Growing up, I wore watches to ensure I arrived at school on time, but with the advent of smartphones, I abandoned them altogether. Recently, however, I purchased a Seiko solar diver SNE573P1 from the Prospex series. After owning this watch for about a year, I decided it would be cool to wear an automatic watch. In a world dominated by battery-operated devices, the idea of a piece of precision engineering that functions without a battery appealed to me.
Choosing a watch from the thousands of options available can be overwhelming. I decided to limit myself to Seiko, as their watches are affordable for me. I can forget about a Rolex Explorer, Submariner, or a gold-cased Gruen Precision 510—besides, my name isn’t Bond. Since I love mountain hiking, the Alpinist sub-brand of Seiko especially caught my eye, particularly because Seiko had just released a reimagined version of the original Alpinist from the early 1960s.
The original Alpinist was designed for Yama-otoko, or mountain men. With post-war disposable income, weekend hiking trips became a possibility in Japan, and this even seems to have been the theme of the 1962 movie 山男の歌 (Song of Mountain Men). However, the longer I examined the modern interpretation of the original Alpinist, the more differences I noticed. I found myself searching for a different heritage watch.