Seiko unveils two new stainless-steel chronographs with sapphire crystal

Seiko's newest chronograph pair comes with the same case in two different moods. The HGK001 has a cream, grid-textured dial with a yellow-gold bezel ring; the HGK002 comes equipped with a slate-gray textured dial and rose-gold trim. Both fall under Seiko's "Essentials" line, and both share an identical spec sheet built around the 8T63 quartz caliber.

The shared case measures 40 mm across, 11.5 mm thick, with a 45.8 mm lug-to-lug span in stainless steel, topped with sapphire crystal and LumiBrite on the hands and indices. Functions are as standard as it goes (for a quartz chrono, at least): a 60-minute timer in 1/5-second increments, small seconds, a 24-hour hand, and a date window, backed by 10 bar of water resistance and 4,800 A/m of magnetic resistance behind a screw-down case back. The bezel's faceted, octagonal shape is somewhat different from the rounder bezels Seiko has used on comparable chronographs before.

Pricing is a little confusing depending on where you're buying. Seiko's Philippines site lists both references at PHP 30,500, which converts to roughly $497 — relatively higher than the $440 several US retailers are already listing them at, which can only mean that regional markups vary more than usual for this release.

Both HGK001 and HGK002 appear to be shipping now through third-party retailers, even without a formal Seiko global press rollout to match. Meanwhile, you can check out the Seiko SSB427P1 on Amazon.