Halios Seaforth Pastel Blue

4948 Views 12 Replies 11 Participants Last post by aaceofspades, Apr 26, 2022

singularityseven

Discussion Starter · Mar 24, 2021

The Halios Seaforth is one of the first ever micro-brand watches I came across, and I thought it was very well designed, and put it on my list of watches to look into. But like most of the uninitiated, I only learned about each Halios release after they were all sold out, and I felt disappointed and confused. I wasn't aware of the crazy demand, and I was oblivious to all the production constraints going on behind the scenes. The good news is that Jason at Halios seems to be getting this stuff under control, and the most recent Fairwind release appears to be going smoothly. I recently reviewed the grey Fairwind, and that made me get back into this brand. But I've been revisiting some of their older designs, and the Seaforth remains a watch I'm still very much interested in. I love the design, and I particularly love this pastel blue dial. I began to annoy my friend Mike, who writes excellent watch reviews for The Time Bum and Watch Clicker, with a bunch of questions about his pastel blue Seaforth. In an attempt to shut me up, he kindly offered to let me borrow his Seaforth for a few days. This is the Halios Seaforth III with a pastel blue dial, and no bezel. Halios Seaforth watches in general can be found on the secondary market from anywhere between $600 and $1300, depending on how popular the dial and bezel combo is.

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singularityseven

Discussion Starter · #4 · Mar 25, 2021

Earthbound said:
Looks like a very nice simple design. Certain models have caught my eye as well, this one in particular. Glad you got a chance to experience it in the flesh.

Thanks!

DrinkablePluto said:
I know Halios gets a ton of love on this forum but I gotta say, I think they're a little over-rated. I've never seen a reference of a Seaforth where the 12:00 markers weren't slightly crooked. Also on the few that I've seen in person, the steel brushing is pretty uneven. I know the owner is very secretive about where they're manufactured, and I know that other brands have no problems making the dual-stick markers without being crooked, so that makes me wonder whether the factory making these is of the premium level suggested by the price.

That being said, I did like your review.

Thanks for checking out the review, and you're right, this brand has built quite a following! But I think that did not come easily, and was a result of nearly a decade of work in the space. The watch community wasn't as welcoming to microbrands back then as it is today, so Halios and the few others at the time earned their laurels the old fashioned way - through good products.

I've seen a few Seaforths with misaligned markers on this forum (I went through all 600 pages of the Seaforth thread before recently buying 3 Seaforths), but I've also seen plenty that looked alright. I'm very picky about stuff like that, and I didn't find any issues with the markers on this watch. And so is the original owner of this watch (Mike Razak - The Time Bum / Watch Clicker / Two Broke Watch Snobs - Login • Instagram). I'll go out on a limb and assume that the misaligned markers in the Seaforth thread were eventually fixed by Halios. Because if they didn't, there would be a paper trail of complaints on the Seaforth thread for sure. And there isn't.

I've handled 4 Halios watches so far (3 Seaforths and 1 Fairwind), and yes the brushing on the case isn't exceptional, but it is on par with the top 90% of microbrands in the category, and I say that with experience. After my journey through countless microbrand watch reviews, very few microbrands have managed to pique my own curiosity and check off my own personal set of boxes - build quality, design, dial finishing and value. Halios, Christopher Ward and Formex are my top three contenders there, and I've already put my own money into Halios and Formex.

So I respectfully disagree, and I think they're accurately rated. And I honestly believe that there is a majority of truth behind the fan fare. But don't take my word for it, I'm a newly converted Halios fanboy!