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I need an everday beater watch. I know the standard STW response to what watch is the Snda57p but I've seen the Seiko 7A28 RAF watch (gen 1) and I love it but can't justify the expense.
Does anyone know of something similar? All the modern Seiko chrono's I see are too busy. I think I don't want the numbers on the dial but in truth I can't quite put my finger on why I am drawn to the 7A28.
cheers for any help all.
I had the same throught about the value when I looked at them. Went for a 7T94 0BL0 which is not a million miles different.
Edit -Ah, sorry that has numbers on the dial. Ignore me.
There's a good reason for the expense, and it's all down to that Quartz movement:
This is my latest find, the Seiko 7A28-7040. It was made in 1982 and sports the most advanced 15 jewel quartz movement of the time. It is the civilian version of the 7A28 that was used by the RAF (British Royal Air Force) during the late 80's and beginning of the 90's later replaced by the 7A38 and 7A48 complementing the watch with a day/date.
It was the world first analog quartz chrono. It has a thrid chrono button that pauses the chronograph for easy readoff and then continues where it left of (including the time from the initial press). It also shows 1/10 second with resolution of 1/20s stops.
It originally came on a metal strap of lower qualith so i put it on black leather which i think makes it look a lot nicer.
Edit: Made in 1982, not 83.
It was made in 1983 and sports the most advanced 15 jewel quartz movement of the time
Wait, why would a quartz movement need jewels, or is that a mistake?In most quartz watches, there's no need for jewels for a few reasons: the rotational speed of the wheels are quite slow, the load bearing on the wheels are very low, and because of the last two, you'll often find wheels made of plastic (which is "self-lubricating" in the watch world).
In 1983, there was still a high amount of metal wheels being used and because this was still during the quartz boom, many of the old techniques for watchmaking were still in use. In many of the high quality quartz watches of today, you'll still see jewels being used.
The 7A series movements were the highest-quality quartz movements made at that time - the first analog quartz chronographs. Four separate trains, all metal, with synthetic ruby jeweling. They're an amazing piece of electrical and mechanical engineering. At that time also, "quality" = "jeweling".
They really are a work of art. I would still put them up against anything else. Modern quartz watches aren't jeweled at all now, and are mostly made of plastic. I own a lot of 7A-series watches for a reason. They're designed to be maintained, made to be serviced. With care, there's no reason that one of these won't run for decades, if not much longer (barring battery changes of course).
[url= http://www.watchsleuth.com/seikochronofinder/ ]Hunt it down via here.[/url]
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SNA695?
I've be after something similar for a while. What puts me off is most of them are only rated to 100m (which obviously isn't really 100m), even some of the diver-style models.
Many thanks for the replys so far - I shall spend a while on the Seiko finder website thanks Saccades.
Tthew I'm not sure its the absence of numbers that I 'need' but I find most of the chrono's I've seen to busy.
Any suggestions for non-Seiko's?
Cheers
The trick I use is to google the "seiko number you like vs ... and let autocomplete take you on an adventure.
Citizen are pretty good too.
I'm not sure what the hassle about 100m is, it's a plenty high pressure rating for everyone. What'll kill the watch at higher pressures are age, seals perishing due to aftershave, wd40 etc etc
No one really dives with a dive watch.