Seiko orange monster, how do you like yours?

Masteroffajitas

Masteroffajitas

BANNED
Joined
Oct 7, 2008
Messages
2,412
This looks a great watch. I like stainless watches, and the orange face is really nice. It's easy to read without all that junk that's usually all over a watch. I just wanted to know what you thought, it's still expensive for a watch to me and I want to see the feedback from you guys. I've seen mixed feedback of dealer sites, with most people saying it's a great watch, but then other people saying thier's broke in months. Has this happened to any of you?
 
I had one and liked the aesthetics, but found it to be too heavy.

I only wore it for a few weeks, so I can't comment as to durability.

I like my older '80's SEIKO self winding diver watch. A bit smaller and still ticking fine.

My current daily wear watches are CASIO FROGMAN models.
 
I have a Black Monster, but don't wear it much because 1) a mechanical watch is not as accurate as my cheapy Timex digital, and 2) if you don't wear it for a day or so, the self-winding feature gets no love and the watch stops. Which means you have to reset it next time. And I find it difficult to set the date on it. Seems like it does not want to engage.

So if you can deal with those things, its a nice, big, good looking watch. Its just not for everyone.

:thumbup:
 
I love mine. I don't find it to be too heavy, but I can see that it could be for some people.

I too, love the clean, easy to read face. The lume is awesome on the Orange Monster.

I happen to love automatics, and don't find it hard to reset. Takes about 10 seconds to reset the date and time. Mine will run a day or two after not wearing it.

But, as in all things- YMMV. What I like, you may not like. Like Powenoodle said, it may not be for everybody.
 
I got my Black Monster in Christmas 2007 and it has been my EDC since. (Except for those social/business occasions that require my Submariner...:cool:).

I wear it fishing, boating, working on the cars, yard work, swimming in our pool and what not, and it's holding up fine. The only time it leaves my wrist is when I need to clean it, which is about once every two weeks or so. Then it's just a quick brushing with an old toothbrush and some elbow grease. There are some minor scratches around the bezel, but since it is raised higher than the crystal, I have yet to scratch it.

It only loses about 3 minutes a week, so no big deal to me.

On a side note (or maybe we need another thread), I was thinking of getting a Rhino, Zulu or NATO band for it. So if you are getting an orange monster, you might add an orange NATO band to yours. :thumbup:

An example pulled from Flickr.

2320528987_7b899f1946.jpg
 
It is big and heavy, but thats something you can get use to. When I started to wear automatics, they looked huge on my small wrists. Now they seem more at home, to me anyway.

I don't have a Monster. My Seiko uses the same movement though and I think its great. It's gotten good reviews about durability. I do believe the new movements are much better than the old ones in the Monster (post 2006 I think). Lost maybe 20 seconds a week at first but eventually regulated itself out. The movement is really reliable too considering the price.

Personally though, I don't really like the big chunks of lume as much as other people do. I love the overall shape and design though.

I think when people complain about automatics not being as accurate as a quartz oscillator watch, they don't really understand the purpose of automatics. Or at least what I think anyway. It's not about being the most accurate, but how the internals work. Thats why I wear automatics anyways. I do have to admit though, I will wear a quartz watch occasionally. Depends on the situation.
 
I have a black monster on a steel bracelet and I love it. Nice and heavy, but it's comfortable (doesn't seem to have sharp edges that dig into you right in the middle of lifting something heavy like some other watches). Mine is 2 years old and is dead on accurate. I can't recall ever having to adjust the time because it was running fast or slow - only when I've left it sitting for a week and let it go dead.

I alternate between the monster and a 007 Seiko on a nato strap - which loses about 22 seconds a day. I wear the monster when I want to wear something a bit flashy and accurate . . and the 007 when I want something casual.
 
I love mine. I first saw it in a Macy's store and fell in love with it. I managed to bargain down the sales lady who then gave me her card and told me she could do 30% off their price (MSRP). I was going to come back when I got my next pay check. I kinda forgot about it for a while, and then I saw it on overstock with a steel bracelet for just a shade over 200 bucks. I bought it immediately.

It was my first auto and my first "big heavy" watch. I loved the bulk, my old watches all seemed too small on my wrists after it. The orange always seems to get noticed and draw complements, especially when I'm wearing it at the hospital in my scrubs. I liked the auto, and it seemed to keep good enough time for me. I tend to wear my watch everyday so the auto movement was not a problem. It's got better lume than any watch I did own or have bought since. Bracelet is super sturdy.

I almost curse the fact that I bought this watch though, because it really got me into autos and dive watches. Suddenly the OM wasnt good enough anymore, I wanted something a little less attention drawing to wear when I go out, go to school, for interviews etc. I was thinking about getting a black monster but instead went out and dropped some coin on a Tissot Seastar 1000, I got a great deal on a used one for just about what I spent on the OM, but now I wear it almost exclusively, and my OM gets little wrist time. I blame my OM for my watch habit and am constantly looking at other watches to buy now (as if my knife hobby wasn't enough of a drain on the wallet). I still love my OM, but I need to get a winder so that I can decide to wear it every once in a while and it's still running.
 
I blame my OM for my watch habit and am constantly looking at other watches to buy now
Click to expand...
I feel you. Wore a watch, liked watches, but didn't care that much before traveling to Switzerland. Totally immersed in watches- and began to love them. I came back with a Tissot Quadrato Chrono- a great brand that you don't hear that much about- and now I am a watch freak. I've already bought two Wengers for rough use (one steel field watch and another rubber-strap diver's , which I use for exercising; I'm thinking of putting a Thunderball or NATO style band on it for casual wear) and am constantly looking at/for other watches. Right now, the Hamilton Aviator and the Seastar seem in my price range. Does anybody know of a good (reputable) online shop to order a blue-face Seastar from?
Okay, all ahead full to correct thread drift. I've heard good things about Seikos in general. However, I seem to hear (and I have no personal experience with either the watch or the brand) a lot of reports saying that the Orange Monster looses time pretty frequently.
If you like diver styling but aren't set on an automatic, consider either the Citizen Eco-Zilla, solar powered and rated at 300metres, or the Victorinox Dive Master, quartz movement rated to 500metres.
 
I've got it's "first cousin", an SKX-009 that I love. It was within 1-2 sec a day for the first two years. Then, it developed a time drift issue. I spent ~$70 for it to be cleaned and adjusted. Now, it varies ~1-2 seconds a day. It's more durable than most swiss auto's due to its less stringent design. Also, it's water-resistant to 200m and extremely legible with super-lume.
 
I've had mine for about 18 months now.

Mine seems to gain time but not a big deal to set it back a few mins every couple months or so.

I have mine on a Zulu. Far better than the stock rubber strap. This ones a keeper for sure.
 
jim preston said:
I feel you. Wore a watch, liked watches, but didn't care that much before traveling to Switzerland. Totally immersed in watches- and began to love them. I came back with a Tissot Quadrato Chrono- a great brand that you don't hear that much about- and now I am a watch freak. I've already bought two Wengers for rough use (one steel field watch and another rubber-strap diver's , which I use for exercising; I'm thinking of putting a Thunderball or NATO style band on it for casual wear) and am constantly looking at/for other watches. Right now, the Hamilton Aviator and the Seastar seem in my price range. Does anybody know of a good (reputable) online shop to order a blue-face Seastar from?
Okay, all ahead full to correct thread drift. I've heard good things about Seikos in general. However, I seem to hear (and I have no personal experience with either the watch or the brand) a lot of reports saying that the Orange Monster looses time pretty frequently.
If you like diver styling but aren't set on an automatic, consider either the Citizen Eco-Zilla, solar powered and rated at 300metres, or the Victorinox Dive Master, quartz movement rated to 500metres.
Click to expand...


I got my seastar 1000 off of Ebay. I got the white face (actually more of a steel color than white) with the steel bracelet. Risky I know, but the guy didn't have too many auctions and he was selling a bunch of random stuff and the pictures were not that great and clearly taken by him, so I figured the chances of him being a guy who sells fake watches on ebay to be very slim. I got a great deal though (less than what I was going to pay to pick up a Black Monster), and I had the authenticity verified by a local Tissot dealer when I received it. I get ton's of compliments on the watch, and since most people haven't heard of the brand they are very impressed.

IIRC the Seastar 1000 is discontinued, so I would snap it up from anywhere I can find it. I believe there is a quartz version that is still in production though. The place to find a good online dealer would probably be one of the watch forums (I think posting the link will get me in trouble, but let me know if you have any trouble SEEKing out the site). A certain online book seller named after a river in South America had some of the quartz versions on sale around Christmas time IIRC.
I'm sure that there is still some NOS Seastar 1000's kicking around, our you could probably pick up a used one too. The Seastar is a BIG heavy watch though, bigger and heavier than the OM, so keep that in mind. I really like the domed crystal as it doesn't cause reflections like flat crystal does (probably to not attract sharks or something :p). Anyway great watch, and you should definitely pick one up. The Lume isn't the best though (The OM lume beats the heck out of the lume on the tissot), but I'm thinking about having it re-lumed, maybe with red which would look cool.

Oddly enough, my Seastar gains time, only a couple minutes a week though, so it's no big deal. I re sync it with the punch clock at work every monday. Maybe I move my arms too much? who knows? I never had any noticeable issues with my OM keeping time, but usually every couple weeks I wouldn't wear it for a few days and then I would have to reset it anyway, so maybe that's why I never noticed.
 
I bought an OM on bracelet from World of Watches for $127 a couple of months back. They seem to sell alot of them. Some guys don't care for their service or shipping methods, so YMMV.

As for the OM, I'm very pleased with it. To me though the dial and hands are on the ugly side. Thinking about modding those out for some other look.
 
I have my Black Monster for almost 2 years now.
It gains about 5 minutes a week.
My local jewelry store owner offered to have it adjusted, but it hasn't bothered me enough to go back.
That's sort of the charm of mechanical as opposed to digital ;)
 
I love auto's or solar watches, especially in a dive watch. when the battery needs replacing in a watch rated to 200+ meters, good luck finding a shop that can replace it properly under pressure. Also, my biggest fear when planning a dive trip is that the watch battery will die while I'm in some far away location. :mad:

The Seiko is just a bit too heavy for me. I grabbed an Oris Titan. It's a little wider (44mm vs. 42.5mm), but it's a bit thinner (12mm vs. 13mm). The big difference is that the Oris is made completely from titanium, band and watch case. Picture below is with the changeable rubber strap, also pretty light. Once you get used to having a sizable dive watch, this thing disappears on your wrist.
41fFyok-PiL._SL500_AA280_.jpg


For beating around I got a Citizen Eco-Drive, before they came out with these bad boys with the carbon fiber bezels. Wish I would've waited and picked up one of these. I think they're very cool looking!
5148o-VEQbL._AA280_.jpg
 
I wore a OM for years. I get in the habit of wearing a watch for years and then not wearing it again. I won't sell them after that though! :)

Mine ran real fast when I first got it. After trying to adjust it myself, I took it to a watchmaker who adjusted it for me for $10. After that it ran great. If I took care how I rested it at night it wouldn't gain anytime during a day.

It was also the only watch I got complimented on. I was standing in line at a bookstore and somebody came up and asked me about my watch. It was pretty cool.

It is a big and heavy watch but it is also well built. The band is a great band for such a cheap watch.

Chad
rc4.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top