I’m the type of person that prefers to wear a watch as much as possible. I have a few different watches but few that I’m willing to wear extensively because of their value and meaning to me. Over the past few years, I’ve ended up just wearing G-Shocks on most occasions because they’re extremely rugged, can take a beating and keep going. G-Shocks function perfectly for my needs but they don’t appeal to me aesthetically. I prefer analog mechanical watches. Well, I’ve finally decided to pick up a cheap mechanical watch that I can use, possibly damage and not have to worry too much about. After some searching, I’ve settled on the Seiko SKX. My particular SKX is the SKX009J with the Pepsi bezel and being made in Japan but I think that everything that I say in this blog will be pertinent to all other SKX007 and SKX009s.

I’ve had this watch for some time now and I’ve been siting on making a review because what else is there to say about this watch? The SKX line is iconic and extremely popular so there are plenty of other people who have covered this piece. So, I just want to share with you some of the key features and how they have effected my experience with this watch.

The SKX features the Seiko 7S26 automatic movement with day and date display. This is an old but tried and true movement for Seiko. It is reliable and has been known to last a long time without the need for service. That being said, this movement is dated.

First off, the 7S26 lacks hacking. This means that when the crown is pulled out for adjustments, the second hand keeps moving. This is not a deal breaker but is an annoyance, especially for someone like me who tries to sync the time as precisely as possible. The seconds being off is just one of things that sits in the back of my head, but I can get over it. You can of course do something known as back hacking which essentially is forcing the movement to stop, which in turn stops the second hand. I personally choose not to do this just to possibly stretch the life of the movement out for as long as possible.

The second annoyance with this movement is its lack of a hand winding feature. This means that when the movement stops, you essentially have to shake the watch in order to get the rotor to wind the movement up and get everything moving. Again, this is not a deal breaker, just a minor annoyance. In use, my only complaint with this would be that it is difficult if not impossible to know how wound up the movement is. Because there is no way to measure the power reserve, you’ll have no idea how long you can let the watch sit still for. This makes it difficult for people with sedentary lifestyles to keep the watch constantly running. You’ll just have to get experience with the watch and get a feel for how much movement you need to keep the watch wound and ready to go.

However, I will give it up to Seiko because the winding mechanism of this movement is very efficient. If the movement stops, it seems like just by picking the watch up, it starts back up. The first time that I picked this watch up, the movement has stopped. I shook the watch three time and the movement came alive. I decided to put the watch down just to see how far three shakes can get me. The watch ran for over an hour before I got bored and gave up on trying to keep track of it. This is my first non hand winding movement so I can’t say if this is a little or a lot but I’m personally amazed. The 7S26 gave a lot of output for so little input. In short, it takes very little effort to get the movement going. Because of this, if you wear this watch often or you move your arms around a lot while wearing it, the movement should be wound up pretty well and you won’t have to worry too much about the power reserve.

In terms of design, the SKX features Seiko’s proprietary Hardlex mineral for the front display. This is a point of complaint for many people as a sapphire display would’ve been more desirable. Sapphire is a harder crystal so it is less prone to scratches. I personally would’ve preferred sapphire crystal, but what am I going to do? It is what it is. I would say that in my use, I haven’t had a problem with the Hardlex display. This isn’t a watch that I baby, but it isn’t something that I go out and try to abuse. I just wear it for everyday purposes wether that’s for yard work, fishing, or whatever. I haven’t gotten any scratches yet, but it’s probably just a matter of time. For me, watches are just one of those things that I know will get some damage if I wear it all the time and the probability of scratches is just higher with hardlex than with sapphire. That’s a fact. But who knows, only time will tell. If this is a big determiner for you, just hold on because we’ll get back to this.

Being that this is a dive watch, the SKX also features a uni-directional 120 click rotating bezel, water resistance of 200 meters and a large screw down crown. The crown of the SKX is notable because it happens to be offset at the 4 o’clock position. This was a feature that I was really looking forward to trying out because I’ve always complained about the crown being at 3 o’clock. Again, I like to wear a watch pretty much all the time and that includes in the gym. Well, if you’re lifting weights and doing certain pushing exercises, your wrists will likely be fully articulated and bent back. When this happens, I find that the 3 o’clock crown often gets jammed into the top of my hand making it uncomfortable, painful and can be detrimental to my lifts. I, of course, can loosen the strap and back the watch off, which is what I do, but I don’t want to have to take this extra step. I don’t want to have to adjust my watch every time that I go to the gym and I just don’t like to wear a loose watch in general. From my experience, the 4 o’clock crown reduces this problem but doesn’t solve it. There are still times when the crown will get jammed in the top of my hand and cause discomfort. I guess the next step is to try a watch with the crown on the left side of the case.

The SKX’s dial features Lumibrite treated hands and markers. Lumibrite has come to be known for being highly luminous and I would agree with this. Everything glows extremely bright. When I wear this watch to bed and want to check the time in the middle of the night, everything is legible and I really appreciate that. If you actually intend to dive with this watch and give the Lumibrite adequate time to charge, I think that you’ll be satisfied with what you get.

One thing that I’d like to point out that not too many people mention is the day display of this movement, which features dual languages. Prior to purchase, I found out that not only are there SKXs of different size, color, band type and country of origin, but there are SKXs that feature a different language for the second language. If I’m correct, all SKXs feature English, but for the second language, I know that there is a possibility for French, Spanish, and of course Arabic. I’ve seen posts on the internet saying that versions with Japanese Kanji and Roman Numerals also exist and I’ve seen Google images of these, but I’m not sure if these are factory or modified SKXs. Nothing against French or Spanish, but I really wanted the Arabic version. This just makes the watch that bit more unique, different and cooler to me. The second language is typically randomly distributed and usually based on where the dealer that you bought the watch from is located. Say you’re in buying this watch from a dealer in France, your chances of getting a French second language is going to be pretty high. Some dealers just get a mix of everything. If this is so, you can make a request and maybe they can accommodate for your needs. I got lucky. I knew that I wanted Arabic but didn’t even bother to ask and just left it up to chance. I figured that I’d end up with Spanish since I’m in the US, but I opened up the box and the Arabic day was already displayed. At that point, I knew that it was fate. I was meant to own this watch and I couldn’t be happier.

If I had to complain about the SKX009J, it would have to be with the strap and spring bars. Let’s first start with the strap. This complaint is going to be for those who are interested in any SKX that comes with the rubber strap. I personally found this strap to be very rigged. Even after a few days of use, it didn’t seem to conform or become any more pliable. Coming from a regular G-Shock wearer, I just don’t like how this SKX rubber strap feels and I took it off pretty quickly. This leads me to the next complaint. In trying to remove the rubber strap, I found that it was much more difficult to remove the SKX spring bars than any other watch. This is because the SKX’s spring bars do not have the typical shoulders that you would hook the spring bar tool’s fork end into. It is essentially flat metal on metal contact. I found that I had to just force the spring bar tool in between the spring bar and watch case. It didn’t help at all that the original rubber strap is very thick and essentially fits in between the lugs from edge to edge. There is almost no extra room so it’s like you’re just working in the dark. You just have to jam the spring bar tool in there and wiggle it around. If the spring bars come off, that’s great. If not, you just have to keep doing it until it does. All of this is just a recipe for disaster and in my opinion, guaranteed damage to the watch case. If you want my advice, remove the strap and spring bars from the back of the watch. That way if there is any damage, at least it’ll be hidden. One up side to this is that the stock Seiko spring bars are extremely thick and robust. I have spare spring bars that I planned on installing in the watch but I didn’t realize how flimsy they were compared to the Seiko spring bars. I ended up just putting the Seiko spring bars back on the watch and this has now become a permanent NATO strap watch because I can switch those straps without needing to remove the spring bars.

So that in a nutshell, this is the Seiko SKX. At first, I was attracted to this watch purely for its aesthetic. I just love this Pepsi Bezel and knew that I wanted to add it to my collection. It’s just a bonus that it provided me with what I was looking for, a cheap automatic watch that I can wear, possibly beat up and not have to worry about too much. At around $250, I think that the SKX fits the bill perfectly. This watch provides the essentials and that’s about it. It’s a low frills watch. I have to be honest, this isn’t even the best watch that you can get for the money. There are other watches that feature hacking, hand winding, and a sapphire display at a similar if not lower price than this watch, but I believe that those who want an SKX are partially buying into the legend of the SKX. Like I said earlier, the SKX is iconic. It has a history. It’s extremely popular, sought after and is able to bring the hype even though it’s a relatively cheap and super mass produced item. The SKX itself has a certain prestige that not many other watches have and that alone is priceless. And at the end of the day, if you really need those things that the SKX lacks, you can just buy it and retrofit it. The SKX has so many aftermarket parts and such a large custom community that you can essentially make this watch look like and do anything that you want. If you don’t want to do the work yourself, there are plenty of people out there selling custom SKXs, so the sky is the limit. Me personally, I like this watch as is and I’m just going to stick with the SKX009J for as long as possible.