This is my SPB155J1 or also known as the Baby Alpinist. I know there’s a lot of love for the “Original Alpinist” and it’s internal rotating compass etc. Personally I found it too busy and too distracting from the actual dial.
I bought this watch for the dial and also the 72 hr power reserve.
I have some thoughts on this watch after about a year of owning it!
Pros
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It has a beautiful fume dial that I absolutely adore. Seriously, in person it’s astounding.
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The 38mm case diameter makes it a dream to wear on my 6.4 inch wrist and I would recommend it to most people with smaller - mid sized wrists.
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This is my own personal caveat and that is I attached this watch to the first trip I took with my current girlfriend who I will one day make my wife so this watch is never leaving me. I named it Ionah which is Hà Nội spelled backwards which is where we took our first trip.
Cons
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The 6R35 movement is terrible at timekeeping. It varies between being 15 seconds slow or 30+ seconds slow depending on how I set the watch in it’s resting position. Having read that Seiko underpromises and overdelivers on movements I was quite disappointed
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It is a Top Heavy watch with minimal micro adjust. Even with the points of micro adjust I wasn’t able to get the perfect fit on it and I live in a country where temperatures are high and I’m more often than not in an air conditioned room so my wrist swells and contracts so that sucks.
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Lume is meh
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Retail price imo is definitely on the higher side and I would recommend buying it pre-owned
Conclusion:
A robust watch with lots of character but is lacking in terms of precision and accuracy.
6.5/10
I would recommend a Grand Seiko Quartz for women. STGF275 is a model that my girlfriend got. It’s 28mm if I recall correctly and you get Zaratsu polishing with a 9F Quartz movement with a deviation of 5-10 seconds a YEAR. If I was a woman and I wanted quality I’d go look at Grand Seiko Women’s Quartz.