Seiko SBTR Lowercase Ninja Tuna Solar Quartz

Some of you may remember my 90 page essay from two weeks ago about my regret selling my Seiko SBDB009 marine master spring drive tuna 600m dive watch because it was 18mm thick heavy and unwearable.

Well, that post made me feel nostalgic for the watch so I started looking for less thick, quartz alternatives. I considered the SBBN035, the non-solar quartz equivalent to my old spring drive tuna. But the SBBN035 is still 15mm thick. Then street series SNE537 tuna had too much gray coloring to be a black-on-black style of watch. The "black series" SNE577 had more gray coloring, and too much faux-patina.

Finally I came upon this limited edition JDM-only Lowercase cobranded STBR025. The specs intrigued me (less than 12mm thick! 43mm diameter! such a shockingly wearable dimensions for a tuna!). But the dial lume plots look a little more Rolex-ey than the marine master style of the SBDB009 and the SBBN035. So I decided to try to buy both the STBR025 and the SBBN035 and then keep whichever I liked more.

The STBR025 is quite hard to find online to buy since it's a limited edition. Sakura, watchoutz and japan-onlinestore were sold out. Buyee wasn't showing any used for sale on yahoo japan. Ebay had another lowercase brand watch, but with a different dial color. Eventually I stumbled upon someone selling it on watchuseek for-sale forums. I messaged this person, and despite it being for sale for over a month nobody had bought the watch.

So I bought it. I'm very pleased with it, and though I do have some curiosity about the SBBN035, for now I am totally satisfied with this as my tuna-style dive watch. It's a functional ISO rated Diver's 200m watch, it's solar quartz which is very practical, it's got good lume as you can see in the (blurry) photo, and it's SO THIN and wearable. I put a photo of it side by side with my quartz 35mm PRX, which is not a big watch by any means. It's practically the same thickness! Who says you can't make a thin dive watch?

I'll be looking to buy an aftermarket strapcode bracelet for it, and probably a bunch of NATO straps to wear with it too. For now I'm quite pleased.