I'm always a little hesitant to order something online without having seen it in person, but it's even nicer than I was expecting. My unit is a Seiko Orange Monster with stainless steel Seiko band. It is a big, shiny, noticeable combination. The black face should make a nice looking watch too, but I'm glad I got the orange one, I think it will be fun.

I have fairly thin wrists - I can wrap my hand around the other wrist and touch thumb to pinkie finger. IMO, the watch is not overpowering size-wise. It looks right and fits well I think because of the design of the lugs and the well made band. The band is easy to adjust if you're comfortable with such things, otherwise be sure to have a watch shop or jeweler take the time to properly fit it to your wrist for best appearance and comfort. Taking links out of one side v. the other will affect the way it lays on wrist and there is an additional micro adjustment provision that should be taken into consideration. If you're on the fence regarding the metal band or the rubber, definitely go for the metal - it's a bargain and will cost you far more separately if you change your mind later.

The fit and finish of the watch are excellent. I've been wearing a $1200 Accutron and the Seiko compares favorably.

Looking on the web, the Monster was designed as a basic, entry level real diver watch. I have owned several other earlier Seikos and have never had a problem with them including one that used the same movement as the Monster. It does not have a hacking feature - one explanation is that it would add cost and needless complexity (read: more moving parts to fail at the wrong time) to a diver. Being able to synchronize it to the exact second is just not a priority in a diver. In a diver, reliability is more critical. The second hand is just intended to show that the watch is still running while you are diving - a safety feature. If that degree of accuracy is important to you, you might be happier with a quartz watch - but really, do you want to wear a quartz watch with a second hand that goes "tick, tick, tick?"? Yuck!

The two most important features for me were the rotating timing bezel and the luminescence of the hands and face. I use a diver bezel for everything from timing calls, to jogging, to keeping track of when the clothes washer should be finished. The Seiko bezel feels great, very smooth and precise. It feel like it will be easy to operate even with cold and wet, muddy fingers if needed. I've had older, more traditional bezels that are too smooth to grip properly in such conditions. The luminescence is the best of any watch I've ever had. I can easily read it at 2am in a pitch black room many hours after it's last exposure to light. The dial is uncluttered and very easy to read quickly.

The fact that it's a real diver means it should be up for anything I might throw at it: skiing, washing the car, washing hands, maybe even a little snorkeling without worrying about it too much. The bezel is also slightly raised and should help protect the crystal. The numbers on the bezel are deeply engraved, instead of just being a painted ring, hopefully preserving it's nice appearance longer than the old style.

It's up to you whether this is the right type of watch for you - size and style and all that. A trip to the mall to try on a few could help. But if you decide a diver is the right choice, then this one should definitely be on your short list of finalists, black or orange.

UPDATE 9/4/2011

Bottom line: Awesome watch, awesome value.

I've had the Monster about a year and a half now and couldn't be happier with it. I wear it daily it still looks and runs great. Still love the way it looks, the way it works.

The watch is designed to make the band easy to remove and I have gotten in the habit of removing the band every week or two and giving it a good cleaning - it's amazing how much gunk builds up so quickly and how much better it looks with just a few minutes of care. I'm very happy with the stainless steel band - it's the best made band I've ever owned to be honest. Other than regular cleanings, I just buff out any scratches with extremely fine sandpapers (1000 and 2000 grit) occasionally and the watch looks as good as the day I bought. The only other maintenance I've done to it is remove the bezel and clean and lube the spring and o-ring underneath (found instructions on a Monster enthusiasts website).

The luminescence appears to me to be just as bright as when I bought it, the crystal (the bezel helps protect it) has taken a fair amount of abuse without a scratch, dial and hands still perfect. Got one good scratch on the bezel, but since it's a relatively inexpensive watch I felt emboldened to try buffing it out with the sandpapers and it looks like new (just take your time and go do a little at a time).

Strangers regularly compliment the watch and ask what it is, where I got it. Kinda strange at first, I've never had that happen with another watch, but I guess an orange watch is going to get noticed.

I bought mine off eBay, so a bit lower price and a bit more risk maybe than buying it here.

I would strongly recommend this watch to anyone looking for a well bought, good looking, good-value watch whether they ever go near the water or not. If I lost or broke this one, I'd order another right away, it's that good.

Regarding setting day/date on an analog watch: This may be obvious to everyone else, but took me a while to figure this out so I thought I'd share in case anyone struggles with it. The day date changes once for every two times the hour hand circles the face. The problem when setting it is there's no way to tell if you are setting AM or PM so you can't tell when the date change will occur (at midnight or noon) till it happens. The simplest solution I found was to use the quickset feature to set day/date for the day before, then rotate the hands clockwise till daydate changes - then you know you are in AM and can continue around again if you need to be in PM.

Update 10/11/13

I've had my Orange Monster about 3 1/2 years now. Still giving it five stars, would give it more if I could. It consistently runs a little slow, maybe 5 minutes a month. For me, for an automatic, that is plenty accurate. Still looks great and lume is still working very well. Zero moisture issues. I managed to nick the crystal in a freak landscaping accident so I've ordered a gasket set and new sapphire crystal for it. If it doesn't survive my repair attempt, I'll be ordering the newer version of the Orange Monster that looks nearly identical.