Launched at the Seiko x Watch Advice event in October, the new Seiko Prospex Sea “Kame” Australasian Edition was a hit, and now it’s time for an Owner’s Perspective Review!
What We Love
- An Australasian edition with design cues from North Queensland – the colours are great!
- The ease of wearing, even for a “larger” watch
- Value for money at under A$1,000
What We Don’t
- The pin buckle has a habbit of sticking out a little and catching on my pocket
- The bracelet could be more refined for a divers watch
- The steel strap minder looks good, but it’s not as functional as a rubber one would be
Overall Rating: 8.9 / 10
- Value for money: 9.5/10
- Wearability: 9/10
- Design: 9/10
- Build quality: 8/10
When it comes to Seiko, there are many iconic models in the catalogue, but few hold as much love arguably as the Prospex, and even more so, the “Turtle” with its turtle-shaped case, dive bezel and offset crown at 4 o’clock. Models like the Captain Willard, named after Martin Sheen’s character in the cinema classic “Apocalypse Now” are sought after and collectable. Just walk down a popular beach, and the likelihood is you’ll see several Seiko Turtles strapped to wrists.
I was on the Gold Coast a few weeks ago, with the new “Kame” strapped to my wrist, and I saw no less than about 5 other Seiko Prospex Turtles on other wrists. Although none were quite as good-looking (in my opinion) as the new Australasian limited edition “Kame”. One reason I bought it at our event that we held with Seiko Australia, where the watch was launched.
First Impressions
I first saw the new Seiko Prospex “Kame” a few days before its launch at the Seiko x Watch Advice night, and when I first saw the photos on screen, I thought it was actually quite a nice looking watch with a good use of the colour which take inspiration from the waters and sands around Fitzroy Island in North Queensland. However, it wasn’t until I was able to put it on my wrist on the night that I was really sold.
I haven’t worn a Seiko in quite a while, and for me, the size and dimensions of the turtle case actually felt quite good on the wrist. When combined with the colour-matched silicon rubber strap, I think I was sold at that point. The other addition that I liked was the gold around the bezel, which just gave it a little something else and elevated it from just a standard dive watch. The texturing on the dial was also a standout for me, as I loved the effect that Seiko has created, mimicking the waters and sand patterns of the coastal waters of Queensland.
All this notwithstanding, the price point of under A$1,000 and the fact that some of the proceeds would go to the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre to help their conservation efforts was a plus. Added up, the Seiko Prospex “Kame” (which is Japanese for Turtle, incidentally) ticked a lot of boxes.
The Design
When it comes to design, I feel that Seiko nails most of its watches. When you look through their catalogue across all of their collections, there is such a vast range of pieces of differing styles, and it makes sense why Seiko is such a collector’s watch brand. This also extends to where Seiko gets its inspiration from.
We all know that Seiko loves a bit of inspiration from nature, which you see in many of the dials in its sister company, Grand Seiko, but in recent years, it has been coming out with some great releases, especially those Australasian models. The red Alpinist, which was released last year, taking its colours from the Australian outback, was a massive hit, as was the Presage Cocktail Time released in conjunction with Lark Distillery in Tasmania in 2023.
When it comes to the dive watches, the inspiration is fairly simple in some ways, as you have the beautiful coastal waters and reefs around Australia to draw from. The new Prospex Turtle is no exception. As mentioned at the start, the new watch takes inspiration from the sand and waters around Fitzroy Island off the coast of Cairns in North Queensland, where the Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre is located.
The dive bezel insert is deep blue with a green sector down to the 20-minute mark, which is perfect for those who are divers. The gold coloured bezel is a nice touch too, as it breaks up the blues, complements the colour scheme nicely, and in my head, reminds me of the golden sand on Queensland’s beaches. Seiko says otherwise, “The gold bezel mirrors the radiant hues of a turtle’s shell in the sunlight.” In either case, it looks good.
The dial itself is textured to mimic the sand underneath the water, and with a gradient effect that starts with a deep dark blue, like the ocean far off the coast, and then radiates to a beautiful light turquoise colour, which is what you get when you’re looking at the waters from above, close to the shore. Making it highly legible, the large hour markers with Lumibrite glow brightly at night, and in the day, the creamy white makes reading the time easy at a glance.
The new Prospex Turtle has been done in the classic turtle case, and for those who haven’t worn a turtle for a while or at all, you can’t let the 45 mm size scare you off. Yes, it’s a slightly wider watch diameter, but the turtle case is fairly flat and has short lugs, so it actually wears pretty well across the wrist, something I’ll go into in depth shortly.
I love the way the case curves and the combination of brushed steel on top and polished on the sides and around underneath. It also has that classic crown placement at 4 o’clock, so you don’t get those pesky wear marks on your wrist that you can get with some crowns that stick out a little more.
Another feature Seiko has included with the new Prospex Turtle is the inclusion of both a steel bracelet and a silicone strap. The bracelet is solid, but still lacks refinement, one small point of contention common among watch lovers. Saying this, I feel it is better than the Seiko bracelets of years gone by. However, if the bracelet isn’t your style, then the silicone strap will be. I swapped the watch to the strap as I felt it paired better with it, the colour matching the dial and bezel, plus being silicone, it is super easy to wear.
How It Wears
The wearing experience on the new Seiko Prospex “Kame” has probably been the most surprising element of this watch for me – and in a good way. It’s been a long while since I’ve owned a Seiko, in fact, it’s probably been over a decade, if I have to think about it. So for me, buying this watch was probably a bigger deal than I initially thought when I purchased it. Let me explain…
It is my least valuable watch in my collection, but it has re-ignited that love I once had for Seiko. As you go on a collecting journey, like most of us, you do fall into the trap of levelling up as the years go on. But this is where Seiko comes into its own, as it is a watch brand that you can wear and love just as much, no matter what you have in your collection and how valuable your watches are. Some of the biggest collectors I know with watches worth well in excess of $100,000 a piece still wear and love Seiko.
Case in point here: Over the last month of owning it, it’s probably been the watch that I have almost worn the most, second only to my Rolex Submariner. It was one of the three watches I brought with me on a weekend getaway to the new Mondrian at Burleigh Heads last month, (check the post above for the view!) and I find I’m wearing it around the house a lot, to the gym, and when out and about with the kids. Placing a sub-thousand-dollar Seiko next to my Rolex Submariner, which I absolutely love, is saying something about the design, look and feel of this watch!
As I mentioned in my initial thoughts, the turtle case isn’t small at 45 mm in diameter. However, it’s not all that thick, coming in at 13.4 mm and with a lug-to-tug of 47.7 mm, the watch actually wears a lot smaller than the size on paper would suggest.
As a bit of an experiment, I actually placed this watch against my 44 mm Panerai Luminor, and when you look at them next to each other, the Panerai looks so much bigger both on and off the wrist. For this reason, I understand why the Prospex Turtle is one of Seiko’s more popular dive models, as it is such an easy-wearing watch.
One of the major contributing factors to this is the way the case has been designed and shaped. Because of the round curvature of the case and with almost no flat surfaces, as the case side is curved down and inward towards the wrist, it actually sits into the wrist nicely and the case back also nestles into the wrist as well. So there are a couple of millimetres that are essentially hidden when you are wearing it.
The dive bezel is also inset from the side of the case, so it gives the illusion of the watch being smaller as your eyes get drawn more to the case sides rather than the bezel. On some watches, the case and bezel are aligned, or in certain instances, the bezel actually overlaps the case sides, so it gives the appearance of a larger watch. The Prospex Turtle, however, plays with the way your eyes see it and creates the illusion of a smaller watch.
Of course, on the bracelet, it does look larger and thicker as most watches do on a steel bracelet, but on the blue rubber strap, it slims down even more visually, as you don’t have the end-links to make it look larger across the wrist.
The silicon strap is actually pretty comfortable and is one of the better rubber straps I’ve worn on any watch, if I’m completely honest. The addition of the steel strap minder elevates the look a little, although one downside of the steel strap minder is that the silicon can slide out of it more easily than if it were a rubber strap minder, which would effectively grip the strap. That being said, you just need to wear the strap minder down a little bit more so there is a little bit of strap poking out from it.
The brushed and polished steel pin buckle is really solid, so there is no chance of the watch coming undone and slipping off your wrist. But the one small thing that has bugged me is this: Even though the buckle itself is curved, it doesn’t sit flush with the actual strap, as there is no inset spacing for the strap to fit in. The buckle sits on the outside, and as you are walking, I found it has caught the pockets of my shorts or jeans every now and again due to this. Maybe I just need to walk with my arms a little wider?
The Movement
Seiko has a plethora of movements in its stable, and for this watch, it has the 4R36 Automatic movement inside. It is a pretty common movement in any automatic Seiko. With a modest 41-hour power reserve, which I feel could be a little better, but again, this isn’t a $15,000 watch, it’s A$995, so I can’t complain, it beats at 3 Hz or 21,600 VpH and pivogs on 24 jewels.
While Seiko movements are not known for their high level of accuracy – again, price point driven – I set my Prospex to my phone reference time, and over three days, gained 40 seconds in total, so about 13 seconds per day, which is better than the +45 / -35 seconds promised. This was a combination of wearing it and sitting on my table at various times across those three days, so the power reserve would not have been full much of the time across the duration, so again, pretty decent given the loss of torque you would experience as the movement winds down.
Being a dive watch, there is no open caseback to see the 4R36 through, rather a closed, screwed in caseback. It sits slightly recessed into the case itself, which does aid with the wearability of the watch, not to mention ensuring the water resistance and keeps the watch slimmer compared to a sapphire crystal caseback. The Seiko Wave Mark sits in the centre, as it does with the dive watch range.
Final Thoughts
I’ve owned this watch going on a month now, and I’ve been loving wearing it, which I do at some point most days. Like many people in the industry and hobby, I too fell victim to the aquiring more pieces, each better than the last. When this happens, you lose sight of what got you into watches in the first place. For me, I can say that I’ve done what many have, and as I’ve “progessed” through the hobby, and my income or ability to buy better pieces rose, I’ve done just that.
But, thanks to Seiko, I feel I’ve come back down to earth a little and it’s reminded me that all watches are cool in their own right and they don’t have to be $10k, $20, or $50k plus watches to be great timepieces. Most definietly not. Having the Seiko Prospex Kame on my wrist takes me back 20 years to when I really got into watches, but more importantly, why I did. Joy.
The joy of having something that looks great on the wrist and you love wearing. Not being so expensive that you have to worry about scratches or accidently banging it on a table or door, and you can waer without fear. Plus when you’re at the beach, or getting outdoors, it won’t look out of place either.
When you look around at what else it out there for under A$1,000, yes there are a lot or micro brands and other bigger brnads, but few have the range and provenance that Seiko does, which brings me back to what I said earlier about Seiko being a collectors brand. It truly is as it offers something for everyone at all price points, and with the new Porspex Kame Australasian Edition, it is also helping wildlife conservation in our own back yard – so for me, that is a win!
Specification: Seiko Prospex Limited Edition ‘Kame’ Divers Watch (Ref. SRPM04K)
- Dimensions: 45mm x 13.4mm thick x 47.7mm lug-to-lug distance
- Case Material: Stainless steel with polished finises
- Dial: Turquoise blue gradiant dial that changes to vibrant blue. Day-date functionality. Teal green and blue bi-directional rotateable steel bezel with gold plated knurling.
- Water Resistance: 200m (20 Bar)
- Movement: Automatic winding Calibre 4R36
- Movement Power reserve: 41 hours operating at 3Hz (21,600 VpH)
- Crystal: Hardlex with anti-reflective coating
- Bracelet/Strap: 3-link steel bracelet and additional silicone blue strap