If you had to go with either the Seiko 5 or the Citizen which would you pick and why? I like them both and am having trouble deciding which is the better option or if there is enough of a difference to matter.
Water resistance. Seiko 5 has mostly 30 M water resistance, but some of the newer ones have 50 M. The Citizen has 100 M water resistance. 30 M, 50 M and 100 M do not mean 30, 50 and 100 meters underwater. Seiko and Citizen designed their water sealing gaskets to withstand 3, 5 or 10 atmospheres (or bars) pressure. This is what the figures actually mean.
30 meters/3 atmospheres/3 bars: splash resistant. Withstands spilled drinks and hand washing, but probably not dish washing.
50 meters/5 atmospheres/5 bars: sprinkle resistant. Wear it in the shower or in a driving rain.
100 meters/10 atmospheres/10 bars: immersion resistant. Wear it swimming or snorkeling, but not off a dive tower.
200 meters/20 atmospheres/20 bars: diving resistant. Scuba diving to the usual sport depth of 3040 feet, or down to 100 feet (or a little deeper) to examine a wreck.
300 meters/30 atmospheres/30 bars: professional diving to 100150 feet. No fun down there, it's cold and dark, you need lights and a dry suit but to some people it's a job.
1000 meters/100 atmospheres/100 bars: diving below 150 feet, helium-oxygen mix, scientists and explorers only. With the right strap, this could be good for outer space!
Wearing it to work and weekends around town, 30 M is usually good enough. Backpacking, 50 M should be good enough. I would want 100 M for a canoe trip. I have never been in a canoe when I didn't go into the water.
Appearance. The Citizen looks like a mid-20th century "field" (infantry) watch: hence its small size. Citizen also makes a few traditional dress watches in this size, none IMO very attractive. There are
hundreds of Seiko 5 watches with 3638 mm cases. They have polished cases, brushed cases, bead blasted cases, with every dial and color combination you could imagine, and some that no one should have imagined. So it depends on the look you want. If you want a traditional field watch like the Citizen with a black dial and twelve big hour numbers, Seiko makes three or four of those red second hand, white second hand, black date window with white numbers you get the idea. One thing I haven't seen on a Seiko 5 is lumed numbers.
Quartz vs. Mechanical. Citizen is a quartz watch, Seiko 5 is mechanical. Quartz is more accurate, mechanical is good enough for most of us. Quartz watches need batteries. Even a solar recharging quartz watch will need a new battery someday. Mechanical watches need to be wound. Seiko 5 watches are "automatics," self-winding only: you wind them by wearing them and getting up off that thing. Mechanical watches eventually need to be cleaned and regulated. You might wear one twenty years and not need this, but who knows? If that time comes around for you, it will be cheaper to buy another Seiko 5.
A mechanical watch's hands appear to move with a continuous motion. A quartz watch's hands
jerk, although you'll probably only notice this with the second hand, and they rarely align perfectly with the markers on the dial (especially cheap quartz watches). This really bothers some people, and they buy watchmaking tools to pull the crystal and align the hands. Some people just don't care. When a watch's hand moves in steps, from
some angle it will always look misaligned.
You're travelling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination Next stop, the Twilight Zone!
