Review: Seiko 5 SNXS79

When you’ve got eyes for Rolex but a wallet for Timex, it can be a little bit disheartening, especially if you, like me, have been slowly watching Rolex prices wander off into the distance. The classic Rolex look, clean, simple and rugged, has grown the brand into the most popular watchmaker in the world, and it’s easy to see why. But when you’ve only got $100 in your back pocket and you can’t even afford the box a Rolex watch comes in, don’t dismay—because the Seiko SNXS79 is here to save the day.

The Looks

That classic Rolex look really does boil down to just a few things: it’s clean, it’s simple and it’s well-proportioned. A Rolex is to luxury watches what a chimpanzee is to primates—the best, the original, the classic. When a design is as refined as a Rolex, anything else feels like needless excess, and so when you’re looking at a budget alternative, the same criteria apply.

The Seiko SNXS79 follows much the same principles. There’s a dial demarcated with hands and markers to read the time from, a case to stop it getting wet and a bracelet to stop it falling off. Bells? None. Whistles? Not a peep. Rolex was founded as a watchmaker to the professionals, people working in trades that didn’t care if their watch could sing a song or play a tune.

By Rolex standards, getting all fancy and dressed up means to no longer print its markers straight onto the dial like a barbarian and contain them within polished vessels instead. Sounds fancy, but whilst the painted markers serve nighttime reading by glowing in the dark, those polished surrounds actually help readability in the day by catching the light as well.

The principle is mirrored in the Seiko equally, with slight deviations from the designs at the quarters to aid orientation in the dark, with the day and date display dominating at three. The hands are just as sleek and simple, one long, one short and one skinny. The only flair comes from the sunburst texture of the dial, but we’ll let Seiko off for that one as it’s really quite smart.

Beyond the dial is the no-frills 37mm case in basic steel that actually manages to simplify even Rolex’s efforts. Instead of protecting the crown with raised crown guards, the crown settles low into the side of the case itself, further streamlining the already slick design. The bezel is there to hold the crystal in, the lugs to hold the bracelet on. The bracelet itself is as simple as articulated metal can get, a triple link design Rolex fans will surely recognise—especially fans of the older, folded metal era-bracelets. You could say the Seiko looks like this in imitation of the Rolex, but the reality is this: it’s just the simplest and cheapest way to make a watch.

The Heritage

One of the achingly fantastic things about Rolex are the stories that come attached to it. Records, inventions, landmark moments that redefined the entire industry. It may not be the oldest brand, founded in 1905, but it’s had the biggest impact, bowling over the competition in a way that makes Tesla look like a manufacturer of wheelbarrows.

Decade after decade, Rolex pushed back at a staid and stoic industry until, well, it broke. Where many watchmakers crumbled in the wake of changing times, Rolex not only persevered but prospered. Funnily enough, however, it owes some of that good fortune to the maker of this very SNXS79.

Seiko, would you believe it, is actually older than Rolex. When Japan aligned its calendar system with the west, it gave founder Kintaro Hattori the opportunity to do something he’d always dreamt of: make watches. His goal was to impress the Swiss watchmakers he idolised—little did he know, his brand would bring the end to most of them.

It was Seiko’s 1969 Astron quartz watch that singlehandedly signalled the end of Swiss watchmaking dominance. Mighty Swiss brands toppled left and right, leaving Rolex and its far more modern approach to brand and marketing to pick up the pieces. It was into the 80s, where watchmakers like Omega and Breitling faced closure, that Rolex soared. Seiko, too, becoming one of the largest watchmakers in the world, where it remains to this day.

It may seem like Rolex and Seiko sit at complete odds with one another, but the truth is that they both have far more in common than you’d think. Both admired an industry that resisted them; both were small but thought big; and both took advantage of challenging times to grow instead of perish. The fact that they did that side by side is all the more satisfying.

The Oily Bits

One of the crowning jewels of a Swiss made watch is the Swiss made mechanical movement, and they don’t come much more Swiss made than a Rolex. Rolex is one of a very few watchmakers who produce virtually everything in-house, piecing together every single watch from components made within its four walls.

Almost every single piece, however, because there are a few tiny little elements that Rolex still has made elsewhere. The hands, for example, are made just down the road at a company called Fiedler. Semantics, really, compared to pretty much every other watchmaker, whose parts are sourced from supply chains across Switzerland. By comparison, Seiko doesn’t stand a chance. Or does it?

Obviously, nothing about a Seiko is made in Switzerland. It is a Japanese made watch and proud of it. But the big surprise comes when you find out that the Seiko has a lot more in common with the Rolex than you think. The calibre 7S26 is not an electronic, quartz-powered ticker like a school clock: it’s mechanical, automatic, no less. Just like the Rolex, it has a beating heart powered by nothing more than the motion of your wrist.

How is this possible? The Rolex costs many magnitudes more than the Seiko, and yet they share an identical engine? Well, herein lies the benefit of being one of the largest watchmakers in the world by volume: Seiko has refined the art of making a mechanical watch to the tune of $100. Where a Rolex movement is hand-finished and hand-assembled from parts made in exotic materials for the ultimate performance, the 7S26 is made very basically, by machine, with no frills whatsoever.

Accuracy is leagues apart from a Rolex, with figures quoted some ten times worse, as is the power reserve, which can barely muster two days to Rolex’s three. It goes without hacking seconds and even manual winding. It pushes the case up to a pretty tall 13mm. But … it works, and it works well. It’s reliable, it’s fun to look at it, and it’s so much cheaper that it’s not even funny. You even get a day indicator as well as a date. So, if you’ve been looking wistfully through the jeweller’s window at a Rolex, wishing you too could have a watch like that, with this Seiko, you really can. And what’s most incredible is that where Rolex makes almost all of its parts, Seiko really does make everything.

For $100, even the most die-hard internet complainer will have a hard time knocking the Seiko SNXS79. Whilst there’s no expectation for it to match the performance and quality of a Rolex, it gets far closer than that price gives it any right to. And do you know what? As much as it reminds me of Rolex today, it’s Rolex of yesteryear that the SNXS79 feels more in tune with, back when these two watchmakers were fighting tooth and nail to become the top dog. Its construction is basic—rudimentary, even—with every last penny spent where it counts most—just like a Rolex used to be. If that doesn’t put a smile on your face for $100, you should probably check your pulse and call an ambulance.

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