Dial

The dial on this model is a two-layer sandwich, with light brushed silver on the top and red underneath – visible only in the circular 24-hour indicator and as a border around the date window. The top layer is textured with vertical brushing, which will look familiar to those who have seen an old Seiko 6138-8020 in person. This is a good place to note that the SCVE003 is one of eight SCVExxx models, all with the same layout and design but with different case and/or dial accent colors. They all look nice, but none really hit the spot the way the 003 does for me. As easy and obvious as the comparison is to make, the dial’s similarity to the Japanese flag makes this one a vexillologist’s dream and appreciable to who anyone who likes simple, pretty design.

The “rising sun,” in this case, is the 24-hour indicator, which sits above and left of center, showing the time of day with a single hand that travels once around its circle per day. Keep in mind that this isn’t a second time-zone function; it simply repeats the time displayed by the primary hands, so when the center hands are showing 12:00, the small hand will be straight up (midnight) or straight down (noon).

The 24-hour indicator is marked around the outside in 3-hour increments, and those numbers are the only ones on the dial (besides the date). The primary time is marked with applied stick indicators on the hours and long and short painted indices for minutes/seconds and 1/5 seconds, respectively. The bold, steel Seiko logo is applied centrally on the 3:00 side of the dial. The hands are straight and simple, nearly identical in width to the hour markers; this creates a nice, even continuation of design from the center of the hands out to the bezel. The running center seconds hands has no tail and is painted the same bright red as the dial accents. The date window at 6:00 is proportionally sized and internally framed by the bottom layer of the dial; this design makes finding and reading the date very easy without it looking obnoxious or out of place.