I have the photos of the defects, but I have decided not to upload them, partially because the phone camera can't quite capture the marks and the misalignments as well but also I'm just really tired of seeing them.
In 2021, I had a bit of a good fortune with work family and friends, and to celebrate I got the 38mm Seiko Presage SRPD97 (Zen Garden) . It was not that much, but it's essentially my first "Made in Japan" Dress Seiko, at a very reasonable size and was eagerly awaiting to wear it.
(See
here where I posted about the SRPD97)
What came then was complete utter disappointment with the Seiko Presage SRPD97 watch that I purchased in early 2021.
When I received the watch, out of the box I immediately noticed that the chapter ring was misaligned (by quite a large margin!), which was a significant quality issue that should have been addressed before the watch was shipped to me. All this happened on April 1st as well! April's Fool indeed.
As a result, I sent the watch back for repair or replacement, only having worn it just once. Sending it to the service center itself was enough of a hassle in itself, since it was bought online. But I'm not going to cover this here.
It took about 2 months for me to get it back. and unfortunately, and the watch came back with a mark at the 12 o'clock position, on the beautiful dial which was not acceptable. (Initially I thought it was a crease in the dial, but it turned out it was glue mark.)
I had to reject the watch and send it back again.
All of this was during the COVID-19 restrictions, and there was delay after delay, but it took until late January 2022 for me to receive a properly repaired or replaced watch.
So a few things:
1. Seiko quality issues - ie chapter ring alignment : this is all true. I experienced it myself. The ring was off by almost 2 seconds and is completely unacceptable. A small barely perceptible misalignment I would have been disappointed with but not enough to bother sending it back, but a misalignment of this margin made me seriously question Seiko's recent quality.
2. Thong Sia, the service center and distributor for Malaysia, had disappointed me as well. The mark in the dial should've been spotted well before sending it back (very obvious to the naked eye, but can't quite be captured with a phone camera) - and so either they chose it was good enough (it was not), or there was nobody doing the final inspection. Sure, COVID may have a part in this, but I would've understood and been fine with it if they'd said "sorry, there will be delays with sending the watch to you while we do our utmost to make sure it returns to you in perfect condition." None of that happened, it seemed like they tried to pass it off as good back to me to quickly get rid of the problem.
3. It's obvious the seller (which is supposedly a Authorised Seiko Dealer) hid this from me, and wanted to get rid of it from their stock, even though I had specified to look out for defects before sending it out. So now instead of sending it back to Thong Sia and rejecting it, they SOLD it to me, which I then made a fuss about, then they sent it to Thong Sia, which then screwed up the repair and wasting time and money for all the parties involved. If they'd said this one goes back to Thong Sia before selling it, it would've preventing at least a third party (me, the buyer).
4. Otherwise, having worn it for over a year now (I started writing this post in 10th August 2021 after sending the watch in while awaiting it, but just finished the post in 24 February 2023 because I put it off for soo long - received the watch in its final form on January 2022), I quite enjoy the watch as it is, but am super wary of any next Seiko I buy. Also because of this, I hesitate to send any of my other Seikos for them to do any service or repairs. I'm essentially stuck of any service options for any future Seikos.
Overall, the watch came back still slightly misaligned if I am to really nitpick, it was now a very acceptable margin. It's off by 0.01 mm or so, but I just pretty much gave up at this point anyway.
It also seemed like when they replaced the dial, they tweaked the seconds hand upwards a little bit, so that the hands looked a bit odd, a very slight upwards angle. (The SRPD97's seconds hand is curved downwards to prevent parallax, so now it's looking like it's there is an odd curved up and then downwards again from the center.) I can't prove this as I can't compare to another version and I have no good before / after photos, but it's highly frustrating and I don't really want to send it back only for them to say it is normal. At one point I considered selling off the watch.
I had high expectations for the Seiko brand and its products, but my experience has left me quite disappointed. It seems they have regressed in quality, and don't forget - this is a "Made in Japan" product.
