SEIKOChronograph Black Dial Men's Watch SSB097

If you are like me, you're looking at buying an SSB097 as a more affordable somewhat-homage to the Bulova Lunar Pilot or Omega Speedmaster Professional. You know that Seiko makes a well finished, and quality product, and you might even own a few Seikos yourself, and want to add to that collection. However, if you expect this watch to be built even to the standards of a Seiko 5, you're in for serious disappointment. Let's start with the case; it's well polished, wears true to size, and has a Hardlex crystal, which is slightly better than untreated mineral crystal, but feels quite light and lacks the substance of other Seiko products that I own. Disappointment comes when you move to the dial and chapter ring. My biggest pet peeve with the dial is the lack of markings on the seconds hand, but that is depicted in the photos. Furthermore, either the tachymeter is very slightly misaligned, or the sweeping seconds hand came to me misaligned from the factory, either of which suggest poor quality control. Finally for the negatives, the textured band that it comes on is atrocious; rigid, ugly, and cheaply made, but that's easily remedied with a new strap.While this watch has quite a few negatives, it also has a few positives that I can share. For one, it is very handsome, and looks enough like a Speedmaster while keeping its own Seiko personality. Second, it wears true to size at 42mm, and looks very nice on wrist. The meca quartz movement is definitely very cool, but I don't know how long it's going to last. Finally, like I said before, the polishing on the case is very nice, and the Hardlex crystal is definitely a plus over something like acrylic or regular mineral crystal.As it comes in the box, I find the SSB097 to be a cheaply made watch, much more akin to the likes of a fashion watch than a high quality Seiko, Casio, or Orient timepiece. I really had higher expectations from Seiko based on previous products that I have purchased from them, especially at the price point. This watch would be a decent deal at maybe 70 dollars, but not the 120 or 130 that they tend to be selling at right now. If I were you, I'd either look into the Orient neo 70s, or just save up the extra money and get the Bulova Lunar Pilot. Will this watch grow on me after I put a new strap on it and use it on a daily basis? I don't know, maybe, but probably not. Will I eventually end up with a Lunar Pilot? Likely.

I love everything about this watch. It isn’t perfect, but for $134, there isn’t one thing I can genuinely complain about. It’s a in-house Japanese Quartz movement. It has a highly polished and beautifully brushed case. It’s has a flat non-sapphire crystal with no AR coating. The “Seiko” and indices are applied while the rest of the script are printed. The dial is very clean and everything lines up perfectly. The internal tachymeter bezel is a matte black with beautifully contrasting and precise white print. The tachymeter top and bottom push buttons do not have a very positive feel when depressed but function just fine. Resetting results in the tachymeter arm snapping back to the 12 o’clock position quickly but not in a spectacular fashion. The three sub-dials and date complication at 4 o’clock are very tidy. The date is large enough not to require a cyclops. Water resistance to 100 meters but let’s be honest, no one will go swimming not take a shower, let alone dive with this watch. Everything works as it should. The strap is stamped alligator pattern “calf” skin (if we are to believe the print on the strap underside). The strap is quite nice considering what I paid for this watch.I own other Seikos and other Swiss watches both automatic and Quartz. This Seiko Chronograph punches above its weight class and belies its price of entry. It looks stunning and is very comfortable in the presence of other much more expensive time pieces. A poor man’s Speedmaster that is proud to stand on its own.I’m glad I added this to my collection...

I gave this as a gift to my brother. it looks way better in real life and its super good a keeping time. super happy with it.

Un reloj para cualquier ocasión, bonita presentación y no es pesado.

A very beautiful and elegant chronograph. The design is really good. All minutes are marked on the stopwatch minute hand and the hands snap back when resetting to 0. I love where the date window is placed. It fits the symmetry of the face. The main hands glow in the dark, as well as the 5 minute markers. The strap is calf leather and fine, except I would prefer that it not have a simulated alligator look. All in all I find this to be a beautiful chronograph that functions well at a great price. It is very accurate too.11/1/2020 - On 10/01/2020 I set the watch based on an atomic clock. At the end of the month it has proved remarkably accurate with 2 seconds lost. The specification is +- 20 seconds. No scratches on the crystal.

...takes away from the watch which is nice looking overall.

Gift for my son and he really likes this watch

Beautiful watch. Solid good quality. Since I like the spiedle metal flex bands I replaced the band the next day.

The watch is great and very easy to read which is the main reason I got it. It arrived very quickly and was in perfect condition. The only thing I was disappointed in was the price. It was much more expensive than the same watch on amazon.com but they would not ship to Germany. So, since I wanted the watch, I decided to pay the extra after a lot of thinking if I wanted the watch that badly to pay so much extra, especially when it was during "Black Friday" week and it really should have been on sale. So, watch was absolutely great but I was not happy with the vendor for having such a difference in price with amazon.com.

Quando ho visto questo orologio me ne sono subito innamorato, l'unico dubbio era relativo alle dimensioni: 45 mm di cassa non sono pochi. Provato al polso però, ha tolto ogni dubbio, è semplicemente perfetto e molto ben rifinito, inoltre le punte non sporgono molto rispetto alla cassa e di conseguenza restano bene all'interno del polso (chiaramente dipende dalle dimensioni di ognuno, ma almeno questo è l'effetto ottenuto sul mio). Lo spessore della cassa è adeguato alla dimensione del quadrante, quindi non si rischia che l'orologio sembri "troppo grosso" ma invece è ben proporzionato. SEIKO inoltre è una garanzia, fa da sempre ottimi prodotti. Quindi non posso che consigliare il prodotto! In aggiunta, la spedizione è stata velocissima, in 24h ho ricevuto tutto ed anche il pacco era ben imbottito per evitare problemi. Grandi!

I love my new watch. It has a good weight to it and I believe it to be worth more than I paid. Very happy.

Orologio bello, mi aspettavo i segna tempo un po’ più marcati, risultano un po’ anonimi, cinturino un po’ duro.

価格の割に良いと感じます。比較した訳では無いのであくまで主観ですがボタンやダイヤルの動作があまり良く無くかんじます。