I decided to start looking for a new mechanical watch when I got fed-up with my Withings Scanwatch Horizon. Like many things made today, the Withings is a beautiful piece of hardware crippled by mediocre-to-bad software.
I started by making a wishlist. I knew for sure that I wanted something that didn't need batteries (let alone a smartphone), but I thought a lot about what I really needed from a watch beyond that and came up with this list.
* Self-winding ("Automatic")
* Alarm
* Rotating bezel
* Water resistant
* Numeric dial
* Illuminated hands
* Durable (not a "fashion watch")
I spent about a year looking for a watch like this with no luck. There was one or two that had these features, but they had a lot more and were very expensive which I felt disqualified them from the "durable" requirement.
This made me reflect on the list and really think about what I need. The first thing to go was the alarm since we have a dog and he's always awake earlier than I need to be.
Next to go was the bezel. This was a harder cut because I really use the heck out of the bezel on the Withings to measure elapsed time, but I just couldn't find a watch that had one that wasn't a "diver's watch" or missing one of the other more important items on the list (usually the numeric dial). Weirdly I found a watch similar to the one I finally settled on that had a rotating bezel but it wasn't for measuring time but orientation. Neat, but I'd rather use a full-blown compass.
By making those two cuts I was able to find a perfect match in the Seiko SRPG33.
Jamie bought me one for xmas, and I have to say that I absolutely love it. It is the first watch I've owned with a NATO band. The band is extremely comfortable and might double as a small tourniquet. The only complaint I have about the band is that due to the way it mounts, it blocks the little window on the back of the watch where you could otherwise marvel at it's clockwork.
The dial is very easy to read even when it's on the nightstand and the illumination is sufficient even for my 50+ year old eyes. It's heavy enough to feel like a quality piece of machinery but light enough to wear comfortably all the time.
I wasn't sure if I'd move enough to keep it wound (especially in the winter), but so far that has not been a problem. I gave the crown a few twists when I first set the time and date and I haven't wound it since.
Speaking of date, the day/date is large and crisp and I especially like how high-contrast it is to the subdued dial. I panicked when I first set it thinking it was a non-English version but as it turns out, it's multilingual. One downside is that so far I haven't had to adjust the date (31 days in December) so hopefully I remember how to set it when we get to the shorter months.
One minor disappointment is that I thought it might tick. I'm not sure if that would just drive me crazy but I had kind of expected to hear or feel that and thought it might be relaxing.
I haven't tested the water resistance beyond some light splashing (not really the time of year for submersion) but I will say that I prefer the feel of the NATO band when it's wet compared to the metal or leather bands on my other watches.
I'm glad I took the time to find the right watch. It's something that is very intimate for me, and while I had to forego some features, I think in the end the result is better for it. This probably has influenced my thinking about features in other realms as well, and reinforces for me the joy of simple tools.
Jason J. Gullickson, 2026