Today I'll tell you guys the epic story of the Seiko 5 in the middle east, and give more attention to reference SNK063J5
When Seiko introduced the 5 series in the 60s and 70s they were a very popular watch in the middle east, Arabs from the eastern coast of the gulf countries sometimes went to India to get married, and had to pay dowry to a woman... For Muslims, the woman takes the dowry (Hindus are the opposite). A Seiko 5 was the popular dowry... Shocking, right?
It was not that Indian women found the watch fashionable or anything like that... it was because the watch was an expensive asset, so to prove capability of taking care of the woman, an Arab man had to be able to give them the woman's family a Seiko 5 which the family would sell and the money they get from it becomes the woman's dowry. The Seiko 5 became notorious as the "dowry watch" in some parts of the UAE and Bahrain. Now how does the SNK063J5 fit into all of this?
For a very long time, Seiko was one of the few manufacturers that paid attention to the gulf market at a very early stage, releasing the Seiko 5 and various other models with the days written in the Arabic language... they became an instant hit, so Seiko released watches with Indian (current-day Arabic) numerals as well as days written in Arabic. the ref SNK063J5 is the current day reference for this watch and comes in only one color, SS with a black dial and a bracelet. In places like Saudi Arabia you can find other dial colors, but word is that these are not original dials. These watches regularly sell for double their retail price because of their rarity. I read someone on here posting one for sale here claiming that each main dealer gets 100 of these watches... reality is that it is probably right. they usually get a small allocation for the whole year across their whole chain of stores. its not a limited edition watch, however it is a very limited manufacture watch. and with such high demand these watches are only going to go up in value.
going to the technical side of things, its a Stainless Steel watch, 50M water resistance, 21 Jewel automatic movement with hours, minutes and seconds hands, has a date function as well as a day function in both Arabic and English (for those non-Arabs who love the look of the numerals but dont want to miss out on knowing what day it is). watch has an exhibition back, but its useless as there's nothing worthy of seeing (personal opinion). You can alternate between English day display and Arabic day display, with Friday highlighted in red-color font to signify the Arabic region's glorification of that day (its the middle eastern sunday). The crown is uniquely at 4 o'clock and the watch has brushed SS in some parts as well as polished SS in others.
I hope you enjoyed learning about this unique rare watch.
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When Seiko introduced the 5 series in the 60s and 70s they were a very popular watch in the middle east, Arabs from the eastern coast of the gulf countries sometimes went to India to get married, and had to pay dowry to a woman... For Muslims, the woman takes the dowry (Hindus are the opposite). A Seiko 5 was the popular dowry... Shocking, right?
It was not that Indian women found the watch fashionable or anything like that... it was because the watch was an expensive asset, so to prove capability of taking care of the woman, an Arab man had to be able to give them the woman's family a Seiko 5 which the family would sell and the money they get from it becomes the woman's dowry. The Seiko 5 became notorious as the "dowry watch" in some parts of the UAE and Bahrain. Now how does the SNK063J5 fit into all of this?
For a very long time, Seiko was one of the few manufacturers that paid attention to the gulf market at a very early stage, releasing the Seiko 5 and various other models with the days written in the Arabic language... they became an instant hit, so Seiko released watches with Indian (current-day Arabic) numerals as well as days written in Arabic. the ref SNK063J5 is the current day reference for this watch and comes in only one color, SS with a black dial and a bracelet. In places like Saudi Arabia you can find other dial colors, but word is that these are not original dials. These watches regularly sell for double their retail price because of their rarity. I read someone on here posting one for sale here claiming that each main dealer gets 100 of these watches... reality is that it is probably right. they usually get a small allocation for the whole year across their whole chain of stores. its not a limited edition watch, however it is a very limited manufacture watch. and with such high demand these watches are only going to go up in value.
going to the technical side of things, its a Stainless Steel watch, 50M water resistance, 21 Jewel automatic movement with hours, minutes and seconds hands, has a date function as well as a day function in both Arabic and English (for those non-Arabs who love the look of the numerals but dont want to miss out on knowing what day it is). watch has an exhibition back, but its useless as there's nothing worthy of seeing (personal opinion). You can alternate between English day display and Arabic day display, with Friday highlighted in red-color font to signify the Arabic region's glorification of that day (its the middle eastern sunday). The crown is uniquely at 4 o'clock and the watch has brushed SS in some parts as well as polished SS in others.
I hope you enjoyed learning about this unique rare watch.
