Introducing the Seals Watch Co. Model A.5

It seems like everyone is making a play in the “integrated bracelet sports watch” category these days. With prices for iconic designs like the Patek Philippe Nautilus and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak skyrocketing, having an octagonal shaped stainless steel sports watch on your wrist has become a bit of an obsession for many well heeled collectors, and putting one on your wrist is quickly becoming the hottest new watch game among the Swiss houses going into 2020. With recent releases from Bell & Ross and Chopard taking direct aim at this market, there are plenty of hot takes out there about the relative import of these watches in the larger horological space. But this conversation seems to be happening mostly among the high end collector crowd. What about the enthusiast and value driven part of the spectrum?

Seals Model A.5

• Case Material: Stainless steel
• Dial: Black with Acid Green or Burgundy Roulette chapter ring 
• Dimensions: 41 x 11.65mm
• Crystal: Sapphire 
• Water Resistance: 100 meters 
• Crown: Screw down 
• Movement: Miyota 9039
• Strap/bracelet: Stainless steel bracelet
• Price: $800
• Expected Release: Pre-order beginning on November 9

Enter the Seals Watch Co. Model A.5. Here we have a sports watch in an integrated bracelet style, with a Royal Oak-ish case shape, and some really fun vintage inspired touches. The “F” word here is really important. This isn’t a 100 year old brand trying to stake their claim in an ultra competitive market with a focus group-tested, design by committee, flavor of the month watch. This is the brainchild of a fellow enthusiast and watch lover, someone who, you get the sense, wants nothing more than the wearer of his watch to smile when checking the time.

The Model A.5 has two variants, both using color in imaginative ways that we don’t see too often in mainstream watches. The Burgundy Roulette version uses a tri-color 24 hour chapter ring that would have felt at home in the 1970s but is used less in contemporary timepiece design. Red tones are tough to get right in a watch, but matching the deep burgundy with bright yellow and the white of the inner minutes ring works really well here.

The standout to me, however, is the Acid Green variant. According to Seals, the neon green pigment used here is “the greenest green imaginable,” and based on the provided photos, I can’t disagree. In the watch world we see endless cycles of the standard blacks, whites, and blues, and while there’s something to be said for traditional colors that go with everything, there’s also an obvious appeal to an unusually bright green that you can be certain nobody else in your local watch meetup is going to have, or a playful tri-color design that’s well considered and evokes a particular time period so well.

The A.5 holds more appeal than in just its liberal use of color, though. The case has a satisfying geometry, and at only 11.65mm thick it’s going to wear well on wrists of all sizes. Vertical brushing on case’s top side transitions nicely to polished surfaces surrounding the dial, and there’s something pleasantly anachronistic about the use of Roman numerals in such a fun, sporty, package.

The new Model A.5 variants will be available for pre-order on the Seals Watch website beginning on November 9 with a retail price of $800. Seals