This is the much sought after Seiko SARB033. Some people call it the "baby Grand Seiko". It's no surprise; this watch is amazing!

The sticker price is 45,000 yen. At the time of writing the exchange rate puts that at $405 US dollars. If you do a quick search on eBay, you'll see that the prices range anywhere from $500 to $1100 bucks. Not to mention, a lot of those are used pieces without the box or tags. Insane. The reason? Seiko recently discontinued this model. Everyone is scrambling to get their hands on one, and sellers know it.

I kept my eye on eBay for about a month and was lucky enough to score a SARB033 mint-in-the-box with tags for only $429, and that's with free shipping from Japan. Since the watch goes for $405, I pretty much paid the sticker price. Even though the watch came from Japan, I had it in hand in 6 days. So I'm chalking that extra $24 bucks up to "express shipping". My kids regularly ask me to order them stuff from Amazon that ships from Japan. It usually takes over a month the arrive. One time, it never arrived at all.

It's such a beautiful watch. Everything is impeccably done. It's heavy and feels really solid. Very well made. The glass is sapphire, which is a welcomed upgrade from my other Seikos that use their proprietary Hardlex crystal.



The 38mm Seiko SARB033 is intended to be a dress watch. However, it looks great on the included bracelet, a leather strap, or even a NATO. It's a real strap monster, and goes with anything you're wearing. It's an extremely versatile watch. It's no wonder it's a fan favorite. It's true what they say: it's the $400 dollar watch that looks like a million bucks.

The SARB033 uses Seiko's 23-jewel 6R15 automatic movement, which you can admire through the open case back. It beats at 21,600 vibrations per hour, or 6 beats per second, and has a generous power reserve of 50 hours. It is hackable and has manual winding. (A step up from my SNK809's 7S26 movement.) The crown is buttery smooth and winds unlike any other watch that I have.



It really does look like a million bucks. If this is what you get for $400, I can't even wrap my head around what you should expect from the likes of a $5000 Rolex Explorer. This watch looks way more expensive than it is.



I had to take out 3 links in order to get a good fit. It looks awesome, and I love wearing it. It keeps amazing time. I didn't track it to the second, but after a week, it was only less than a minute off.



I'm sure this watch will only go up in value over time, so it's a nice investment. Not that I ever plan on selling any of my watches.