Power Wheels Magazine A Notch Above
The “Presage” name was used by Seiko on select Japanese domestic market (JDM) watch models as early as 1960. At Baselworld 2016, Seiko officially relaunched its Presage sub-brand and expanded it as the Japanese watchmaker’s premier global all-mechanical timepiece collection. A year later, the 4R57 Cocktail Time was launched in Singapore in June 2017. Our 2019 Seiko Presage 4R57-00E0 / SSA346J1 / SARY132 was part of the Cocktail Time lineup as the “Side Car”.
A rose gold-tone needle-style seconds hand smoothly sweeps the champagne dial of our Presage, which has a sunburst texture that’s the trademark of the Cocktail Time models. The rose gold dauphine hour and minute hands tell the time while a fourth hand indicates the “Power Reserve”, where the arrow-style hand moves from the 12 o’clock to the 4 o’clock position when the Presage is hand-wound to its full 41-hour power reserve capacity.
Another nifty feature of our 7-year-old Presage is the date sub-dial and pointer at the 6 o’clock position. The date is set by pulling the crown out to the first click position. To fit all 31 dates in the small diameter rim, the odd-numbered dates are displayed while the even-numbered dates are replaced by simple lines around the sub-dial. Our only complaint is that the numbers are a bit too small to read at a glance (or without glasses, for those who don’t have 20/20 vision) and requires an extreme close-up to be read clearly.
Aside from its manual winding feature, the 29-jewel Seiko Caliber 4R57A mechanical automatic movement has a Hacking Seconds feature where the seconds hand stops when the crown is pulled. The movement is encased in a rose gold-tone 40 mm stainless steel case that’s 14.5 mm thick with a Hardlex crystal and a see-through exhibition glass case back. The 20 mm lugs hold a brown crocodile skin leather strap with a deployant clasp.
With a 5-bar / 50-meter water resistance rating, our party-ready rose gold Presage can easily survive getting soaked by a cocktail drink or being sprayed with champagne, but we wouldn’t want that. While it’s ready for Cocktail Time, we’re not ready to get it wet and wild. With a rose gold men’s timepiece like this on our wrist, we better act like gentlemen.
Model: Seiko Presage Cocktail Time
Reference No.: 4R57-00E0 / SSA346J1
Month/Year of Manufacture: June 2019
Type: Dress Watch
Movement: Self-winding/Automatic with hand-winding feature
Caliber: Seiko 4R57A
No. of Jewels: 29
Diameter: 40 mm
Thickness: 14.5 mm
Lug-to-lug Length: 42 mm
Lug Width: 20 mm
Weight: 84 grams
