I love film. I’ve written about it in a few places here at Primer Peak, and that love for cinema has influenced me in many ways. Well, in this review, that influence takes the form of a wristwatch.
As a kid of the 1990s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a massive part of my film enjoyment. I started with Terminator 2, but quickly moved to his earlier films. Commando and Predator were two that I really latched onto, and came to watch fairly often. Well, 20+ years later, I’ve got a little part of that film magic, in the form of the Seiko SNJ025. Seiko is Japan’s oldest watch brand, and this model of watch is a modern reissue of a classic watch from the 1980s, worn by Arnie on the silver screen. So what is the Seiko Arnie?
The Seiko SNJ025 “Arnie” is a modern update to the old H558 watch. Both share design, however the SNJ series has updates, like solar power and a higher water resistance. The H558 was produced from 1982, and ceased production in 1990. The new SNJ came out in 2019, and has been in production since.
At the core of it, the Arnie is a 200m water resistant dive watch, with an analog and digital display, powered by a solar-cell movement. It has a unique case design, derived from the Seiko “Tuna” family (named for being shaped like a Tuna can). Aside from telling the time, the watch has a rotating bezel, an alarm, dual time zone tracking, a stopwatch, a perpetual calendar, and a backlight.
Dimensionally, the SNJ025 is larger than the original watch. Case width is 53mm (with the pushers and crown), watch height is 14.85mm, lug width is 22mm, and lug to lug is 50.6mm. I’ll speak more on the size later, but this watch generally wears smaller than you’d think. Weight comes in at 109 grams on the factory strap.
The reference number (025) refers to the colorway. The other references are all in different colors, so you have quite the variety to choose from. While Seiko is a Japanese company, the Arnie is made in China. MSRP is $525, but I paid about $392 dollars via a online vendor back in April of 2024. It’s been a rocky road with the Arnie, but I certainly have things to say about it.
Without a good movement, the watch doesn’t matter. How’s the Arnie’s?
Note: I’ve compressed a lot of the photos here to allow for fasting webpage loading. If you’d like to see the photos in their full-form, check out the Imgur link here.
The Arnie is powered by the Seiko H851 movement, named as a callback to the older watch. While the name is different, most of the function are the same.
We’ve got an analogue-digital (anidigi) display. With this, we’ve got a standard set of hands, and a digital display at the 12 o’clock position for the watch. Function wise, we’ve got quite a bit going on.
First and foremost, the watch is a perpetual calendar. What this means is that you set the date, month, and year, and the watch tracks it. No more needing to roll the date forward on months with less than 31 days! There’s also a stopwatch feature, which in conjunction with the bezel, allows you to time two separate things concurrently. A second time zone can be programmed (helpful when traveling), and there’s an alarm function too.
Seiko advertises a “6 month power reserve” for the Arnie, however, they don’t give a concrete battery life. The watch is solar powered, so a lot of that is determined by your time outside. Accuracy is stated as plus or minus 15 seconds a month. There’s not a ton of info on the H851 movement, but it’s a good one (when it’s working). Reliability is, well, a mixed bag. We’ll cover that later though.
How hard is it to use the Arnie’s functions?
Fundamentally, the pushers and crown only do a handful of tasks each. These all screw into place, and need to be unscrewed to be used.
The top left pusher acts as the button for the backlight, activates the start and stop for the stopwatch, and turns the alarm on and off. The bottom pusher cycles through the various functions on the watch, and cycles through the date and time when setting the date and time. Finally, the crown acts as well, the crown, and is used for changing the time for the various functions.
Once we can understand how to use the pushers and the crown, setting the time and using the other functions isn’t difficult. Generally speaking, I’m only using the time, date, and stopwatch functions. I’m sure that I’d use the alarm at some point, but that’s generally a phone task for me. The dual time comes in handy too, as we’ve basically got a GMT function.
The Arnie is a watch that isn’t loaded with superfluous functions. They’re all practical and useful.
Speaking as to the feel of the pushers and crown, they are alright. The pushers are spongey buttons, and the crown is kind of “floaty” in feel. Putting in bluntly, the crown is not very responsive for the functions that you use it for.
We’ve looked under the hood, so how about venturing up?
The original Arnie had a simple dial and display, and the SNJ series doesn’t change that.
On the black colorway, we’ve got a matte black dial, with white indices, stainless hands with white lume, and a slight splash of color for the depth rating. Under the crystal, there’s also a chapter ring, used for precise timing, and when calculating 24 hour time.
The dial itself is very 1980s. It’s basic, but that’s the appeal. It’s quite legible at a glance, which is always a nice feature. Now, it’s not perfect. The chapter ring is big, and takes up a lot of possible dial real estate. The hands are also a oddly proportioned, at least to my eyes. I know that this is done to clear the digital display, but it still looks a little odd.
Speaking of it, how about the digital display? Well, it’s small, but the LCD screen is very legible. It’s not the biggest nor most legible one that I’ve used, but it’s far from bad. The 12 o’clock position is my preferred location for it too.
Now, the crystal is going to be a point of contention. Seiko uses “Hardlex” which is just their in-house type of mineral glass. It’s going to scratch easier than sapphire, but will be more shock resistant too. Some will say that Seiko is cheaping out, others will defend it. All I can say is that in my testing, I’ve not incidentally scraped the crystal. Due to the bezel height, I find that the crystal is rather well protected. That being said, I’d prefer sapphire for the price.
The case design is classic and unique, but is it good?
The classic Seiko “Tuna” case is one that a lot of people like. I like how it looks, but using it is a bit of a different story.
The watch sports a plastic outer shell, with a stainless steel inner case.
This bezel looks great. It uses an aluminum insert, has minute and second markers for all 60 intervals, and is very easy to read. The bezel rotates unidirectionally, and has 120 clicks to it. It also has a triangular lume-pip at the zero mark. However, even with the coin-edge on it, it is hard to grasp due to the case shell. There are only two parts where we can grasp the bezel, and with wet hands, I find it a hard task to do. The bezel action itself is stiff, and a bit mushy.
Seiko uses an unsigned crown for the watch. It’s got knurling, and is pretty easy to unscrew and screw back in.
The pushers are a different story. They are reverse threaded, so you go righty-loosy and lefty-tighty. It threw me off for a bit, but I’ve gotten used to it. They have some black coating to show when they are open (ready to use), and that color goes away when they are tightened down. My big gripe is that mine are a little loose, and don’t stay fully tightened all of the time. It’s really quite easy to bump something, and have the pushers unscrew.
The Arnie has a screwed in stainless steel caseback. With the pushers screwed down, and the caseback attached correctly, the Arnie is rated to 200 meters of water resistance. With the pushers and crown unscrewed, it is “only” 50m. I think the deepest I’ve had mine is about 3 feet.
How is the strap on the Arnie?
The Arnie has wide 22mm lugs, which fit the look of the watch well.
The lugs are short and drilled, so swapping straps is pretty easy. Speaking of…
The OEM strap is made from a soft rubber, and has different textures on each side. It’s adorned with Seiko logos, and has a signed Seiko buckle. I wore it for a good bit, but I found that it was not very comfortable in the long term. There were two culprits at play; The buckle, and the supple nature of the strap.
The buckle is a big piece of stamped steel, and it would rub my wrist raw when wearing the watch for any extended period of time. It looks cool, but it’s not great.
The “rock” texture on the strap trapped sweat and moisture, and caused irritation. Between the texture and the soft feel, it was like wearing bicycle inner tubing on my arm. Thankfully, the Arnie has a very common lug width.
I’ve tried a lot of straps on the Arnie, but the classic “Waffle Tropic” was my favorite. It’s thinner, a little harder, and has better texturing than the OEM strap. I like the ones made from FKM rubber, as they do not irritate the skin. I’d say that about 80% of my time with the Arnie was spent with an FKM Tropic strap.
So, the OEM strap is not great, but replacements are plentiful. How’s the lume and backlight on this watch?
If Seiko is known for one thing, that one thing is bright lume. The Arnie has some of the best lume that I have seen on any wristwatch.
The green “LumaBrite” is applied consistently and heavily. The green glow is very bright, and lasts for a long duration of time. I’ve had many nights where I hit the watch with a UV light before bed, and it’s still glowing when I get up 6 to 8 hours later.
Is there anything I’d change with the lume on this watch? Nope. It’s basically perfect. As a nighttime watch, I cannot ask for more. However…
We do get more, in the form of the backlight. It’s a bright blue color, and easily illuminates the entire LCD display. I’d say that this display is as bright as the ones on my modern G-Shocks, and that’s a big compliment.
I’ve got some gripes with the Arnie, but the lume certainly ain’t one of them. How does the watch wear for me?
I’ve worn the Arnie a lot over the last 7 months, and I think it wears pretty well.
While the case size is big, a lot of that width comes from the pushers. While they serve a function, they don’t really make the watch feel bigger on the wrist. The short lug to lug really helps out in wearing the Arnie, as it makes it feel smaller than it actually is.
After swapping to the Tropic strap, I found that the Arnie wore even better, and felt smaller on the wrist. Now, I do have 7 & 1/2 inch wrists and big forearms, so I can pull off a larger watch. However, I don’t think you need guns like Arnie to wear this watch.
How did this watch fall into my EDC rotation?
When it comes to Every Day Carry, I have constants, and things that change. Depending on what I’m doing, I’ll switch to a smaller gun, different clothes, or a different watch. Well, the Arnie kind of became my jack-of-all-trades.
I decided to wear the Arnie like how I’d wear a G-Shock. It would be on me for the gym, for physical activities, when I go shooting, and when I’m going to bed. Sometimes, I’d switch from my G-Shock to an analog watch midday, after getting all of my “hard use” work done. Well, I found myself wearing the Arnie a lot. More than I had expected. I had a few stretches of time where it was the only watch I was wearing for a week or two at a time.
Why was this? Well, the utility was certainly a part of it. Between the timing bezel and the stopwatch function, I was using the watch daily for cooking, doing laundry, or timing activities. The backlight and lume made it easy to keep on once it got dark, as the watch was still legible into the evenings. I never had to worry about winding the watch, or the battery dying either.
What else played a part in the constant wear? Well, I think it looks cool. I started the review off by talking about this was a bit of a “media influenced” purchase, and the look of the watch was a large part of that. It’s a timepiece that I can look down at, and still appreciate all of these months later.
Did I manage to break anything on this dive watch?
Well, not yet. Aside from scratches on the polished caseback, the watch looks the same as when I got it. No dings or dents, no broken or scratched glass, and no parts fallen off. Water resistance has not failed either, but I’ve not gone all that deep with the watch.
I’m not babying the watch by any means, but I’m not someone who swings my arms around when I walk, or is prone to bashing them into walls. Can you break the Arnie? Sure you can. I just haven’t done it yet.
Now, I may not have broken the watch, but it has been back to Seiko’s US repair center twice so far…
Seiko is pretty well known for poor quality control these days. Generally, that falls into minor cosmetic issues, like misaligned bezels, second hands not hitting indices, or watches that are not quite running within the advertised timekeeping range. For my Arnie, it was a lot worse than that.
When I first received my specific Arnie, it arrived new from a Seiko authorized dealer. I tossed it on, set the time, and then went outside. After a few moments in the sunlight, I realized that the time on the watch was no longer correct. I set the time again, and then on my next outdoor outing, I notice that it has reset a second time.
Well, I do some digging, and I find out that this is apparently an issue with some Arnies, and that they will reset when exposed to sunlight. I contact Seiko, I pay out of my pocket to mail them the watch, and then about a month passes. I receive the watch back in mid-June 2024, and have a service note stating that the movement was replaced/repaired. Well, I go back into the sunlight, and this happens…
Well, Seiko sent me back a watch that was still defective. One frustrated call back to Seiko, and I am given a shipping label, and I send the watch back. After about two weeks, I get the watch back, and it’s finally working. However, it’s just a different watch, not the one that initially sent in.
Apparently, a lot of Arnies had defective movements, or bad battery capacitors. This would cause the watch to reset in sunlight. Needless to say, Seiko’s QC is far from great, and the CS needs some work too. Aside from the “vampire” issue, my watch is also running about 30 seconds fast a month, which is double what Seiko advertises for this movement.
It’s pretty clear that the watch doesn’t have the best QC. However, I’ve still got other complaints and gripes about the watch.
At the core of it, the Arnie is a watch that I enjoy, but I have quite a few gripes with.
First and foremost, the build quality doesn’t feel very good. The shiny steel looks cheap, the pushers feel chintzy, and the crown is floaty. If the watch was finished in a matte steel finish, it would likely look better, but in the classic colorway, it just feels cheap.
Tying into the build quality, we’ve got cheaper components, like the mineral (Hardlex) crystal. Seiko has their reasons to do the watch with mineral crystal, but as the buyer, it just feels like they’ve cheaped out.
Design-wise, the chapter ring on the dial eats into a lot of the usable space on the dial. Sure, it makes the watch look smaller, but if you don’t have good vision, you’ll certainly have problems with telling the time at a glance. In addition, the digital display is small, and is proportionally smaller than the original Seiko watch.
I’ve spoken about the poor quality strap, but that can be easily swapped.
The biggest gripes are the bad QC and CS. From the movement not running within the advertised time, to the fact that I got a defective watch to which Seiko botched a repair of, it really hurts my rating here.
Well, what compares to the Arnie?
When it comes to ani-digi watches, people usually think of either the Arnie, or something from Citizen. For me, there’s only one really similar watch.
That watch is the Momentum UDT. It’s a fairly new release, but like the Arnie, is a reissue of a watch from the 1980s. It’s smaller in every dimension, and is thinner too. However, mine has poor lume, and lacks a backlight. The feature set is otherwise very similar, with GMT function, stopwatch, alarm, rotating bezel, and 200m of water resistance. The build quality is better than the Arnie, however, I wouldn’t recommend it over the Arnie. The poor lume really is a deal breaker, at least for me.
For me, the biggest comparison is between the Arnie, and a solar G-Shock. Yeah, the G-Shocks generally don’t have rotating bezels or the ani-digi display, but they otherwise offer the same features. Actually, in the case of the 5610u pictured above, it has more features than the Arnie. It’s got the same water resistance, but has a better backlight, multiple alarms settings, atomic timekeeping, a better GMT mode, splits for the stopwatch, and is better QC’d. Oh, and it’s 1/4th the price at most retailers.
The Arnie is not a good value for the money. However, I doubt folks are buying it to be a good value.
I started the article with it, and we’re now back to it. I bought this watch because of the guy who made it famous, and the films he was in. Did I expect to get a good watch in the process? Well, yeah, but that road was a little rocky to get there.
At the time of writing, I own 8 watches. Of those 8, 5 of them are directly tied to films or shows that I really enjoy. The cynic in me knows that these watches are only known due to consumerism and product placement, but it’s strong enough to trick my brain. From the James Bond Omegas, to the Rambo UDT, I’m a sucker for a watch from a film. Well, it’s what lead me to the Arnie, but it’s not what’s keeping me now.
It doesn’t matter how cool something looks, if the performance sucks. I’ve got gripes with my Arnie, and I really struggle to recommend it. However, I cannot pull it off of my wrist. Despite all of the issues, I’m enjoying the watch, warts and all. There are better watches in my watchbox, but the Arnie is still getting wrist time from me.
There are a lot of things to like with the Arnie.
The Arnie is cool. I think it’s hard to try and say otherwise. However, cool is what’s really carrying this watch for me. Sure, it’s been durable and dependable for me, but it took two trips back to Seiko’s repair center to get that way. The lume paint and backlight are fantastic, and the functions are very useful. However, we can get the same functions (and more), out of a $90 G-Shock.
This was supposed to be the “Pros” section, wasn’t it? Well, let’s get onto the cons.
For my Arnie experience, the cons are really massive.
There are a ton of cons. My time with the Arnie has been interesting, to say the least. The first two months were all just back and forth with Seiko to get the thing fixed, which was an extremely frustrating time. I’d rate the S&W CS experience better than Seiko’s, but it’s unfortunate that I’ve dealt with both a bunch in 2024.
Aside from the defective watch issue, the overall build quality is lacking. Talking value (what you get for the money), the Arnie does not have a great value for your dosh.
So what’s the verdict?
The Arnie is a watch that I really like, but cannot generally recommend. The poor QC, and worse CS sealed the deal for me. This was my first new Seiko watch, and it’s the last one too. It has a ton of features that I like, and looks cool, but the nightmarish process to get a functional one has killed any way that I could possibly recommend the Arnie.
What if you’re dead-set on buying an Arnie? Well, you’re either really wanting an ani-digi diver, or are a big fan of Arnie’s films. Compared to the other ani-digi watches on the market, the Arnie does stand above them when it comes to the features of the watch. Now, you’d need to really vet the watch before you buy, as there are still a lot of faulty H851 movements out there right now.
If you just want a good watch, go buy a G-Shock, like the 5610u or the 6900. They’ll work better, have more features, and cost you a lot less money. Oh, and Arnie wore a G-Shock in The Running Man, so you can still get your Austrian bodybuilder fix.
I recorded a short video review too, but it’s not “necessary watching” if you’ve made it this far.
If you liked this review, check out some more of my watch articles:
I’d recommend reading the Fratello article by Michael Stockton about the original Seiko H558. It’s a neat read about the older watch, and the article was written prior to the reissue of the new Arnie.
If you’d like to support me on Patreon, I’ve got the link for that here. Nearly everything that I do on Primer Peak is paid for out of my own pocket, and my content is not shilled or driven by manufacturers or companies. If you decide to donate, I’d really appreciate it, as it would allow for me to continue to bring you quality work.
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