Watchlords

In the article “Watches with nicknames” published in October 2017, we introduced watches that, unbeknownst to Seiko, had been given nicknames by Seiko fans. This time, we focus on one of them, the “Monster,” and discuss the philosophy behind the watch with Hitoshi Ando, who designed the watch called the first generation Monster, and Gaku Komatsu, who designed the watch called the fourth generation Monster. (May 20, 2021)

The impetus for this bold design was practicality.

Ando: The birth of the watch known as the Monster began with an attempt to reconstruct our understanding of what a diver’s watch should be. The goal was not to create an unusual watch from the beginning, but to create a watch that would be easy for divers to use, which inevitably led to a bold design.

Komatsu: Starting with the first generation (SKX781) model released in 2000, this series was actually designed with a lot of user-friendliness in mind. When I saw the first and second generation (SRP307) for the first time, I remember thinking that although they looked quirky, they were actually very functional.



https://www.seiko-design.com/en/stories-en/monster-en/








First Generation circa 2000


Second generation circa 2012



Third Generation circa 2014


Third Generation additions late 2014




Fourth Generatio 2019-2020

That sound is Carl losing his shit!

Great article. It's a brilliant design, purely functional and immensely characterful, which is a very difficult balance. Industrial design at its best. Not a big fan of the fang indices but love the rest. Would be tempted by the current model but for the wart date magnifier.

jason_recliner wrote: ↑

August 19th 2022, 1:37pm

That sound is Carl losing his shit!

Great article. It's a brilliant design, purely functional and immensely characterful, which is a very difficult balance. Industrial design at its best. Not a big fan of the fang indices but love the rest. Would be tempted by the current model but for the wart date magnifier.

I have the 779 and 781 first gen models courtesy of Jas.

I always wanted one of the originals.

But I'm very happy with my SBDY035.

jason_recliner wrote: ↑

August 19th 2022, 1:37pm

That sound is Carl losing his shit!

Great article. It's a brilliant design, purely functional and immensely characterful, which is a very difficult balance. Industrial design at its best. Not a big fan of the fang indices but love the rest. Would be tempted by the current model but for the wart date magnifier.

...an attempt to reconstruct our understanding of what a diver’s watch should be...

In pursuing a 'reconstructed understanding' they made the near perfect SKX007 into something less. Their focus on design meant that at the points they deviated from the 007 they reduced it's functionality. Form over function is one of my least favourite things in dive gear.

The markers are less easy to discriminate, the dial is cramped, the bezel is too easily moved off its set-point. Though the use of a (partial) shroud is good.

IMO it's a cool looking fashion watch you can rely on for water activities, just not the best SKX for diving.

I like the monsters without the shark teeth indices best.

The SKX779 & 781 were my gifting watch of choice to first time watch wearers.
Way back in the day, I was picking them up for a buck twenty five at Ben-Shmuel's site when they went on sale.

Still got this one that conjurer fixed for me