SEIKO Coutura Collection Light-Powered Watch

Seiko Coutura Perpetual Solar

1) Is this watch for you?
a) Yes if:
i) You really like the looks of it. (I think it is a knockout.)
ii) You love gadgets and like lots of what are called “complications” in watch community jargon, i.e. features over and above just giving the time.
iii) You have patience for fiddley settings.
iv) You appreciate great value for the money.
b) No if:
i) Your cup of tea is a clean, minimally cluttered dial. (Think of an Orient “bambino.”)
ii) You only want a watch that tells you the time that you can throw on your wrist and be done with it.
iii) You don’t like the looks of it.
iv) Getting gadgets all set up configuring multiple features drives you up the wall and you don’t have the patience to do that.
2) Observations:
a) I was concerned about buying a 44 MM diameter watch. I need not have been. It looks great on my 7 ¼” wrist. In other words, it “wears smaller” than the diameter would suggest.
b) The lugs curve down to follow the curve of your wrist and the watch wears comfortably.
c) When you get the watch don’t get in a big rush to set it up. There is a good “Quick Reference” card in the box. FOLLOW IT VERY CAREFULLY, STEP-BY-STEP and all will be well, good to go until 2100 as long as you don’t deprive the solar cells of light for a prolonged period or screw the settings up playing with other features later. (Yes, I did that.) If you don’t follow the card carefully, you WILL regret it
d) One reviewer was upset that he did not get gold color bracelet center links often found in other bimetallic bracelets commonly seen. That is NOT what this bracelet has. Look at the pictures carefully. The gold accents on this bracelet are subtle. The faces of the center links are polished steel. The front and back of the sides of the center links are where the gold color is. It gives a nice light play when you rotate your wrist while looking at the bracelet and you will see the little glimmers of gold on the bracelet when you look down on the watch.
e) Construction seems solid, as I would expect in a Seiko.
f) I haven’t had this watch long enough to report on accuracy, but Seikos, particularly those with quartz movements, normally have excellent accuracy.

Other reviewers have already captured this watch’s excellent value, feature set, looks and quality. Below are my observations; I’ll summarize that this is a dress watch that makes slight trade-offs for looks over functionality (rather than being a sports or everyday watch), and is really well designed and manufactured for that purpose.

NOTE: You must properly set the watch the first time around, otherwise calendar and alarm may not work right. It’s all in the manual! Shouldn’t have to touch it again for a long time.

Battery: It’s solar-powered, so you shouldn’t have to replace the battery for a long time.

Size and fit: The case size of 44 mm is on the smaller side for men’s chronographs these days, and should work for more wrists. The lugs curve downwards from the watch back (rather than going straight out, or being offset by a domed back), helping the watch wrap nicely on my thinner wrist. There’s plenty of removable links – in fact, they *all* can be removed (no one’s going to, but just so you know).

Functions: I compared this to a Citizen PCAT, which was also in the running. Seiko’s functions are easier to use – lower side button for chrono, upper side button for checking date-month-year-battery reserve. Pull crown to position 1 for setting alarm, position 2 for setting time and calendar. Missing are world time, multiple time zones, and radio time sync (compared to more expensive Couturas and the Citizen PCATs), but those weren’t worth the premium for me.

Buttons: Two side buttons, that shouldn’t get pushed accidentally, thanks to the raised “shoulder” of the crown, as well as their own resistance and clickiness (might take some time getting used to). The alarm is set using the side buttons rather than by turning the crown. In some contexts, holding the button pressed will move the hands faster (like when setting the alarm or the time/calendar).

Dials and hands: Top dial is for day, date-hand function indicator and power level. The “day arc” dial is less common in watches, and I like how it’s done here. Bottom dial is alarm time/chrono hour+minute. Left dial is always seconds. The normal second hand is actually a calendar hand on this watch, cycling between displaying date, month and year when pressing the top side button. It’s much more readable than a small date dial, of course less so than a date window – but the date hand is unique and works for the look of the watch vs a date window.

The big dials has 1/5th second markings for the chrono functions, but these are missing near the big 5-minute markers – for looks I guess, but I’d have preferred if they had kept the fine markings everywhere.
Hands are nicely styled, with the hour and minute hands having plenty of LumiBrite. The calendar hand is really thin; a bit more width would have been nice. Other markings are white against black, no LumiBrite here – will be difficult to read in “mood lighting”.

Materials and build: can’t complain, solid parts are solid, moving parts are well-fitted, glass is sapphire crystal and flat, water resistance of 100 m is adequate (not planning on scuba diving with this dress watch). The polished silver band will slowly scratch, so enjoy it while it lasts. After that, declare it “brushed metal”? The band styling is unique to the Coutura line, as far as I can tell, and quite attractive.

You won’t find a replacement band from Seiko, so take care of the original (or maybe buy a busted Coutura for the band if you must).

Comparable watches: Seiko SSC787 is this watch but in silver with blue tone. Citizen PCATs offer similar dial layout, more features (time zones, tachymeter, radio sync, and 200 m water resistance, but lack month-year) at a higher price.

Finally, be careful where you buy it from – either get it from Amazon.com directly, or an authorized Seiko seller. My first attempt landed me a “new” watch from an inventory liquidator, and many of the negative reviews here appear to have had a similar experience.

Es un reloj muy bonito, se siente el salto de un reloj sencillo a un Seiko Coutura, la calidad es muy buena, la caja sin duda es hermosa y el tamaño es perfecto.

Es un tanto difícil calibrar y toma bastante tiempo bajo el sol para que se pueda cargar la reserva por completo.

Tuve que ver un video en YouTube sobre como poner en ceros las manecillas del reloj para poder configurar de nuevo la fecha, hora, día de la semana, año biciesto, etcétera.

Lo recomiendo mucho a la gente que busca dar un salto en la orología por algo un poco más lujoso.

The bracelet was quite large out of the box. Easy to adjust. Use a pin to push out the bracelet pins in the direction of the arrows. Push one way, all the way out of the other end and remove as needed. Then push the pin back in all the way from the opposite end until it fits like the others.
Overall a good weight and size, not one of those huge watch faces but not small either.