I purchased a 1959 Alpinist earlier this year from Gnomon as a birthday present to myself. At least that is how I justified it at the time. Looking over forums it seems that the 1959 Alpinist Seiko line doesn’t get a ton of love & especially the SBDC161 brown dial version. So I’d figure why not share my thoughts after wearing it for a few months. Might help the other odd balls looking for a brown dial watch.

To start I’ll give a quick run down on purchasing in case anyone wants to use…

Seiko 1959 Alpinist – SBDC161 review

This is a mod build – Actus dial and hands, NH35, aftermarket case – and I’m curious about the applied gold logo under the pinions, at 6:

Can’t quite tell what it is – S6? SG? Maybe even SS? S[Japanese character]?

Anyone able to confirm what it actually is, and meaning?

As per the title really. Seiko used to offer awesome orange dials on their divers. Over the years I’ve owned an orange Monster, an orange SKX and an orange Samurai.

Why isn’t there an orange Turtle, an orange Willard, an orange Samurai etc in the range anymore? I’m not aware of them selling an orange-dialled dive watch for years.

This was my Dad’s. Any help with letting me know where the best place to find info on it would be appreciated.

I’ve now owned the Seiko SBTM217 for around thee months. I can’t really call it a “Poor Man’s Grand Seiko” because it cost around $400 (US). But that’s a lot less than the least expensive quartz Grand Seiko, and the SBTM217 even has some nice features the more expensive watch doesn’t have.

This Solar watch is part of Seiko’s JDM Spirit line, with a list price of 58,000 yen. I bought it from japan-atmarket on eBay, and had no issues at all. Very easy…

Seiko Spirit SBTM217 (Solar, JDM) – excellent “Middle Class Man’s Grand Seiko”

I’ve now owned the Seiko SBTM217 for around thee months. I can’t really call it a “Poor Man’s Grand Seiko” because it cost around $400 (US). But that’s a lot less than the least expensive quartz Grand Seiko, and the SBTM217 even has some nice features the more expensive watch doesn’t have.

This Solar watch is part of Seiko’s JDM Spirit line, with a list price of 58,000 yen. I bought it from japan-atmarket on eBay, and had no issues at all. Very easy…

Seiko Spirit SBTM217 (Solar, JDM) – excellent “Middle Class Man’s Grand Seiko”