Seiko 5 SNK789 & SNXS77K Automatic Watches

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MN12BIRD

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Published on August 2, 2019 1:00:00 PM ● Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gjPpUMFPkc

Duration: 11:53

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The story of how I ended up with two Seiko 5 Automatic watches.

The Seiko 5 family of affordable automatic watches are often recommended to anyone looking to take their first step up from Quartz as they're one of the cheapest automatic watches available from a name brand. They're simple yet durable movement offers fairly good accuracy (both mine are very accurate!) and they offer so many different designs, colors, bands etc and most have very nice lume too.

The biggest downsides will be the small (by today's standards) 38mm face, the fact you can't hand wind, the quality of included metal bands and the 19mm (on most but not all IIRC) lug width. The metal band doesn't bother me too badly as I don't really mind the quality of the links (for the price) and I don't find they pull hair all that often. The scratch resistance of the glass is okay, but probably just similar (or possibly slightly less) to Sapphire crystal. I'll have to be careful not to bang this one into anything esp when I wear it to work on the odd days I do.

Given the fact these can be found as little as $80 USD the downsides are all minor.

Both of these watches use the same 7S26 movement. Neither can hand wind.

I bought the SNXS77K off Amazon but was surprised to find the metal band was too short for my 8" wrist. Sure I have large wrists but adjusted for max length it was as tight as a stock Casio F-91W on the 3rd last hole. I thought about returning the watch but ended up putting a 20mm NATO strap on it instead. Again the lug width is 19mm so even the NATO strap binds or pinches around the lugs as to not look quite perfect. Overall though I think it looks quite neat and it has grown on me after wearing it a few days. The tall "UFO" looking side profile somehow looks right on a NATO strap where you see the gap between the main and back strap sections.

But of course a few days after putting the NATO strap on the SNXS77K I stumbled across the SNK789 in a giant Antique shop. The shop was selling a lot of watches from Timex, Casio and Seiko and they all appeared to be new. I assume they are all Amazon returns as there's an Auction house in town that sells a lot of Amazon returns inc plenty of watches. The SNK789 has a larger metal band in general with a different style clasp (push buttons on sides to release) and as it turns out it's also longer than the SNXS77K. Where the SNXS77K was too tight even maxed out the SNK789 has a bit of wiggle room with the fine adjustment on the clasp set to the second largest (but not largest) setting!

Not all Seiko 5 models on metal bands are the same size!

The shop was asking Amazon price for the watch but I was able to talk them down $30! Sometimes it pays to know what things are worth ahead of time. Seiko 5's could pass off their looks as being more expensive than they really are so someone else might have thought the Amazon price was a deal. So I got to try before I buy and ended up saving $30 on a brand new watch (it still had the clear plastic stickers on the face, bands, and rear glass) so no doubt it was brand spanking new.

While I was originally disappointing the stock metal band didn't fit on the SNXS77K maybe it worked out in the long run. Now I have one on metal and one on a NATO and I got a good deal on the metal.

So that's the Tale of Two Seikos.