cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
17108
Sportura Perpetual! Not fashionable but trustworthy
I'm wearing my Seiko Sportura Perpetual Calendar GMT 100M watch today. As I said in the title to this post, it's not the most fashionable watch having aged a bit since Y2K, but it's a darn nice object to find in the watch cabinet.
- Legible dial
- Bright lume on markers AND hands, including the GMT
- Always running (lithium battery 5+ years)
- Always on the right day (perpetual calendar movement 8F56 programmed for 100 years)
- Screw-down crown for water resistance to a far greater depth than I will ever reach (without cement overshoes)
- Nice heft to stainless steel case and bracelet
- "Porthole" look to the case, with integrated styling to bracelet (no strap due to integrated bracelet lugs)
Part of a family of watches from Seiko known as SPORTURA, this has siblings which I have also owned, including a titanium perpetual GMT which I must have lost, as I liked it better than the stainless version. But don't they make a nice match? And you can tell them apart by the GMT hands and lume.
Lume shot - seems I'm 30 second fast.
Then there's the Kinetic Sportura (not perpetual) version, dependent on arm movement to wind itself. I still have this but don't wear it often because the screw-down crown threads are stripped now and I don't like to wear it with the crown sticking up. I suppose a trip to Seiko Service could cure that.
Jim Clark jumping his Lotus in one of my wall pictures (an early attempt at artsy watch photos from 20 years ago).
Jim Clark jumping his Lotus in one of my wall pictures (an early attempt at artsy watch photos from 20 years ago).
Today's similar but not identical photo with today's watch on:
Final member of my Sportura team is this Chronograph. I saw it advertised on the inside rear cover of Classic & Sports Car, on a flight to London in 2001.
Soon thereafter it was on my wrist -- Jan 2002 it the first photo.
I still have the coffee cup too, along with a half-dozen other prints by Randy Owens. This one shows the first time Michael Andretti passed his father Mario on the racetrack (signed by both).
Sorry, I digressed. See below for a recent photo of the Chrono.
By the way, if the Sportura styling is too dated for your taste, you could find another Seiko Perpetual GMT (movement 8F56) watch that looks like this in a much more modern titanium skin.
Along with my trusty Breitling Aerospace this is my favorite travel watch. It seems to have enjoyed Hawaii and Alaska...
And road trips are fine too. This one to Arizona.
Cazalea
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Sportura Perpetual! Not fashionable but trustworthy
I'm wearing my Seiko Sportura Perpetual Calendar GMT 100M watch today. As I said in the title to this post, it's not the most fashionable watch having aged a bit since Y2K, but it's a darn nice object to find in the watch cabinet. Legible dial Bright lume...
Great Lug Integration
And I appreciate the case to face ratio. That said they could have done without the screws? On the bezel.
The Screws are perhaps rivets?
They are part of the design theme which includes this blackish area of the bezel which is achieved by some sort of different polishing of the material The back has similar styling touches which are far more than "needed" for opening the watch. Inside (yes...
Great watches !
I remember lurking at this one for quite a long time in the early 2000's. It was a period (from +/- 1995 till 2005) I never wore a watch and for that reason i didn't want to buy it. My life could have been so different if had Timebomb Bim
Great watches I didn’t know of them
thank you for sharing. Do you change the lithium battery or is it chargeable with a rotor inside the watch?
You change it, and reprogram the calendar
It's a bit of a pain in the neck, actually. Involving tweezers and tapping on the battery and several sensor points around it to tell it the current year and month and day. Then the watch movement goes to work and rotates the calendar to the proper date. ...
That was also something I was wondering
as I haven’t seen a month or a year indicator neither on the dial nor on the back of the watch. Thank you for clarifying it is indeed an interesting watch.
