2015 will be remembered as Seiko‘s limited edition year. Why 2015? Because Seiko celebrated, three years ago, the first 50 years of the most famous diver’s watches collection in the world, the Prospex collection. Back then, the Prospex watches slowly started to conquer Europe, a giant leap forward from the time when you could only get them in Tokyo or New York or by paying exorbitant import duty fees. Today, Seiko has a rep office in Italy too.
2015: the Seiko Sumo officially becomes a Prospex.
The process introduced to uniform the brand’s collections includes specific models solely sold on particular markets (e.g. the recent Green Sumo) and quite hard to find even on the domestic Japanese market.
Let’s talk about the Seiko Sumo, the most accessible and bourgeois-like professional diver’s watch for every businessman that Seiko sells worldwide, mainly in two versions: one version sports a black dial and bezel. At the same time, the other version features a blue dial and bezel (a Pepsi Sumo is also available today, along with different colour options).
On top of officially welcoming the “X logo” of the Prospex series across the entire professional diver’s collections – from the year 2016 onward, the logo featured on the dial of every Prospex timepiece – the year 2015 saw Seiko launch numerous limited editions, perhaps the most significant release of limited edition timepieces in the manufacturer’s history before 2017 and the launch of the partnership with PADI.
The highly sought-after Limited Edition Sumo you can find on the Thai market.
The Thai market plays a central role in the Japanese manufacturer’s strategic expansion and marketing plans, and every year, many unique models are crafted to be explicitly sold on this exclusive market, an absolute heaven for any watch collector.
The Seiko Sumo Yellow, the Seiko Prospex SumoSilver Limited Edition SPB029 (the first limited edition Seiko Sumo that has ever entered my personal collection) and the Seiko Sumo Green are three timepieces that those collectors who are always looking for “something special and rare” are very familiar with.
These watches differ from those timepieces you can find at your nearest retailer; they sport a sapphire glass instead of the usual Hardlex crystal, a cyclops lens on the sapphire glass and some other aesthetic characteristics typical of the Japanese watchmaking tradition.
The Seiko Prospex Green Sumo SPB031 is the second Green Sumo watch in the history of the Prospex Seiko Sumo collection specifically designed for the Thai market. While the Seiko Sumo Silver pays tribute to a renowned Thai retailer, the Seiko Sumo Green (or “Green Hornet” as I renamed it) is a different take on the Seiko Sumo Silver that sports an iridescent green background and gold accents.
What makes a Seiko Sumo Green different from a Seiko Sumo Silver.
The main difference between this timepiece and the Seiko Sumo Silver is that the Seiko Sumo Green is a celebration model specifically crafted to pay homage to the 50th anniversary of the Prospex series. The no-depth wavy background that seems almost flat on the Silver model has been completely redesigned on the Seiko Sumo Green.
Here, it creates the illusion of an incredible three-dimensional effect, a powerful feature that is coupled with an exterior smokey grey finishing towards the central part, a wave pattern and gold accents on the bezel (on the scale and on the ring) and winding crown. The contrast on the dial is accentuated even more by a golden edge around the indexes filled with Lumibrite.
About the dial.
The Seiko Prospex Green Sumo SPB031 has a very particular and personal design; there are plenty of details, and, despite being incredibly unique, it might not be everybody’s cup of tea. I couldn’t get hold of the official technical paper of this timepiece, and I am not even sure whether Seiko has ever released one.
Therefore, I am unsure of the manufacturer’s technique for crafting the dial. At first sight, the aesthetic look is similar to that of a Presage “Enamelled Dial” with its painted dial, something we have seen at Baselworld this year with the Seiko Presage Shippo Enamel Limited Edition.
Seiko is known for using special techniques to craft the dial of some of their limited edition models inspired by the traditional methods of Japanese painting, and the Seiko Presage Shippo Enamel Limited Edition is a perfect example.
The same technique has been applied here as sported on the models featuring an “Urushi” finishing (a particular type of hand lacquering on a printed background).
The remaining features of this timepiece are the same as every other Seiko Sumo watch; an automatic 6R15 calibre that ensures up to 50 hours of power reserve, a declared precision value that ranges between +25 and -15 seconds per day, and the seconds stop function that is used to perfectly synchronize the watch.
This is Seiko’s second limited edition watch specifically created for the Thai market that I have bought online at Shoppinginjapan.net, the Japanese website devoted to the most original Prospex editions (where I also bought the Seiko Prospex Silver Sumo).
The Seiko Prospex Green Sumo SPB031 has today almost doubled its value.
The retail price of the Seiko Prospex Green Sumo SPB031 was at least 200 USD higher than the retail price of the Seiko Sumo Silver at the time, and it totalled about 1,400USD; that is the exact threshold that I am trying to stick to when I buy watches coming from Japan since import duty fees on this watch were about 250USD.
I was ready to pay that amount of money since only 820 pieces of the Seiko Sumo Green were released, whereas there were 1,900 pieces of the Seiko Sumo Silver available, and also because I found it an excellent retail price if I consider the collector value of a LE Seiko Sumo Green, one of the best investments that you can make if you want to enter the world of collectors.
The quality, the polishing finishing and the crafting of the Sumo are excellent and the price of timepieces like the Green, the Silver and the Yellow (if the manufacturer will ever decide to re-release it) Seiko Sumo has gone up and already break, today and with the Sumo Green, the 2,000 USD threshold.
The bezel is particularly useful on diving watches, allowing you to check dive times. In this case, it unidirectionally rotates and usually comes in two parts: a metal (or ceramic,…
Cyclops
It is a small lens applied to the crystal that protects the dial and helps magnify the date.
Crown
Placed on the case side, it winds the mainspring. When pulled out, it also sets the time and the date. A screw-down crown increases water resistance and protects the movement…
Power Reserve
A mechanical watch feature displays, on the dial or the case back, the remaining power in a watch movement, showing the length of time until the timepiece must be rewound.
Calibre
A calibre is the type of watch movement encased in an assigned timepiece. Its name is usually associated with the manufacturer's name and a standard code, e.g., ETA 2824.
