Moral of the story: Get into the heritage diver scene without breaking the bank. This stylish, well-built automatic with sporty vintage looks is a great way to go.

There’s a common point I share with Gonzo. We both love Seiko-s, though not all the models. Gonzo’s preferences run towards the classier kind while mine is about sportiness. Yes, preference of calibres match more often than never; Seiko makes movements that range from ‘very good’ to ‘par excellence’ and here I follow Mr. W.G most of the times.

So what I thought to be the perfect watches for the weekends by the nearest seaside didn’t go down well with Gonzo. Except the above one! He thinks a proper ‘Diver; is must for such outings. Beach rigors like volleyballs and beach-cricket or any similar other games are handled well by them and even if you do not travel deep into the waters.

I agree it needs to be well made, nicely detailed et al; an automatic movement here – again, we both agreed – would look fantastic! Even if there is water seepage, it doesn’t burn out mechanical parts the way it burns/short-circuits pcb-s. Printed circuit boards; not polychlorinated biphenyl! The latter is a class of very stable chlorinated organic chemicals that dangerously pollute the environment.

Bright, versatile and unique – that’s what it needs to be. Affordable too; but that doesn’t mean you won’t grieve its loss. The Mt. Fuji Special Editions – a Seiko limited edition release in the Seiko5 range – fits from every aspect.

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The story behind is the 2013 naming of Mt. Fuji as a World Heritage Site and bringing it under the list of 1,000 unique cities, buildings, monuments and natural wonders around the world. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization handled the whole affair and Seiko, as a tribute to this distinction of cultural importance made some among the Seiko 5 family bear the words Mt. Fuji as a World Heritage along the ring around the display caseback.

Let’s hear why Gonzo went after his model. It’s a dive watch that’s not too expensive yet looks nice and rugged. It has one of the latest watch movements (the 4R36) with hacking, hand-winding and a sane number (24) of jewels with specified jobs; not just mere settings. It can store a couple of days of power when fully wound and a tighter mainspring helps to retain accuracy. But otherwise also, the accuracy seems to be pretty good, as testing shows (in different positions).

The other Mt. Fuji models differ quite a bit from this one apart from the handful of design elements deliberately thrown into every model. The blue colour and the prominent bezels are the first to get noticed. The white-pearlescent textured dials create a background that brightens the blue, plus lumed hands at night gives it quite an uber-earthly (if not unearthly) look from above the Hardlex crystal.

Watch(es) mentioned in this post are listed below. Click to see details and buy them:

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