Seiko Puts The Pandagraph Concept Into Production And It's The Cutest

Two years ago, Seiko designer Kiyotaka Sakai made a very cure concept for a chronograph shaped like a panda's head and showed it off at the brand's Incredibly Specialized Watch Exhibition, part of the Power Design Project where Seiko lets its designers get weird. It was clearly a very fun gimmick, but people went wild for it. Well, if enough people want something, seems like Seiko can actually do it. Now if only they would listen to other things people want. This new former concept, current production duo, is named the HHK001 and HHK002 and remains almost completely unchanged from the concept. I say almost, because they dropped the Pandagraph name, which is a big miss. I love silly watches, so this is exactly my cup of tea.

In the photo above, without any context, this might seem like a dainty watch. But boy, is it not. This is still a Seiko chronograph, so the cushion shaped steel case measures 43mm wide and 14.6mm thick. Thanks to that cushion shape and the fact that he strap connects almost flush to the case, you get a lug-to-lug of 44.1mm, which means it should wear much smaller than the other dimensions suggest. The crown and both pushers sit up top in a bullhead layout, which is important because the pushers are rounded into ears, making it essential for the design. On top is a Hardlex crystal, you get a weak 30 meters of water resistance, and a steel caseback that shows the panda from behind, tail included, along with the edition number.

You get two colorways: white with black, or pink with black. Both dials have a texture that imitates fur and two sub-dials shaped like the dark patches around a panda's eyes. Around the edge runs a two-tier scale Seiko calls the Sasameter, named after sasa, the bamboo grass pandas live on. It's a tachymeter for timing pandas running, which top out at roughly 30 km/h. Love that

Inside is Seiko calibre 8T61, a mecha-quartz chronograph: quartz timekeeping rated at ±15 seconds per month, with a chronograph that feels mechanical when you use it. The battery lasts around three years. Straps are leather in white or pink to match the dial, smooth apart from a suede-like tip and first keeper.

The HHK001 is limited to 3,000 pieces and the HHK002 to 2,000. Both cost €590 and go on sale in November. See more on the Seiko website.