The Seiko Presage Style 60’s Center Power Reserve Indicator Collection (Live Pics & Price)

The 1960s are often considered a golden era of lifestyle and design. It goes for art, music, design, fashion, automotive and, because you’re reading MONOCHROME, also for horology. The 1960s were a time of innovation and also showed the rise of the sports watch. Last year, Seiko Presage released a new collection of accessible watches with a sporty, vintage-ish feeling based on the design of the brand’s and Japan’s first wrist chronograph, the 1964 Crown Chronograph. Now, in addition to the time-and-date and open-heart models, the Seiko Presage Style 60’s collection expands with the new Center Power Reserve Indicator models, including the references SSA447J1, SSA449J1 and SSA451J1.

Just like the SPB127J1, SPB131J1 and SPB129J1 in 2020 and the SRQ031 in 2019, these new Seiko Presage Style 60’s are modelled after a historically important model, the Seiko Crown Chronograph of 1964, which was Japan’s first wrist chronograph and Calibre 5719, its first chronograph movement, and that before Seiko rushed into the race for the first automatic chronograph. But while the 2019 and 2020 models were faithful to the details of their ancestors and priced in a higher range, the Seiko Presage Style 60’s collection, including the new references we’ll discover today, evoke the past but are also accessible models.

Following last year’s models, the new Center Power Reserve Indicator are an evolution regarding the display and movement, while the overall design language remains untouched. As such, we find back the same case design, with a 40.8mm diameter and a comfortable 47mm lug-to-lug measurement. Considering the new display and the different movement, the height of the case has increased a bit compared to the time-and-date models, now being around 14mm. Made of brushed steel with a few polished accents, the case takes on the Crown Chronograph’s design with sharp lugs, overall clean and instrumental shapes and is here fitted with a fixed bezel with an aluminium insert with 60-minute scale. The watch is topped by a box-shaped Hardlex crystal and the water-resistance is rated at 50 metres.

The main novelty is to be seen on the dial side, with a new display – at least for this collection, as it has been seen already in other Presage models. As indicated by its name, the Seiko Presage Style 60’s Center Power Reserve Indicator features new indications, namely a centrally positioned, oversized power reserve gauge displayed from 11 to 4 o’clock and also a date in a sub-counter at 6 o’clock. Both are relatively simple complications but they do change the style of the watch and give it a different vibe. Other than that, we still have the central luminous Dauphine hands for the hours and minutes and a central (hacking) second. Time is read thanks to faceted and applied polished markers, which are positioned next to luminous rectangles.

There are three watches released in this new Seiko Presage collection, with different colours. First is the SSA447J1, which could be seen as the most vintage-ish and faithful version, as its cream dial pays tribute to the 1964 Crown Chronograph. This version is worn on a 3-link steel bracelet. The second model, reference SSA449J1, features a dark anthracite dial with a cream-coloured date counter and is also worn on a steel bracelet. The last version, the reference SSA451J1, is the trendiest of the lot with its dark green dial and cream-coloured counter, and is worn on a deer leather NATO-like strap.

Visible under the caseback is the in-house calibre 4R57, an automatic movement from the entry-level category. This industrially-finished but still reliable and rather precise movement runs at 3Hz and offers 41h of power reserve. It has a quick date, can be manually wound and features a stop-seconds mechanism.

All three versions of the Seiko Presage Style 60’s Center Power Reserve Indicator are released as part of the permanent collection and aren’t limited. Whatever the colour, these are all priced at EUR 670. For more details about the new SSA447J1, SSA449J1 and SSA451J1, please visit www.seikowatches.com.