Seiko 5 SRPK91

I previously owned the Seiko 5 SNXS79, and had it for a couple of years. It was beautiful no nonsense watch that was extremely reasonably priced. Beautiful sunburst silver dial, with a day date function, sitting at 37mm. Then I saw the announcement of the replacement, and I kind of felt like Andy from Toy Story when he drops Woody, and put mine up for sale because I wanted the new one. Don’t get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with my SNXS but the new one was just beautiful, but come on have you seen the new Seiko 5 SRPK?

The Seiko 5 SRPK came in three colors, Black (SRPK87) Blue (SRPK89) and Champagne (SRPK91). The Seiko 5 line which was launched in 1963 had to follow a certain criteria. The watch had to have a day-date function, water resistance, shock resistance and had to be at a watch that had an accessible price. The SRPK is part of the Seiko 5 line and it follows all of that to a T.

The new iteration of the SNXS, the SRPK kept a lot of what made the SNXS such a fan favorite among watch enthusiasts. The new one keeps the 37.4mm case size with a baton hour and minute hands, and the crown stays at the 4o’clock marker. But that’s as far as the similarities go because if it was just a matter of new dials, and no substantial update to the watch, then it wouldn’t really be a successor.

The SRPK comes several key upgrades compared to the SNXS. The water resistance of the watch has been increased substantially going from a mere 30m water resistance to 100m of water resistance. The SRPK also comes with a new movement, replacing the 7S26 movement that came in the SNXS to the 4R36 movement, which now has a 41 hour power reserve, hacking seconds function, and the most important feature the new movement has is the fact I can manual wind the watch. The bracelet has changed as well, its become much sturdier and can even be compared to the bracelet of the Seiko SARB watches, making the watch feel more refined and more expensive.

The dial colors have changed, but not just that the watch has a more vintage 70’s look to it now. With the black insert on the SRPK91 and cream white in both the SRPK87 and SRPK89, giving this beautiful contrast as it sits bordering the dial. The applied indices are fractionally bigger that its predecessor but are now lacquered in cream with Lumibrite, that plays well with the vintage 70’s look. To break that look, the seconds hands on all three of the dial colors is in this bright orange making it pop.

I purchased the SRPK91, the champagne color, because yes the blue dial looked beautiful and the black dial is just a staple for any watch dial color, but the color just spoke to me. When I left the Wako Building in Ginza, just as I had purchased the two GS’s for me and my wife, the Grand Seiko STGF359 for my beautiful wife and the Grand Seiko SBGN029 for myself. I saw the Seiko boutique walked in and found that the store itself had a floor for each line that Seiko had. I spent almost an hour in the boutique looking at the watches trying to figure out which one I wanted, even though in the back of my head I knew I wanted the SRPK91. The employee there was showing me around and helping me making my choice, because I’m guessing I had the words “I’m not leaving until I get something” written on my forehead. When I saw that they had the watch I wanted I went for it, and I’m glad I did, because had I purchased it in Kuwait the day dial would be in both English and Arabic, but because I purchased it in Japan it had the day in both English and Japanese, which made the watch a bit more special.

I’ve had the watch for more than three months and love it. The dial size the bracelet and especial the sunburst champagne colored dial. The upgraded movement with the hand winding function makes the upgrade Seiko has made major in my opinion. You can get yours here in Kuwait if you want, but as I said it the day dial will be in both English and Arabic, for some that’s something that they want. You can find them in I’m not mistaken at Morad Behbehani as they are the current authorized dealer of Seiko.