Seiko 3883-7000
Today, I am starting a series of reviews of my favourite watches in my personal collection. Each review will have a brief introduction of the watch, followed by three things I like about the watch and three things that I dislike, or wish were different, about it.
Introduction
The Seiko reference 3883-7000 'Quartz Superior' with the silver dial is probably my favourite watch in my collection. In my opinion, this watch was a very avant-garde design, in terms of both looks and functionality, when it was released in 1974 that blew most of its contemporaries out of the water. In fact, I consider this watch to still easily hold its own against, or even outshine, most modern day watches.
Three things I like
Case: The case of the watch is the standout, with its many facets (including bevels) and lines. In total, I count 24 facets on the upper case of this watch. The brushed horizontal facets of the case, combined with the mirror polished side facets, give this watch an incredibly sharp and modern look. One interesting effect of this combination of facets and lines is that the polished side facets sometimes appear 'invisible' while on the wrist, as they are polished to such a degree that they appear to blend into the wrist.
It is hard to praise the facets and lines of the case without mentioning the material that was used to create the upper case and bezel - 'HSS', which I believe stands for hardened stainless steel. HSS is a very hard material and it is this hardness that has allowed the lines of this case to remain so sharp and its facets to have maintained their polish to this day.
The use of HSS, combined with the design of this watch, gives me the visual perception that this watch was only made a few years ago - as opposed to being over 50 years old. On this note, I wish more modern day manufacturers would use HSS, instead of the typical stainless steel grades.
Movement: As someone who owns many watches, most of which have a mechanical movement, having a high accuracy quartz watch in the rotation is a luxury for when you need something to grab and go. It is even more of a luxury when that quartz movement happens to be the most accurate movement when it was released - such as, to my understanding, the calibre 3883 used in this watch. At the time of release in 1974, the calibre 3883 was rated to an average monthly accuracy of +/- 2 seconds. For general comparison, in this day and age, I understand that most typical Swiss and Japanese quartz movements are rated to an average monthly accuracy of around +/- 15 seconds. Of course, there are modern high end quartz watches that are more accurate but, even then, the difference in accuracy is, in my opinion, generally not too far apart.
Most importantly, this watch still keeps very good time, and I have not had it serviced while in my possession of almost 4 years.
Dial: The dial is something that I do not see often. While, at first glance, this dial may appear to be a fairly typical silver face, closer inspection reveals a few pleasant surprises. The black hour markers appear to be flat but, when viewed from the side, one will notice that they stand like monuments on the dial, with an almost alien/sci-fi quality. It is also not often that you see each minute marked with an applied indice. Further, the applied 'Quartz' marker, with the 'SUPERIOR' text underlying it, stands rightfully proud, harkening back to an age when quartz technology was considered the future of watchmaking.
Finally, I know that some would say that the 'morpho butterfly' dial variant of this watch is better. While I agree that that dial is even more visually interesting to look at - especially, when viewing for the first time - that dial is also much less versatile in terms of wearability and, because of that, I personally would consider it novel.
Three things I dislike, or wish were different
I preface that most of these are probably 'nitpicks', as you may appreciate it is quite hard to come up with three 'dislikes' about my favourite watch. You will also see that most of these points, if not all of these, carry some benefit.
Day date function: I really wish this watch did not have a day and date function, as I am a fan of symmetric and clean dials. Also, this watch does not have a perpetual calendar feature, so it would need to be adjusted every now and then if you want it to display the correct date.
Hooded lugs: The hooded lugs are one of the main elements of this watch that I would consider 'dated'. Further, combined with the many facets and lines of this case, the hooded lugs can make the watch look overly 'aggressive'. Having said this, one benefit of the hooded lugs is that it pairs quite nicely with straps, as you do not get any visual gap between the case and strap.
Battery hatch: I wish that the battery hatch did not bulge. I would even prefer a typical screw down case back over this dedicated battery hatch. Again, having said this, one benefit of the bulging battery hatch is that the watch slightly tilts towards the wearer while on the wrist, making it easier to glance at the time.
I hope you have enjoyed my first review in this series.