, second hand registration is off, markers are not centered on minute track, at first glance.

I've owned far too many Seikos over the decades and I've had a couple with minor problems but nothing that wasn't corrected with a quick trip back to the store, either for an adjustment or an exchange. When I've had similar problems with more expensive watches from other brands the ADs are less forgiving and the watches had to be sent out for warranty repairs that took several weeks or months. For a few hundred bucks, I don't get too upset if something is a tiny bit off or if I have to make a quick trip back to the Seiko shop. For thousands of dollars and not having my brand new watch to wear? I'm far less forgiving.

But based on comments I've read for years around this issue, I get the impression most people feel the opposite way, taking Seiko to task for problems on $400 watches while giving luxury brands costing several thousand dollars a pass. There have been common owner-reported dial and bezel issues with Tudor Black Bays, serious problems with the Rolex 32XX movements, Oris' Calibre 400 movements, etc., and folks generally take a "hey, nobody's perfect" and "if that's what's important to you, buy a G-Shock" stance and push back on anyone complaining too loudly. I think it's the Land Rover effect: They have the lowest reliability ratings in the auto industry but a fiercely loyal customer base who tolerate problems in a 6-figure luxury ride they wouldn't put up with in a base-model Sentra. The more we spend, the more we have to convince ourselves we made the right choice, and the more we will rationalize away even the obvious flaws and find ways to turn them into positives, saying things like "this is a finely tuned piece of engineering that needs more attention than a mass-market appliance" despite it not actually performing any better than mass-market appliances. We're funny that way...

Mine is perfect

Well it's Seiko... From my observation of my models - skewed logo, hair on lume plots everywhere, dirt, dust and scratches on dials, marks on inner AR, bad case finishing, terrible endlink fitmen, vague bezel action, bad crown threads and list go on.

It is not a problem that is exclusive to Seiko. I return my BB58 1 week after its purchase for dirt on the dial and what it looked at excess glue ozzing out from the side of the indices. The dial was replaced (took 5 months) and came back filty on the dial. I refused to take it back and it was resent for servicing. It was then ok

I also had to return a brand new Tudor once, so I can totally relate. (in my case the movement was very problematic)

But based on comments I've read for years around this issue, I get the impression most people feel the opposite way, taking Seiko to task for problems on $400 watches while giving luxury brands costing several thousand dollars a pass.

That's an interesting take. I'm guessing another reason why problems with cheaper watches get discussed more is that those are sold in a lot bigger numbers.

The more we spend, the more we have to convince ourselves we made the right choice, and the more we will rationalize away even the obvious flaws and find ways to turn them into positives, saying things like "this is a finely tuned piece of engineering that needs more attention than a mass-market appliance" despite it not actually performing any better than mass-market appliances. We're funny that way...

True that. Almost every time I watch reviews of more expensive watches I'm amused by some of the "virtues" extolled by the reviewers. Everyone's trying to justify why something's quite expensive for no objective reasons, other that people are willing to pay the asking price...

When I think about it, I've had some (small) issues with almost every watch I've bought since I got into watch collecting and I'm often wondering is this just one giant waste of time and money. 😂

Don't get me wrong, though. I still like Seiko and in this particular instance I was amused that they managed to mess up 3 things on the same watch. None of them are particularly obvious, so I don't care much. And returning a cheap what I bought online from the US simply doesn't make sense - between the import fees I paid and the shipping from Europe to the US I'd rather keep the watch as it is. I was aware of the risk, so that's OK.

Sharp eye I had only caught 3

Same

Bought one at AD,had defective movement.Sent twice to seiko