From a price perspective, Seiko is in somewhat of a transition stage, and while the type of movement powering the watch largely informs its positioning within the brand’s greater catalog, pretty much everything else feels a bit random. For one of its most recent releases of 2024, the famous Japanese manufacturer has created a new GMT-equipped offering within its popular Presage lineup of dress watches, and the Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 offers a GMT complication with a handcrafted lacquer dial for nearly half the price of the brand’s recently released King Seiko models.

Crafted from brushed and polished stainless steel with the brand’s Super Hard Coating, the case of the new Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 measures 40.2mm in diameter by 12.4mm thick, with beveled lugs that are set 20mm apart and extend to create an overall lug-to-lug profile of 48mm. The front side of the case is furnished by a smooth fixed bezel, which surrounds a dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on its interior surface. Additionally, a signed push/pull-style crown sits at the 3 o’clock location, and while Seiko does not provide any images of the reverse side of the watch, the specifications for the new SPB447 state that it is fitted with a screw-down display caseback that offers a view of its internal movement. The total weight of the Seiko Presage SPB447 comes in at approximately 87 grams, and despite having a fairly dressy overall aesthetic, this latest addition to the Presage lineup still offers users a healthy 100-meter depth rating, along with magnetic resistance up to 4,800 A/m.

The dial fitted to the new Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 is produced under the supervision of Japanese lacquer artist Isshu Tamura, and it features a gloss black surface that is created by repeatedly applying and polishing dozens of layers of Urushi lacquer. As part of the Presage collection, the SPB447 features a relatively dressy overall appearance, with baton-shaped hour markers, a date window at 3 o’clock, and an additional 24-hour scale appearing in gold along the periphery of the dial. A set of spade-shaped hands resides at the center with a crescent-shaped counterweight for the seconds hand, and while the hour and minute hands both feature polished surfaces to match the hour markers on the dial, the GMT hand and seconds hand are both finished gold to match the 24-hour scale and GMT text. The depth of the Urushi lacquer surface can be seen in the area that gently slopes toward the aperture of the date window, and similar to a number of other Seiko dress watches, the new SPB447 foregoes an application of luminous material to maintain its elegant overall aesthetic.

Powering the new Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 is the brand’s Caliber 6R54 automatic GMT movement, which offers “caller” style GMT functionality that allows for independent adjustment of its 24-hour hand and date display. Running at a rate of 21,600vph (3 Hz), the Seiko Caliber 6R54 operates at a lower frequency than the more premium Caliber 6Lxx movements that are found inside the brand’s latest King Seiko models, and this results in a lower accuracy rating of -15/+25 seconds per day (compared to the -10/+15 seconds per day offered by the Cal. 6Lxx series). With that in mind, the lower operating frequency also allows for a longer duration of autonomy, and the Caliber 6R54 used inside the new Seiko Presage SPB447 offers a power reserve of approximately 72 hours, rather than the 45-hour power reserve that characterizes the brand’s Caliber 6Lxx movements.

Fitted to the 20mm lugs of the new Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 is a two-piece leather strap that is made from dark brown calfskin with golden contrast stitching on the ends to reinforce the holes for its springbars. Additionally, the leather used for the strap comes from a tannery certified by the Leather Working Group, a non-profit organization founded in 2005 dedicated to the responsible and sustainable production of leather. Similar to the caseback of the watch, Seiko does not provide any dedicated images of its strap or clasp; however, the specifications for the new Presage SPB447 state that the strap is completed by a triple-folding deployant clasp with a push-button release, rather than a simple tang-style buckle like what can be found on the brand’s entry-level models.

While a handcrafted Urushi lacquer dial is certainly a premium feature, the Presage collection is positioned as one of Seiko’s mid-tier offerings. (I often describe it as the dressy sibling to the brand’s Prospex lineup of sports watches.) Consequently, Seiko’s Presage models are categorically less expensive than their King Seiko counterparts, and the new GMT-equipped Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447 has an official retail price of $1,750 USD, which makes it roughly half the cost of the recently launched time-and-date King Seiko watches. Compared to the brand’s ultra-affordable Seiko 5 models, the new SPB447 is undeniably a premium offering, although it also offers a significantly more elevated overall package, which arguably undercuts the various King Seiko models that are supposed to occupy the mid-point between Seiko and Grand Seiko. For more information on the Seiko Presage Craftsmanship Series Urushi Lacquer Dial SPB447, please visit the brand’s website.