Seiko has quietly introduced three new models to the Seiko Prospex website – the 2018 Limited Edition Black Series.
The Black Series consists of darkened versions of three existing watches: the SRPC49 black automatic ‘Turtle’, the SSC673 Solar Diver Chronograph, and the SNE493 Solar Diver.
The marketing department at Seiko claims that these watches were inspired by the ‘world of night diving’. I think it’s more likely they were inspired by how popular black PVD cases are these days with the watch buying public – but no matter why they’ve come about they sure look nice.
The designers at Seiko had the challenge of making these watches look stealthy while maintaining the readability that Seiko divers are known for.
The usual white hour markers have been changed to tan. The minute hand is outlined in vivid orange so that you never lose sight of it when using the timing bezel. And of course, lots of bright LumiBrite is coated on all the important bits.
Probably the best way to compare the differences is to show the new Solar Diver SNE493 next to the SNE441, a previous dark-style Solar Diver:
Pretty damn sweet looking eh?
Speaking of the new Solar Diver, I think it’s my favorite of the three watches.
I’m usually not a huge fan of date window magnifiers, a little to Rolex derivative on most watches. But I think it looks very nice here.
There’s not a huge amount of information about these from the Seiko website, but rumors from around the internet are that these will be released in March 2018. It also sounds like they’ll be pretty pricey, especially the black Turtle (about $650 is what I saw).
No word on just how limited this Limited Edition series will be, I’m guessing if these prove popular Seiko will probably make them not so limited in the future.
Related Posts
4 Comments
Great watches and very nice design…!
Must admit I’m not that fan of PVD treatment as it’s prone to scratches easily and marks are more visible than on the stainless steel case.
But that dial and hands will be used for a mod more than sure…!
The Black Series is out and almost sold out. At least the K1. The price as only around $410 to $430 for the SPRC49K1 in most places. The confusing thing is on mine and others I know, at least with the K1 they are calling it a LE series watch but they are not numbered. I heard rumor that the Japan editions will be numbered. But that was just a rumor.
Thanks for the update Matt. Where did you end up picking yours up from? Seemed like most people were getting them directly from the various Japanese vendors.
My buddy and I bought ours in Malaysia. One at a chain watch store and the other at a Mom and Pop shop. But they are very hard to find.