In Review: The New Seiko SPC163P2 Dress Chrono

Seiko SPC163P2 White Dial Quartz Chronograph – $188.30

Admittedly, dressier chronographs (watches that along with telling the time, have a stop watch operated by two pushers on either side of the crown) get a lot of coverage on this website. But for good reason. They’re kinda the monk straps of the watch world. Highly versatile, are easy to dress up or down, and look great in that wheelhouse “smart casual” level of dress most of us find ourselves in more often than not.

Also like monk straps, they can go wrong in a hurry. There’s just more going on with a chronograph. So if that “more” gets taken too far, the look gets overcooked pretty quick. Thankfully, that’s not the case with this newer offering from Seiko.

Multi level face, applied indices, and well proportioned layout.

Dressier than the Spirit of St. Louis from Armogan or the Seiko SNDC Series, this Seiko goes with tapered stick indices, instead of Arabic numerals. That cleans up the dial quite a bit, and along with the sharp and slim hands, it looks a little more refined. Also unlike those other two watches, the indices are individual pieces, applied to the multi-layered dial. Makes it look more expensive than the simple (but still fine looking) printed dials. Description says the dial is “white,” but it’s not some stark, copier-paper white. There’s some silver in there, which keeps it from looking cheap or loud.

The sub-dial set up is somewhat unusual, with both the top and bottom sub-dials showing minute measurements. The dial at 12 o’clock clicks off each minute as they go by, while the lower sub at six jumps once every ten minutes, up to one hundred minutes total. Once ten minutes hits, the hand on the top sub dial bounces back to zero. It doesn’t take much to get used to reading the elapsed time, but not real useful for measuring longer spans.

As seen from across the desk/table.

Diameter is 44.6 mm, which is on the larger side, but it seems to wear a little smaller thanks to it’s relative slim depth and tapered leather band. That croc embossed band is a little stiff out of the box, but seems to break in easily.

Water resistance is a well appreciated 100m (should be fine unless you’re scuba diving). Since it’s a Seiko, expect the quartz movement to be dependable, and the mineral crystal probably helps keep the cost down.

Sure, it’s another chrono. But it’s sleeker than the Timex Waterbury series, dressier than the Armogan Spirit of St. Louis, and noticeably higher quality than the Kenneth Cole 1568. Don’t be surprised if it shows up in style scenarios in the future. Fingers crossed that they make a few more dial color options as well as a brown leather band model.