Seiko SARB033, Toyota Camry, and Cheesecake Factory: Enjoying the finer things

This isn’t a review as much as it’s an exaltation. The Seiko SARB033 and SARB035 are great watches — modern classics, as they say. Every time an example is posted on the watch exchange subreddit (r/watchexchange), it sells faster than a Hodinkee limited edition with a blue dial.

To be sure, there’s nothing particularly special about the Seiko SARB033 or SARB035. Sure, they sell quick — when priced fairly — but a handful of examples come and go every week. And still, while prices have risen since the SARB line was officially discontinued by Seiko, they’ve not risen terribly so. The Seiko SARB033 (black dial) and SARB035 (white dial) are about as perfect a watch as you can get for a few hundred bucks: reliable Seiko 6R15 automatic caliber, 38mm stainless steel case, 100m of water resistance and subtle applications of lume on the hands and indices. It’s a stripped-down, $400 version of a Grand Seiko, Rolex Explorer, Tudor Black Bay 36, IWC Mark XVIII, Rolex Oyster Perpetual 39, or whatever other “luxury” watch you just scrolled past in your Instagram feed.

Of course, the enthusiasm for the SARB series is not without reason. The specs are basically perfect, perhaps the purest expression of a watch. It’s parred-down, Japanese minimalism and engineering combined to deliver a perfect product. It’s sporty elegance, or elegant sportiness, depending on your mood.

Reviewing the Seiko SARB033 and SARB035 specs:

• Dimensions: 38mm (diameter) x 20mm (lug width) x 11mm (thickness); ~45mm lug-to-lug

• Crystal: Sapphire (!)

• Lume: Indices and hands

• Movement: Seiko 6R15 with 23 jewels and 50-hour power reserve

• Accuracy: +25/-15 seconds per day

• Water resistance: 100 meters

• 316L stainless steel case and bracelet

• Display case back

• Non-screw down crown

You can pick up the Seiko SARB035 on Amazon (white dial), or search Seiko SARB on Amazon for other purchasing options..

The Toyota Camry of watches

Listen, everyone likes to shit on the Toyota Camry (btfo, Drake). It’s kind of like shitting on Cheesecake Factory or Disney World (why you gotta fight with me at Cheesecake?). Honestly, if you can’t just sit down, shut up and enjoy 2,160 calories of pasta on a plate, then you can drop the Buffalo Blasts® and leave. Take your pretentiousness and Richard Mille with you. Sure, there’s a time and a place for truffle explosions and foam whatever, but let’s not forget that cheese whiz is the original foam. Likewise, there’s a reason a Camry is a Camry. Just shut up and drive.

The SARB033 and SARB035 are like the Toyota Camry of watches, but in an industry that has supposedly passed them by for smarter, quartz-ier watches. The SARB is an anachronism, from the “Automatic” script on the dial down to the reliably ticking automatic caliber inside. And that’s what makes it so fun.

It’s a watch you just wear and don’t think about — 200,000 miles and a couple oil changes later, it’ll still be reliably ticking on your wrist. Bang it around, drive the kids to soccer practice, and don’t worry that something might happen to it (by the way, with a rock-solid Seiko caliber inside and a freaking sapphire crystal, nothing will happen to it).

SARB033 and 035: Just wear it

So how do the Seiko SARB033 and 035 wear? Well, like a watch. It’s perhaps the ultimate-don’t-think-just-do mechanical watch. Clip on the bracelet or throw it on a strap, and you’re good to go. There’s a date window if you need it, but who’s got time to set the date? At about 11mm thick and with a sapphire case back, it sits a bit tall on the wrist, but that’s just to remind you it’s there, and that hey, you’re a bad ass for wearing a mechanical watch in 2020 A.D. Every example I’ve had has seemed to tick more reliably than Seiko’s reported +25/-15 seconds per day — the spec sheet is just as humble as the watch itself!

There’s surprisingly strong lume that gives the watch a certain sportiness; otherwise, it’s elegant enough to earn its “Baby Grand Seiko” nickname. The finishing — as much as you can seriously use that word on a Camry — is top notch: surfaces are polished, the case and bracelet are rock solid. The black dial is as deep a black as I’ve seen — it seems to suck up all the light in photographs, making it a difficult capture. The white dial is actually more of a cream that gives the watch just a tinge of a warm, vintage feel.

The design is completely unmoored from time: it just as easily could have been conceived in 1980 or 2020 as in 2040. Okay, I don’t know what 2040 will be like, but I know — even in the post-apocalyptic scenario we’re barreling towards — people will be wearing Seikos.

As always, some will find complaints. They usually center around the bracelet: it’s uncomfortable, there are only two micro-adjustments (the horror!), it’s trying too hard to be an Oyster bracelet. Nonsense. If you don’t like it, swap it out. Like Tiger and a Perkins waitress, the Seiko SARB never met a strap it didn’t like.

Space Mountain and a SARB

There’s something pure about the enthusiast community enjoying watches that just are. At just a few hundred bucks, there’s not a ton of money to be made by dealers trying to flip them, so they largely steer clear. A dealer might come along and try to list one at 2x the going forum price, but they do so at their own peril. The forum mob is quick to attack and slow to forgive.

Instead, enthusiasts take to selling the SARB to other enthusiasts: often, a for sale post on Reddit is accompanied with a note to the effect of “this was my first ‘real’ watch, and I’m selling to make room for other watches. Not trying to make money, just want it to go to a good home.” Is there anything more pure than that? If you wear one to a watch meetup, expect daps and hugs. And if some douche bag in the corner won’t swap wrists with you because he’s trying to flip his Rolex GMT “Batgirl” in two months and doesn’t want you to scratch the clasp — know that he’s the asshole, not you.

So shut up, strap on your Seiko SARB033, hop in the Camry and let’s take a road trip to Disney World. Because in 2020, we all just need something to rely on.

You can find the Seiko Sarb035 on Amazon.