Time Attack: Seiko Arnie vs Vostok Amphibia

There is no such thing as a “perfect” watch. Sure, while there might be one that you gravitate more towards than others, there isn’t a watch that can truly satisfy all of your needs. You can’t, and will never get, a watch which measures altitude, temperature, GPS coordinates, your heart rate and your penis size while also being able to go 1000m underwater and be gainly and slick enough to be worn with a leather strap and tux at the Teatro Alla Scala.

This problem, then, is why we enthusiasts collect watches. Unless you’re THAT guy who insists you only need a 11610 Submariner, we have our collections because there isn’t a singular watch out there that completely suits our every need. After you collect enough watches, though, you tend to get a few that overlap in their functionality.

Such is the case in my collection. As a diver kinda guy I tend to go for more sports-oriented and tougher watches for peace of mind in my daily activities. Hell, my first real watch WAS a diver; the same uncle who gave me my Stuhrling gave me a (exceedingly rare) Orient 2ER00002 “Orilex” back when I was a dumb middle schooler. I’m not sure if that planted a seed that would eventually grow roughly 5 and a half years later or if it's just a mild coincidence.

Regardless, I have two watches in my collection (among a few others) that were built to do basically the same thing, but with radically different approaches: my Seiko SNJ025 Arnie, and my Vostok Amphibia 090634. Both watches were inherently designed to be tough, no-nonsense divers that could shake off anything thrown at them, but due to some technological discrepancies between Japan (and more generally NATO-aligned countries) and the Soviet Union, along with the vast differences between how Seiko and Vostok approach watchmaking, these two divers are about as different as a VCR and a Fire TV Stick.

First, let’s look at the SNJ025. The Arnie’s ancestor, the H558-5000, originally came out in 1982, and was the first diver’s watch to feature a digital display in conjunction with a regular analog dial. While the original was a traditional quartz watch that required battery changes every few years, the SNJ025 is solar, meaning that wearing it on an average day will charge it, and the only thing you MIGHT have to worry about is the capacitor burning out in a couple of decades. The Arnie comes with an alarm, a chronograph, a calendar, and the ability to track a second time zone, along with s simply excellent reissue of the iconic GL-831 strap, which was sold with the original H558. It’s also ISO-6245 compliant, meaning that it has a 120-click unidirectional bezel, excellent lume, and extra protection against shocks. Even though it can’t answer calls or allow your children to have their data stolen by the Chinese Communist Party on TikTok, the Arnie really is on the cutting edge of affordable quartz watchmaking.

The Amphibia, though, isn’t what you’d call state-of-the-art. It comes equipped with Vostok’s own 2416b, a 31-jewel, handwinding but non-hacking automatic movement with a date function that hasn’t been substantially updated since its introduction in the 1980s. Vostok claims the 2416b to be accurate within -20-+60spd, which is very loose for a modern mechanical. Some enthusiasts experience issues with their Amphibias, from improper lubrication (which causes the movement to gain massive time by just moving the watch around, even if you regulate it and eliminate beat error) to their watch just dying on them. Vostok also isn’t known for their QC; sometimes their dial markers/indices are slightly off center, so the bezel doesn’t line up exactly with the 12 o’clock marker. Their bracelets are terrible, ranging from just being rattly to outright dangerous; one of my favorite watches of all time, the 030598-which is technically a Komandirskie but shares the same architecture as the Amphibia-came with a butterfly clasp bracelet that undid itself when being worn. The lume on Vostoks also isn’t quite class-leading; it does light up when under sunlight, but it fades rather quickly. The Amphibia, like the Arnie, is also water resistant to 200m, but because it has a bidirectional friction bezel and an acrylic crystal, it wouldn’t be able to meet ISO standards, even if Vostok wanted it to be.

As you might've guessed by now, the clear-cut winner must be the Arnie…when you look at both watches from a distance. While the Arnie might have all the bells and whistles one would realistically need from a watch, it doesn’t come cheap; the Arnie’s MSRP is $525, although as of writing this article you can get the PADI version for about $300 on eBay. There’s something oddly clinical about it. It’s kind of like how modern supercars achieve their insane speeds using cold, hard math and engineering, instead of making something simple yet brutally effective like a Ferrari F40, which, as Jeremy Clarkson once explained it, was “basically a V8 go-kart”. Don’t get me wrong, I love my SNJ, but the Arnie is a bit hardheaded; you get the sense that Seiko designed it to be the most functional diver they could without letting loose, no ifs, ands or buts. They probably didn’t envision the SNJs to ever have a Save the Ocean or Ginza edition, although I do admittedly think the latter would be some sort of horrid abomination that would rival H.P. Lovecraft and his rather inappropriately named cat.

That brings us rather neatly to the Vostok. While the Amphibia has essentially remained the same since the fall of the USSR, Vostok has basically mastered the manufacturing of their watches; you’d be hard pressed to find a brand new automatic 200m water resistant diver for under $100 from a respected brand elsewhere. This is mostly because they don’t advertise or develop new calibers; when’s the last time you saw Hodinkee showing off the newest Amphibia with their new caliber, the 2419b?

The Amphibia also isn’t some crappy plaything that merely cosplays as a diver; when it was first being developed in the mid-60s, it was designed to survive “aggressive environments'', many of which are shared with ISO certification, such as extreme heat, extreme cold, magnetism and shocks. In addition, the Amphibia’s unique design, which incorporates the acrylic crystal, the thick gasket and the two-piece caseback, work in tandem to increase the Amphibia’s water resistance as you go deeper, sort of like a compressor. A few tests by enthusiasts has shown that the Amphibia can stand up to 800m’s worth of pressure before conking out, which would be impressive for a sub-$1000 watch, but is astounding when you consider nearly every classic Amphibia will cost you less than an average trip to the grocery store. Even the famous wobbly crown was designed to handle direct shocks so the movement wouldn’t be damaged if someone dropped their watch while setting the time.

And unlike the SNJ, the Amphibia doesn’t take itself too seriously. You can get one with a dial that has submarines and aircraft carriers and jets and wheat and communistical symbols on them, or you can get one that’s designed to simply be legible and functional. Hell, Vostok even makes Komandirskie branded divers that have completely new designs but use the same basic architecture as the Amphibia; the Komandirskie 030598, the watch that I was talking about earlier with the shitty bracelet-is basically a dressed-up Amphibia.

So, which one is “better”? Honestly, I think neither of these are objectively better than the other. While the Seiko will keep on ticking until the sun explodes, it’s a very serious, very functional, no-nonsense timepiece that was designed to be a scuba diver’s best pal. On the other hand, the Amphibia, while not as functional as the Arnie, is still a very capable diver with an innovative design, an idiosyncratic style, and a very approachable price. But personally, I think you should get both; as I mentioned at the beginning of this article, one watch can’t rule them all.