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Car companies teaming up with watchmakers usually result in incredibly expensive, over-designed timepieces that try too hard to look like a sports car on your wrist. Mazda and Seiko are doing something much more subdued for their latest collaboration.
The two companies have announced a new chronograph watch (BF9504) that costs 69,300 yen (around $440). It is a clean, functional quartz watch, but it comes with a major catch: it is only being sold in Japan.
Design Details
The design language of the watch leans into what Mazda refers to as the “aesthetics of subtraction.” Rather than cluttering the dial with heavy automotive branding or carbon fiber textures, the watch takes direct visual cues from Mazda’s standard vehicle instrument clusters.
The dial utilizes varying textures of black metallic finishes to create visual depth, accented only by a red stopwatch second hand and a matching red ring on the crown. Seiko also incorporated Mazda’s proprietary Mazda Type font for the dial lettering, keeping the typography consistent with the dashboard interfaces of modern Mazda vehicles.
As for the hardware, the watch features a stainless steel case measuring 39.2mm wide, 47.2mm tall, and 11.4mm thick. Seiko has equipped it with a curved Hardlex crystal, a convex version of its scratch-resistant mineral glass that adds visual depth to the dial. The caseback also carries a laser-engraved Estd 1920 Hiroshima, Japan inscription, referencing Mazda’s founding year and hometown.
Inside, it runs on a standard battery-powered quartz mechanism with an expected battery life of about three years and an accuracy of ±15 seconds per month. It has a 10 ATM water resistance rating, meaning it is fine for everyday use, and there is basic LumiBright coating strictly on the hour and minute hands so you can read it in the dark.
The watch ships with two interchangeable 20mm straps. The first is a stainless steel bracelet, which brings the total weight of the watch to 108 grams. The second is a black cowhide leather band finished with brown painted edges. Both bands and the watch are packaged in a specific box featuring Mazda’s brand colors.
Availability
Mazda released the watch through its Japanese online store on October 23 and dealerships on October 29, with overseas buyers needing a proxy shipping service to get one.
In related news, Seiko has recently launched its panda dial chronographs in India.
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(Mazda)
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