For 2020, Seiko introduces its long-standing JDM (Japanese home market) Lukia ladies’s watch assortment as a globally accessible product — although with a brand new kind. Right now, aBlogtoWatch appears to be like on the Seiko Lukia references SPB133 (white on white strap), SPB135 (pink on pink strap), SPB137 (blue on blue strap), SPB138 (two-tone on inexperienced strap), and the SPB140 (gold-tone on purple strap). There are extra variations accessible, corresponding to these with and with out diamond ornament on the bezels. Whereas in Japan, the Seiko Lukia timepiece assortment has ranged from entry-level fashions to these squarely within the luxurious area, the 2020 Seiko Lukia ladies’s watches accessible in the USA and different elements of the world are definitely skewed towards the posh phase.
Lovely and sensible, Lukia Assortment watches are perfect for ladies searching for an ornamental each day put on — powered by an in-house-made computerized motion. There are nonetheless only a few watches of this sort, at this value vary, which can be accessible in any mainstream method. That makes the Seiko Lukia a part of a still-rare breed, and the watch trade has excessive hopes that this phase will develop. What phase is that, precisely? Good query. For years now, the watch trade has confronted market development stagnation with males’s mechanical watch merchandise. Whereas there are nonetheless loads of males’s luxurious timepiece markets and value factors nonetheless to take advantage of, it might be fallacious to recommend that the posh watch trade didn’t solely over-saturate most markets with way more merchandise than shoppers are keen (or ready) to buy. Thus, the dream is that at the least among the success of promoting higher-end mechanical watches to males may very well be replicated within the ladies’s market.
Whereas ladies can covet a timepiece as a lot as males can, the psychology of girls wodesiring and buy a watch has confirmed to be a unique sufficient animal that the identical methods used to get males enthusiastic about watches don’t all the time work for girls. The consequence has been that ladies wearers of luxurious watches usually spend lower than males per watch and in addition are typically interested by a far narrower breadth of manufacturers. A giant motive for that is that not like the comparatively few wearable luxurious accent classes males can put on in a socially acceptable method, ladies have way more choices, together with product classes corresponding to purses, many types of jewellery, clothes, footwear, make-up, and extra. Males are normally restricted to maybe footwear, generally a pockets, clothes, and their watches. Thus, curiosity in luxurious equipment for males is rather more consolidated within the watch class than it’s for girls.
Not considering vital components corresponding to advertising and marketing and promoting, the watch trade has usually requested the query, “What does a lady need in a luxurious timepiece if she is within the phase past essentially the most recognized, in style manufacturers corresponding to Rolex, Cartier, and Chanel?” Some ladies choose the practicality of quartz watches, and others recognize the romance and timelessness of mechanical watches. Some ladies really choose sporting noticeably males’s watches on their wrists, and different ladies demand authentic designs which can be extra than simply sized-down, dressed-up males’s watches. The place do these roughly $1,300 Seiko Lukia watches match within the combine?
At first look, the Lukia watches profit from not wanting like several of Seiko’s in style males’s watches. The instances and dials are authentic, even when they embody a collection of “design codes” that seasoned timepiece followers will acknowledge from different Seiko merchandise. The spherical instances (in metal, with a few of them being coated in gold tone) have curved delicate female lugs, and a 12-sided angular bezel that performs properly with the geometric designs of the dial and hour markers. Whereas these watches are elegant of their coloring (impressed by varied locations within the Ginza, a ritzy procuring district in Tokyo), they’re really fairly sporty of their sturdiness that includes a sapphire crystal and 100 meters of water resistance for the case.
The instances are every 34.8mm-wide, which is about as massive as you’d wish to go for a watch that’s nonetheless inherently female in its proportions. The watch is comparatively skinny, however given the mechanical computerized motion on the within, it isn’t going to be as skinny as Seiko’s most svelte quartz-based timepiece. On the common lady’s wrist, this practically 35mm-wide case measurement is massive sufficient to be daring, however not so massive as to be visually overpowering or mistaken for one thing masculine.
Seiko did a gorgeous job with the dials of the SPB1XX Lukia watches, that are all mother-of-pearl. The bottom mother-of-pearl dial is printed on, giving the dials the look of complicated inventive marquetry (whose geometry, together with diamond-set hour markers) and is what I earlier known as being harmonious with the case design. It is extremely fascinating to see how the printed (and coloured) mother-of-pearl Lukia watches look in pink, white, blue, gold, and pink. They give the impression of being very enticing in particular person, for my part.
Eight of the 12-hour markers are utilized with a small set diamond. One hour marker is lacking to make room for a date window, and the opposite three hour markers are utilized and stylized Roman numerals. With the angular, robust fingers, the Lukia faces have an fascinating combination of daring (virtually masculine) traces contrasted with colours, textures, and ornament that really feel inherently female. Legibility is powerful, and the highly effective look of the coloured mother-of-pearl helps the watches to be eye-catching and enticing — one thing all high-end watches ought to be.
Connected to the instances are very good crocodile straps that use a favourite strategy of mine that hides and of the stitching. I imagine that is referred to as a “rolled edge” approach and pulls the crocodile pores and skin over the facet edges of the strap and attaches it to the padding on the underside of the strap. I actually can’t see anybody being upset by these straps, however a bracelet possibility would have been good. I’ll, nonetheless, guess that not everybody needs the fold-over locking deployant clasps which can be connected. Whereas these deployants assist extend the lifetime of the strap (and retailers imagine shoppers really feel they’re extra high-end and thus extra simply command greater costs), these deployant clasps are inherently cumbersome and may add pointless fuss to the strap-wearing expertise. I additionally lament that, in California, not one of the crocodile straps will likely be accessible. The state I reside in not too long ago handed a legislation outlawing the sale of many animal skins with a purpose to cut back the marketplace for illegally sourced unique skins. Provided that alligators and crocodiles are principally farmed and, to my data, not hunted in nature, I personally don’t perceive the huge breadth of the legislation. I additionally am curious what straps these Lukia watches may have on them for these items which can be bought in California’s massive timepiece market.
Contained in the Seiko Lukia watches is the in-house-made Seiko caliber 6R35 computerized motion, which can also be seen by a sapphire crystal window on the rear of the case. The mechanical motion operates at 3Hz (21,600 bph) and has a longish energy reserve of 70 hours. This can be a decent-grade mechanical motion that may serve its wearer properly at this value level. I’m really not very aware of ladies’s computerized Seiko timepieces, so I’m not certain of the complete breadth of motion decisions Seiko gives on this smaller diameter measurement. Whereas some Swiss Made computerized actions inside ladies’s watches will be higher embellished and slimmer, I don’t assume most of them would have the ability to compete with Seiko when it comes to pricing.
The Seiko of 2020 and past is much less and fewer about being a reduction various to luxurious Swiss watches on condition that Seiko is upping its worth propositions (and costs) over time. That mentioned, the overwhelming majority of Seiko watches nonetheless supply extra bang on your buck than most comparable Swiss-made watches. Well-liked manufacturers corresponding to Rolex, Omega, TAG Heuer, Chanel, Hermes, Cartier, and others that produce mechanical (or in any other case) ladies’s watches supply nothing or little or no at this value level. Seiko is more and more in a position to maintain its personal in a battle, which is why even when pricing isn’t as aggressive as some individuals bear in mind it, today the model is making very clear strikes to offer shoppers much more for his or her cash.
The Seiko Lukia computerized watches for 2020 will, for a lot of ladies (outdoors of Japan), be the primary time they’ve been romanced by an ornamental, mechanical watch from the historic firm. Having seen related items bought in Japan-only, I understand how in style these “each day ornamental” ladies’s timepieces will be out there. Seiko should take some steps towards educating a extra international ladies’s viewers about why mechanical timepieces are fascinating, however as soon as they do, I feel there’s a lot to like (in addition to considerable worth) within the Seiko Lukia computerized SPB133, SPB135, SPB137, SPB138, and SPB140 (together with the remainder of the gathering’s SKUs). Value for the Seiko Lukia watches (with out diamonds on the bezel however quite solely on the dial) ranges from $1,300 – $1,400 USD, relying on the metal case tone. Study extra on the Seiko web site right here.
