What time is it? Watches and horology

So why not ?

Get one of these for £900?

Do like the skinny bezel and crystal on the SLA though. If you can find one to buy.

I own an SLA017, I'll give you my thoughts.

It's a really, really nice watch.

I believe the ~£3.5k price at launch was pushing it but arguably justifiable given how nice the finishing is and the limited run. It's clearly part of Seiko's broad corporate strategy to increase prices across the board and move upmarket. The price for the 037 is a combination of that, plus halving the run to drive rarity and push secondary prices up, creating a halo effect to increase the perception of the brand at that price point and allowing them to raise prices within their volume ranges. Note that none of the other recreations they've done at that price point (eg the Willard) have increased in price on the secondary market. It's only the 017, and that's because it's such a classic design, it looks great and it helps that it's a very wearable size.

The 8L35 movement is pretty good but it's quite an old design and we shouldn't forget it's also the movement inside the Marinemaster 300, which was about half the price of the SLA017 for a long time. They don't adjust it particularly extensively and while mine is very good - it stays within +3/-2 secs per day - I've heard enough people say theirs is nowhere near that to know that I've been lucky in that regard.

The case is wonderful, as are the hour & minute hands. Those are the two areas you can really see the price. The brushing and polishing are top drawer. The crystal and bezel are very nicely done too. The dial is beautiful, and while I really like how the hour markers look, it's worth noting that they are not applied like the original 62MAS. They are stamped through the dial from the reverse side and machined down to a polished finish. This is something Seiko do on a lot of their dive watches, and while the surface finish is beautiful, what you get is slightly soft/rounded corners where the dial rises up. This is one of the few criticisms of the 017 from a lot of Seiko enthusiasts (along with the printed Seiko logo instead of applied) - if you compare it with a 62MAS dial you can see the box markers are a lot sharper at the corners on the original.

Also worth mentioning is that the bracelet on the SLA017 is terrible for the price - so bad they've given up and not bothered including one with the 037. The end links leave marks on the case so watch out for that on pre-owned examples.

The newer hi-beat calibre in the 037 is a big upgrade over the 017, but it's not a £3k upgrade. What drove me to seek out a good 017 a few months back was realising that Seiko were going to keep raising their prices and lowering volumes on this model because they know they have a winner with collectors and it makes them look good. I'm not particularly happy with their approach but they'll sell them all, I'm sure. Is it worth Submariner money? Not sure. Is it a beautiful, coherent, well-executed classic divers watch design? Yeah, it is.