Seiko continues to celebrate 55 years of their most iconic divers with the release of two new limited edition references: the SLA043J1 and the SPB183J1. The new watches are based on models initially released in 1965, and in 1970, that Seiko has deemed an important part of their dive watch lineage, and whose forebears have served as reference to other anniversary editions released this year. Thankfully, these are pretty cool watches to begin with and in typical Seiko fashion, they?ve stuck close to the script in keeping what made them the classics they are today.

The SLA043J1 may look familiar to the SLA037 released in the anniversary trilogy collection earlier this year, in that they are both 62MAS re-interpretations (unlike the straight up re-issue that the SLA017 was), but a few key differences are worth noting. The biggest being the lack of a hi-beat movement in the newest model, which opts instead for the caliber 8L35. This is Seiko?s high end automatic movement and but a stones throw from the 9S55 you?d find pulling duty in some Grand Seiko pieces. The 8L35 has been used in other anniversary models, such as the Prospex Marine Master Automatic SBDX016 and the even SLA017, and while not as accurate as the 9S, it will keep you within 10 seconds a day. 
At a brief glance, the SLA043J1 would be easy to mistake for the SLA037 from the trilogy set, however a bright blue seconds hand accents a rich navy dial here, and a sharp eye will notice the lack of the Hi-Beat ...