Seiko unveils two new titanium Astron Nexter watches as part of limited-edition series
Two more Astron Nexter models are joining Seiko's new 145th anniversary series, and they're the rarest watches in the entire lineup. The HAC003J and HAD003J are each limited to 500 pieces — a quarter the size of the already-restricted 2,000-unit HAB011J — yet neither has appeared on Seiko's international listings. Both release in Japan on October 9.
HAC003J — ¥165,000 (~$1,045)
This is the more compact option of the two. The HAC003J is a three-hand dress piece in pure titanium, 36 mm across and 8.7 mm thick, running Seiko's caliber 7B62. It carries the same Edo purple dial treatment as the rest of the lineup — a horizontal gradient pattern with gold accents on the logo and seconds hand — inside Nexter's unique case shape. The watch is solar-powered with radio time correction, rated to ±15 seconds a month when out of signal range, with a date display and a full auto-calendar good until December 31, 2099.
HAD003J — ¥176,000 (~$1,115)
The HAD003J is the larger, more complex piece here. It's a solar radio-controlled chronograph powered by caliber 8B92, 41.3 mm wide and 10.6 mm thick, also in hard-coated titanium. It adds a 1/5-second, 60-minute chronograph, a 25-timezone world time function, and a screw-lock crown, at the cost of shorter battery life on a full charge (roughly six months against the HAC003J's nine).
Both share the same Edo purple story as the rest of October's anniversary releases, and both are capped at 500 pieces — tighter than any other watch in the wave, including the GPS-solar HAB011J. The reason they've stayed off the radar internationally comes down to how they tell time: both receive radio signals (not GPS), syncing to standard time broadcasts from Japan, China, the US, and Germany (the HAC003J also picks up the UK's). Seiko doesn't sell that radio-sync variant of the Astron outside the markets those signals reach, which is exactly why only the GPS-based HAB011J went global and these two didn't.
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