Seiko SACM150 Review

thiago

1 year ago

Another day I was looking for something relatively specific, a dress watch with the 70s to 80s aesthetic, when I found this piece on a JDM Exporter.

Please, don't dismiss this watch thinking that was just a better-looked version of a generic "Mall-Watch"!

What got my attention, THE Movement:

While not as famous as the 9F movements, the Seiko calibre 8J high-accuracy quartz movement in this model was also used in a few Grand Seiko models such as the SBGF019 and SBGF017, as well as the Credor 8J81.
It is unbelievable to see this performance-driven quartz movement in a watch priced as lower as USD 500!

Performing with an accuracy rating of an unbelievable +/- 10 seconds a year, this is one of the hidden gems of the quartz universe.

The design is also great!

I loved the discrete Linen Dial and the traditional dauphine hands. It is as clean as it is expected to be a "real" dress watch. Even in that simplicity, it showcases Seiko’s excellent watchmaking.

And it has history too:

In the mid-1980s, the Seiko “Dolce” range first appeared adjacent to their "Grand Quartz" line, which was equipped with high-accuracy quartz movements that became the foundation of what we know today as the “Grand Seiko” quartz movements. The difference between the "Dolce" line and the "Grand Quartz" line was only the aesthetic, one is dressier while another was sportier.

The Seiko line in the 70s and 80s was wild. Here is a cool reference:
https://www.grand-seiko.com/in-en/special/10stories/vol4/1/

Too much?
If I stretch my imagination, I can see it as a distant descendant of the first-ever quartz analog watch, the Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ.