Today, a new series debuts on Worn & Wound. “Why This Watch?” focuses on a member of the watch enthusiast community and digs into their decision making process for why they’ve collected a particular watch. We all have reasons, justifications, and sometimes even purpose behind our collecting decisions, and this series aims to identify them through watches that might be a little unusual, off the beaten path, or special in some way to the owner.
We start the series with Steve Faiello, a longtime Worn & Wound reader and watch enthusiast, who recently picked up a special Seiko with a seriously underrated multi-function “dancing hands” movement that displays its current function directly on the dial (at 3:00, where you’d normally see the day display on almost any other Seiko) and is easily manipulated by the user. You can see Steve’s collection on Instagram here.
What did you buy?
A Seiko SBTE003 with a 6M26-8050 quartz movement.
Why this watch, specifically?
To me, watches are tools first and foremost. They have to be comfortable, legible, and accurate. I’ve always been fascinated by watches with complications, but I usually don’t like the cluttered dials, thicker cases, and finicky movements of complicated watches, so I haven’t owned many. The 6M26 movement hides a chronograph, timer, alarm, and annual calendar in a reasonably sized and fairly easy to use package thanks to the magic of quartz. Seiko offered this movement (and its relatives) in a variety of case designs throughout the 90s and 00s, but most of them are very much of that era and aren’t to my taste. The SBTE003, on the other hand, features the timeless (or generic, depending on how charitable you’re feeling) styling that Seiko has used on everything from Seiko 5s to Grand Seikos for the past few decades. Attractive styling, a 38mm case, and a decent bracelet make this a 6M26 I’ll actually wear, so I set my sights on this model soon after I realized it existed.
What made you pull the trigger?
6M26 Seikos are not extremely rare watches, but they also aren’t that common. The blue SBTE003 is on the less common end of the range, so they don’t come up for sale that often, and when they do they’re typically beaten up from regular use. This particular watch showed up for sale on a Japanese auction site with a very low starting bid and no proof that it actually worked, but looked to be in good shape in the grainy pictures of the listing. The low starting price and relative rarity, combined with my fascination with the movement, meant I kept bidding until everyone else gave up. When it arrived, it was even nicer than expected and fired right up with a new battery. Score!
Where does it fit in your collection and daily life?
When this first arrived, I would have told you that it didn’t – I bought it for the novelty and figured I’d wear it occasionally until the fidget factor of the movement wore off and I moved it on. But after wearing it for about a week, I’m really smitten. The functionality is surprisingly useful (I used the alarm to remind myself of a meeting at work today and the chronograph to track how long my tea bag was steeping), the watch wears nicely, and the deep blue dial is really beautiful when the light hits it right. I can see myself wearing this a lot, especially to work where the extra functionality is useful.
What’s something unusual about this watch that only you care about?
OK, now it’s time to explain how this thing works. If you look at the dial, you’d never guess it’s a chronograph, timer, and alarm. So where is it? If you look at the framed window next to the date at 3 o’clock, instead of a day indicator like you’d expect, there is a display showing the mode that the movement is in. Rotate the crown when it’s pushed in and the movement changes modes. Depress the pushers on the left side of the case and you can activate the selected function. Every time you switch modes, the hands rapidly rotate to position for the selected function, which is why these movements are referred to as ‘dancing hands’ movements. It’s deeply entertaining, fairly easy to read, and completely invisible to everyone else.
Anything else you’d like to add about this watch or why it matters to you?
It’s definitely important to see this watch in action, which you can do here and here.
Worn & Wound
2026-04-09 14:00:00