
At their packed Baselworld press conference Seiko announced that 2016 was to be the year of their middle-tier Presage collection. The lion’s share of attention has been on the truly excellent limited edition Presage Chronograph, but there’s a lot to love in the rest of the collection too.
Presage honours the spirit of fine mechanical watchmaking that Seiko is well known for, but at a price point that’s far from prohibitive. Take for example the good looking three-hander that is the Seiko Presage SPB039J1 – not only do you get a quite handsome dress watch (with such a catchy name!), you get all the advantages of Seiko’s ‘Trimatic’ technology. This comprises of the magic lever (for efficient winding), Spron alloy (for stronger and longer lasting springs) and Dia-Shock (Seiko’s shock resistance technology). The watches in the Presage collection are a cut above Seiko’s popularly priced mechanicals in terms of movement quality and finishing, but the pricing, as you can see, is still highly competitive.