Seiko offers a fine assortment of affordable dress watches, from the new 36mm Presage to an array of Cocktail Times.
On the other hand, one particular dress watch from the brand has always stood out to fans as a clunky dupe that misses the mark. However, a few minor changes may have transformed it into one of the best affordable alternatives to some iconic rectangular luxury dress watches.
The rectangular SWR has always felt out of place for a brand that doesn’t do corners. With so many excellent original designs available, a blatant copy of a French icon was too easy to dismiss.
The most recent example, the SWR049, demonstrates what Seiko got wrong. The 28.4mm wide case creates too much negative space on the dial and isn’t elongated enough to have the traditional luxury dress watch feel.
In the new generation, consisting of the SWR103, SWR104 and SWR106, Seiko narrowed the case by just over a millimeter and made the frame a bit thicker.
