With its history going back to the 1965, Seiko has been making dive watches for quite some time now. We recently touched on the trilogy of Seiko dive watches celebrating 55 years. In the early 2000s, Seiko introduced the SBDX001 MarineMaster which became a cult classic with the case design that resembles the 6215-7000 from 1967 but with a modern Grand Seiko automatic movement powering inside the monobloc case. In 2015, the watch received some upgrades and was renamed SBDX017 with the new MEMS technology and Diashield treatment to the case for better protection against scratches. All this leads to the SLA023, which was introduced in Baselworld 2019, but somehow didn’t receive much media coverage.
When I found out about this watch, the deep blue dial immediately grabbed my attention. After researching online to see Seiko has updated the bezel to ceramic and also updated the crystal from Hardlex to sapphire, it was on my short list of watches I had to get my hands on. With that in mind, my luck came in March 2020 and now, let’s take a deep dive into this review.
Great write-up Jeff! Aways enjoy your hands-on real talk. Such a great watch and sensible alternative to the great (and expensive) LX. Also, how big is the BP if it dwarfs the MM? 😅👍
BP is 46.2mm vs. SLA 44.3mm, but next to each other, feels there is more than 2mm doesn’t it? 🙂
Makes it look like a 40mm watch to be honest! 🙂
Hehe, it wears like a 40mm watch too 😉 Was surprised you didn’t use the lume shot for illustration though
Great timing for this article. I’ve got a SLA023 en route to me from Japan as we speak. I’ve ordered the CrafterBlue fitted rubber strap that works with the MM300 OEM adjustable strap. I went with brown rubber as I feel that plays with the blue of the dial nicely. This will be my first ever Marine Master and I am extremely excited. Cannot wait for it to arrive. Great write-up.
Let me know how you like it on the crafter blue, I was tempted to go for the orange but ended up with the Uncle Seiko orange strap for now, I wish they had a blue strap for the SLA023!
I’ll absolutely report back on the CrafterBlue once the strap (and the watch for that matter) arrive. I was disappointed that they don’t offer a fitted Blue strap for the SLA023. Maybe if we bug them enough, they’ll make it happen. For now, I’m really hoping the brown rubber will work with the blue dial and bezel. If you want, you can keep an eye on my instagram as I tend to post all of my watch’s there (probably far too often). I’ve always really been interested in the MM300, but never enough to actually make the purchase happen. This colorway of the 023 had me from the moment I saw it. My Grand Seiko “Whirlpool” SBGH267 also uses a blue dial and gold second hand, so naturally if I was going to add a MM300 along side it, it had to be the 023.
My instagram username is @canuckrs
Congrats with the new watch incoming! I’m confident the brown strap will work very well with the blue dial. Brown strap and blue dial rarely fails to impress 🙂