Seiko 5s are one of the most respected budget mechanical watches. Yeah, you did okay by a long shot.

I’m surprised by how much the price has risen in recent years but at one point the Seiko 5 prices were impossibly and unsustainably low.

Been there, done that, felt like Danny flipping Ocean for about a month.

I routinely wear watches with a totally incorrect date when I just can’t be bothered to set it. Nobody has ever noticed.

Functionally: great.

Aesthetically: The standard is for it to be at the 3. I find often it ruins symmetry or wipes out a numeral. It can leave an otherwise very clean dial feeling “unbalanced”. Don’t even talk to me about watches with the date at 4.

My “favourite” location is for the date window to be at 6. Good examples of this are the Hamilton Intra-Matic (in both the regular and chronograph, which is a nice feature), a lot of Nomos watches, the majority of older Heuer chronographs, and the Vulcain 50s Presidents. In essence - it’s a very mid-century thing and I’m sad it’s gone away.

The best worst watch in the world, for sure.

Seriously though where else can you buy a watch with that specification for under $100 and get what is essentially a NOS vintage diver?

Going to totally buck the trend here and say: Poljot. Specifically their chronographs.

I know, I know, weird old Soviet junk and all but it’s good.