Let's talk about the Seiko 5 first. It's easy, with all the interest Seiko has generated in the last few years, in Grand Seiko and the higher end Prospex models (to name just two) to start to feel like the Seiko 5 is like a collier on an ocean-crossing luxury liner in the Roaring Twenties – indispensable for keeping up a head of steam, but also someone the captain is more than happy to keep below decks and out of sight of the gents and ladies drinking champagne in First. Seiko, however, continues to take considerable pride in what the Five represents, and provides a pretty comprehensive history of the Sports 5 and subsequent "5" models for your perusal. The short version is that the first "5" model was introduced in 1963 as the Sportsmatic, and the various 5 models have been around ever since. They've been used just about everywhere and anywhere that someone who needs a bulletproof, mechanical watch has been. People come to the Seiko 5 for different reasons – desire for reliability, or for a weekend beater, or simply for the pleasure of owning a mechanical watch with a great story behind it. Not everyone who gets a Seiko 5 does so because they need, on the whole, to save money rather than spend it, but there's no denying that its cheapness and utility has done a lot to make the 5 possibly the single most widely owned and produced automatic watch in existence.