The Seiko Budget Alpinist (and perhaps term coined?)

 Some time back I purchased the Seiko SRPE61K1 which is dubbed the Dress KX by some and did a quick review (here), however while searching for it a model appeared which I'd not heard of before (well and I'm no watch watcher) which was cheaper than the 61K1, the SRPE65K1 AU*4 

Which I was tempted by but kept on with the search of the 61K1 which I thought was significantly more lustrous with its sunburst dial.

After I had the 61K1 for a while I found that unlike my other watches that lovely dial was in some lights making it hard to see where the hands are. Great if you're after a time piece you like to admire for a bit but annoying when trying to find the time at a glance. So I thought it actually be easier to read the green one (there was a charcoal option too) in some lights and thought "oh what the hell" and bought it.

Having already struggled with the NATO band (which I like for comfort but which puts the watch further away from my wrist thus exacerbating the feeling of weight) I thought I'd try a brown strap and ordered one on eBay too.

I've had the watch for a while now and been using it variously with the standard NATO and a green plain strap which I discussed here:

and generally feels nicer than the NATO for the above mentioned reason. 

However a brown band arrived in due course (coming from China on a slow boat) and when I fitted it I was pretty instantly of the view that it made the watch look like an earlier model Alpinist (but of course without the hands or that compass rotating dial). 

I noted that Seiko have recently bumped up which are now more expensive and over AU$1000 now for the Alpinist. So in many ways at AU$360 for this 65K1 (and just $10 for that leather strap) I think that for all but the collectors this watch is a bargain.

I liked this so much that I fished around for something a bit more interesting and found this:

Which has become the default band.

Some time back now I also bought a green strap (well and another too) for my Seiko Sports 100 which I thought I'd try on this guy which I didn't think suited it as much as either brown leather strap. 

I hope you also found value for the video tip above which shows not only my other nylon fabric strap but also an advantage for slimmer wristed people in putting the buckle down.

:-)