From across the room, this watch might be mistaken for  Rolex.  From across the table, it might be mistaken for a nice watch.  From on your wrist it cannot be mistaken for anything other than Seiko treating its (in my case, former) customers like chumps.  Shame on Seiko.

I have worn a silver Seiko for 20 years and it's still running like a charm.  The crystal is a bit scratched, so I thought I'd get a new two-tone one.  After receiving it, it looks to me like Seiko is making cheap knock-offs of its former classic watches.  Very disappointing.  The new watch is absolutely no where close to the one I have from 20 years ago.  Please note that most of the 5 star reviews are several years old, or weirdly, people who bought them years ago are writing reviews now. Rather fishy.

It looks so good in the box.  I even said, "Wow" when I opened it.  It's a classic design.  Too bad I didn't buy one 5-10 years ago.  I wish I had because you sure can't get one like that now.  As of December, 2011, the materials in the band are complete junk.

I read all the negative reviews about the new bands, but thought maybe since there were so many positive reviews, they were just unlucky and got outliers.  I also thought if i got a bad band, I'd just take the pins out and put a better band on the watch.  Turns out, because of the way the band is attached to the watch, you can't replace the band with a better one. That's the deal breaker-- lousy band you can't take off the watch.

I'm shocked at the truly inferior quality; it's clear that the defective band is NOT an outlier.  I'm an engineer.  I looked closely at the clasp-- it's a design flaw.  It's the wrong size by about a millimeter, a HUGE distance in jewelry. No wonder it doesn't close without a struggle. Can't believe Seiko put its name on these.  If they had any commitment to the integrity of their brand, they should have scrapped these bands and never attached watch movements to them at all.

The gold links on the band aren't  plated-- there's something gold painted on the top, something that has the excess sheen of (plastic!) mardi gras beads and (plastic!) silver deli trays.  It looks really cheap.  Worst of all, it SOUNDS and FEELS cheap. I wear my watch slightly loose, and this one, if worn just loose enough not to leave an imprint on your wrist, rattles like children's plastic toy jewelry.

Returning this sad little shadow of Seiko and having a jeweler put a new crystal in my 20 year old one, which I will take good care of since obviously I can't replace it with a new one. For the two-tone, I ended up getting a Citizen.&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/Citizen-Women-s-EW3144-51A-Eco-Drive-Sport-Two-Tone-Watch/dp/B0019KBDOM/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">Citizen Women's EW3144-51A Eco-Drive Sport Two-Tone Watch</a>.  I liked the look of this Seiko better, but can't abide a watch that rattles like it's made of plastic. The Citizen is a bulkier watch, but still very nice looking, and its band good.

I have worn a Seiko almost everyday for 20 years.  I know what a good Seiko feels like. This particular watch is absolutely nothing of the kind.