Teddy Baldassarre
Seiko Presage Cocktail Time Guide
In their relatively short tenure on the international market, Seiko’s Presage “Cocktail Time” watches have already established themselves in the minds of many enthusiasts as one of the watch industry’s very best value prospects in the realm of automatic dress watches - boasting in-house movements, high-end finishing, and the colorful dials that lend them their nicknames, each inspired by concoctions from Japan’s world-famous high-end cocktail bars. Here is a guide to the Seiko “Cocktail Time,” with highlights and milestones from the modern collection. Happy Hour in Japan Seiko served up the first round of its “Cocktail Time” watches exclusively to customers in Japan. The first of these “JDM” (Japan Domestic Market) models debuted in 2010 and carried the Reference number SARB065. Now discontinued (and accordingly in high demand by collectors), this watch (above) and its siblings, the SARB066 and SARB068, featured 40mm cases in stainless steel, which were fairly thick at 13.3mm high. The movement inside the cases was Seiko’s Caliber 6R15, with bidirectional automatic winding, a 50-hour power reserve, and an impressive resistance to magnetic fields of 4,800 A/m. Unlike the many Presage models that followed, the originals were not nicknamed after specific cocktail concoctions but simply for different styles: the SARB065 with its ice-blue dial was “Cool,” the SARB066 with a pale, cream-colored dial was “Dry,” and the reddish brown dial of t...
