After deciding 4 months ago that I should treat myself to a nice watch, I've finally bought one and am absolutely in love. I am also currently in the phase where I am almost terrified to wear it so I don't damage it but I hope that will pass soon. 490€ is a lot for me to spend on a watch when my previous watches are a slightly modded Casio F-91W and a PineTime smartwatch with an alternate wriststrap.

It took me a long time to finally settle on a watch I wanted. At first I looked at the Citizen Eco-Drive BY1030 models and even checked them out at a jeweler, where I unfortunately found out that 42mm watches just look too big on my tiny wrists. Additionally, the blue on the black and blue dial model just did not look as good in person to me as it did online and while I adore the white version of the watch, I am not a fan of leather watchstraps for daily wear.

Walking by a jeweler, I saw the green Seiko SRPE15 in the display window and decided to check out the blue SRPB41 version (I really like blue if you can't tell ;D). That's when I came across the HCB001J1 online, which at that point had only been announced and not released. I decided to wait a bit more and after I came back from vacation called a jeweler to take a look at the SRP41 and HCB001 in person. Based on what I first saw of the green Seiko, I thought it would be a difficult choice, but as soon as I saw the HCB001J1 in person I knew what I had to buy. I feel like it's difficult to truly do the dial justice with pictures but here's my best attempt.