Protecting the dial, the Seafire is equipped with a mineral crystal. The dial is a matte black, which hosts an inlaid sub-dial section. Within the inlay, you have your 24-hour sub-dial at the 3 o’clock position, your chronograph seconds hand at the 6 o’clock position, and the chronograph minute/hour dial at the 9 o’clock position.
Located between the 4 and 5 hour marker is a circular date window. Once the date moves into double digits, the date becomes difficult to read. Personally, I would like to have seen the date window left off the dial, making the dial cleaner, as the date is really tough to read, but that’s just my opinion.
Powering the Supermarnie Seafire is the quartz Hattori VD53 movement. The Hattori VD53, a Seiko movement, brings a bit of a different flair to the movement of the Seafire. First off, the large seconds hand is the primary seconds hand for the watch, with the sub-dial seconds hand being the chrono seconds. Reverse of what most of us are used to. In comparison to the popular Miyota movements, the VD53 chronograph movement is not the typical “flyback” style most of us are used to. When the chronograph is started, depending on the length of the time being reordered, the VD53 actually winds back on itself; meaning if you time, say a mile race, and the race takes 6 minutes, when you go to reset the chronograph, you have to wait the brief period of time for the chrono to wind back to “0”. While this is a feature I personally like, I could see how it would get annoying if you were timing back-to-back subjects and needed a flyback chorono. For a better explanation, check out the review video as I show you exactly what I’m taking about.
The straps that come on the Seafire collection are 22mm in width and are made from genuine leather. For the AV-4025-04, the leather is somewhat distressed, giving the bands a worn appeal fresh out of the box. While the straps look nice, I prefer natural aging of my straps to the forced distress, as I feel natural aging gives the watch a personal touch and feel.
1 comment
Shame about the mineral crystal, given the pricetag of this thing – $450 or so – a sapphire seems to be almost a necessity (heck, you can get pvd-coated miyota automatic watches with a sapphire for that price – of course, not chronos, but even so). Especially with a dial this detailed, a sapphire would have made more sense.