Seiko 5 Sports “SKX Series” Blue Ref. SBSA299

Seiko made its first watch in 1913, and 50 years later, Seiko 5 was born in 1963. In its long history, Seiko 5 has won respect, affection, and loyalty of young people from all around the world. Seiko 5 Sports offers a new opportunity to feel the spirit of the active and innovative design of that time. Seiko set out to build a watch with five attributes, from which the watch gets its name: a self-winding automatic movement, resistance to water, a day-date in a single window, a recessed crown, and a durable case.

Seiko has long offered their extremely reliable yet affordable Seiko 5 sports collection, especially the SKX diver line for us watch enthusiasts who want to get our hands-on with true mechanical horology at a pocket-friendly price, and boy do they caught on since 1963. However, Seiko's decided its time to end the long-running SKX sports models recently, and that caused serious commotion among us and its daunting. Until recently...

Today, the Seiko 5 Sports legacy has returned, and their back with some major upgrades while staying true to their design roots. Seiko has relaunched the line-up with the same affordability and even tougher built.

Before we get into the new Seiko 5 Sports line-up, we are excited to informed you Seiko enthusiasts that this whole new collection are available as JDM (Japan Domestic models)! These JDM collection is denoted with the "MADE IN JAPAN" at 6 on the dial. And good news are that we at Gnomon provides these JDMs Seiko 5 Sports for all of you.

The Seiko 5 Sports "SKX Series" Blue Ref. SBSA299 is one of the most iconic SKX's re-issue design language watch among the rest. If the Submariner is the iconic luxury diver of the modern era then the SBSA299 is the affordable quintessential. Staying through to its undisputed "starter" watch for every budding mechanical watch collector. And that's what makes is so desirable even for seasoned watch collectors. Well known for its robust built and classic design.

Seiko's satin brush and high polished finishing

The Seiko 5 Sports "SKX Series" Blue Ref. SBSA299 for the first time since its Skx days, features an open back and now powered by Seiko's automatic caliber, 4R36, operating at 21,600 BPH (3 Hertz) with hacking and hand winding capabilities. It has 24 jewels with a power reserve of 41 hours. This is a major upgrade from the previous 7S26 non-hacking and winding caliber that used for the old SKX007J1. You know what, since this JDM model features the day/date display, one can self-select the day display to Japanese kanji characters, or in English.

The Seiko 5 Sports "SKX Series" Blue carries forward the DNA of its predecessor, now refined in a versatile unisex size. Its stainless steel case measures a wearable 38mm across, 12.1mm in height, and 44.2mm lug to lug with a practical 20mm lug width. These proportions strike a sweet balance between classic presence and everyday comfort. Retaining its 100m water resistance and the iconic SKX design cues, the shorter lugs allow the watch to hug the wrist seamlessly, whether on smaller or larger wrists, delivering that familiar "fits like a glove" experience collectors love.

The bezel is aluminum and has large printed markings on it. It rotates buttery smooth into 120 positions has little to no free play in anti-clockwise direction. Sitting atop of the bezel is Seiko's Hardlex. The mixture of satin brush and Seiko high polishing on the sides can be seen on the whole watch.

The sunburst blue dial gets some makeover while still utilitarian. Like for instant, the new Seiko 5 logo has the "5" tilted 45 degrees anti-clockwise. The Logo is then balanced off symmetrically with the bottom Seiko's Sumo "Automatic" font style instead of the old orange "diver's 200m" text. The large and SKX's heirloom indices stay home and make reading easy as it always done so, so are the classic Seiko hour and minutes hands. The hour markers are now surrounded with metal trims, and hands are both generously coated with Seiko's LumiBrite allowing it to glow brightly in the dark for hours.

The Seiko 5 Sports "SKX Series" Blue Ref. SBSA299 comes with a stainless steel bracelet with three-fold clasp with secure lock and push-button release.


Seiko's revival of the Seiko 5 Sports has repetitively filled the void of affordable and reliable mechanical timepiece in the market successfully. The new generation of heritage designed  Seiko 5 Sports "SKX Series" Blue Ref. SBSA299 is still probably one of the most iconic dive watches in the history of dive watches. Given its cult status and price, it's re-born status definitely good news and is once again available for all of us with the intention is to own a piece of dive watch history or to have a "go-anywhere, do-anything" watch that packs extraordinary value.

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