Are Seiko Watches Good?

Seiko has added two new watches to the Prospex Speedtimer family, and these are a little strange in a way I think works. The new Heritage Motoring Countdown Speedtimers take recognizable pieces of Seiko’s motorsport history and rearrange them into three-hand automatic watches with internal countdown bezels. There’s no chronograph here, which makes the Speedtimer designation worth talking about.

Seiko isn’t exactly afraid of color. Between bright Prospex divers, limited editions, textured Presage dials, and enough shades of blue to occupy their own Pantone book, the brand has given collectors plenty to choose from. Still, the new HBC011 Prospex 1965 Heritage Diver surprised me a bit. At first glance, this may be my favorite colorful Seiko release in recent years.

Seiko has returned to one of the safest places in its history for inspiration: the 1913 Laurel, widely recognized as Japan’s first wristwatch. This time, the result is a pair of regular-production Presage Classic Series watches that use traditional Japanese dial techniques and arrive at prices that deserve a closer look.

Seiko’s 145th year has played out like a slow reveal, one new release at a time. Back in February, the brand leaned on gold to stand in for its past. In May, it reached for the Seiko Blue it settled on in the 1960s to represent the present. Now comes the third act, a run of six limited editions built around a single traditional dye and pitched, a little grandly, as the brand’s future. The shade tying them together is Edo Purple.

Most watch collaborations borrow a logo and call it a day. Every so often, one actually borrows an idea. Honda spent the early 1980s trying to shrink personal transport into something that could ride in a car trunk, and Seiko has now built a watch around that same small-is-the-point thinking. The case stays compact on purpose, sized to echo the machine printed on the dial. That machine is the Motocompo, and the watch is the new Seiko 5 Sports HDB010.

I’ve spent years politely nodding at the Seiko Samurai before moving on to something else. The angular case has never grabbed me, and outside of a rare exception or two, the collection has always sat in someone else’s corner rather than mine. My co-founder Kaz had a lovely aqua-blue limited edition a while back, and I’ve kept a soft spot for the rare titanium orange original from the mid-2000s, but the modern Samurai and I have mostly kept our distance. That’s what makes this week strange. Two new dials stopped me cold: the yellow HBB003 and the orange HBB004.

Some watches take a few tries to figure out what they are. When Seiko dropped a GMT version of its 5 Sports Field watch back in 2024, the black dial felt a little safe, and the white dial that went global earlier this year leaned clean and modern. Both worked, but neither really leaned into the trench watch bones underneath. That changes now with two colorways that read like they were pulled straight from a surplus store rack. This is the new Seiko 5 Sports Field GMT HDB001 Khaki Drill and HDB002 Desert Sand.

For a watch that spent its early life as a Japan-only curiosity, this one has aged into something close to an institution. Seiko’s Cocktail Time started as a grey-market piece collectors passed around on forums, then went global under the Presage banner and settled in as the default answer whenever someone wanted an affordable mechanical dress watch. The dial always did the heavy lifting. Everything else stayed just competent enough to stay out of the way. Now there are three new ones joining the permanent collection. These are the Seiko Presage Cocktail Time models HCB001, HCB002, and HCB003.

I’ll be honest: the Presage line has never pulled me in the way it does for a lot of collectors. I understand the appeal, but it’s rarely the Seiko range I reach for. These four new releases might be the exception. Seiko has announced four Presage Classic Series models built around what it calls the art of silk, all set for a July 2026 release and sold only through Seiko Global Brand Core Shops. That last detail matters, since it means these won’t be as easy to find as a standard Presage on a department store shelf.

Seiko has announced the Prospex HBB002, a limited edition dive watch that commemorates two milestones at once: PADI’s 60th anniversary in 2026 and a decade of collaboration between the watchmaker and the world’s largest recreational diving training organization. It’s a straightforward premise for a limited edition, and Seiko has executed it on the King Turtle platform, which remains one of the more dependable dive watch formats in the brand’s lineup.

Seiko has been nurturing the top of its Astron line lately, and the latest move leans into color. The brand just introduced a pair of limited editions built on the new Calibre 5X63, the references HAB005 and HAB006. Both arrive in bright, summery finishes that I wouldn’t normally expect on an Astron. They’re a little flashy for my taste, honestly, but I appreciate how much love this collection has been getting.