Seiko 5 Street Fighter V Watches

Seiko is the latest watch brand to get on the character themed bandwagon and we’re pleasantly surprised by the execution. The new Seiko 5 Street Fighter watches are pretty sweet, especially if if you are a SF gamer.

As brands run out of novel ideas in a saturated world of watches, some are turning to themed timepieces, leveraging existing franchises and characters. It’s like the original Mickey Mouse watches but with unlimited possibilities.

You can’t go to an office job with a cartoon t-shirt, but you can wear your favorite character on your wrist! Dress codes rarely mention anything about what kind of watch a person can wear to work. From Sriracha to Star Wars, themed wristwatches are a canvas for enthusiasts to express other interests – now Street Fighter fans can get in on the action.

Gen Xers and millennials remember growing up playing Capcom’s Street Fighter at the arcade. Now you can strap Ryu or Chun Li on your wrist and battle the day ahead. Think desk diving for fighters. The Seiko 5 Street Fighter series give new meaning to the term “laptop warrior”.

“Seiko 5 Sports proudly announces a collection designed in collaboration with Street Fighter V, a world-famous Player VS Player fighting game. The collection features six models inspired by the game’s central characters well-liked throughout the series. Rise to the top of the world by wearing this collaboration timepiece, radiating the spirit of fighters fighting an intense, bruising battle!” -Seiko

The Characters

Round one of the series includes: Ryu, Chun-Li, Ken, Guile, Blanka, and Zangief. Who knows, if this launch is a major success, maybe we’ll see other characters from the game:

“Inspired by” is the watch industry’s favorite term as of late, but these aren’t just watches inspired by Street Fighter V. It’s more than that. This new Seiko 5 Sport line is designed to be gear the characters would wear themselves.

The Details

Ryu Seiko Street Fighter Watch

The Ryu watch has pure white karategi texture on the strap and dial with a distressed bezel insert full of shoto battle scars.

Chunli Seiko Street Fighter Watch

Chun-Li’s watch looks like it could be unisex. The blue and gold matches her dress and the hour markers are reminiscent of the spike bracelets she wears on her wrists.

Ken Seiko Street Fighter Watch

Ken is a badass. His watch pretty badass, too. It has a black PVD case with a black dial garnished with red details that match his costume. This is also one of the more subtle pieces in the line, especially if you throw it on a different strap.

Guile Seiko Street Fighter Watch

The dial on Guile’s watch has a military camo patern with a USAF emblem at 6:00. Hardcore fans will also notice the dog tag of his best friend Charlie Nash located at 9:00.

Blanka Seiko Street Fighter Watch

Blanka’s watch features a bright green spinning guilloche pattern. The case is a gunmetal grey on a green and red nylon strap.

Zangief Seiko Street Fighter Watch

Zangief’s model is gold and bold like the wrestler he is. The bezel is like the belt he wears, with a “muscular” red guilloche dial on a red and gold nylon strap. Interestingly, this is the only one that has a panoramic cyclops lens over the day/date window.

Limited Edition

Each watch in the Seiko Street Fighter series is a limited edition with 9,999 pieces available in the world. Every watch is individually numbered on the outer edge of the exhibition style caseback.

Also on the caseback is a controller diagram showing how to do the special moves of the character. As if you’d ever forget how to do Ryu’s Hadoken or a Guile’s Sonic Boom!

The Movement

The SFV watches are powered by Seiko’s own caliber 4R36. This automatic movement is made in Japan with 24 jewels beating at 21,600 bph with about 40 hours of power reserve. Hacking and handwinding is also included, but for the accuracy geeks out there, don’t expect more than the official claims of +45 / -35 seconds per day.

Our Take

This new line is not only fun, but also built on an existing platform of legendary affordable workhorses. The Seiko 5 series watches are tough enough they could probably handle hand-to-hand combat IRL. They won’t be for everyone, but video games aren’t for everyone either. Anything that gets non-watch geeks into watches is cool by us!

Seiko has the retail prices set to $440 USD each, although grey market scalpers are already posting them up for $540 USD in various marketplaces. We’ll work on getting some in the shop to do a more detailed review and hands-on videos.

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzxvqV3Wle4

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