Seiko and Bamford Team Up for a Colorful New Limited Edition

By now the Bamford name shouldn’t be unfamiliar to you. Having just taken a breath from launching their latest collaboration with Oris, the British brand has turned its sights towards Seiko with the release of their Seiko 5 Sports BAMFORD Limited Edition. With Bamford’s track record of highlighting versus cannibalizing its collaborators, the result between the two brands has resulted in a vibrant, eye-catching release that takes inspiration from a variety of sources: Seiko’s archival collage techniques, anime, retrofuturism, and the pursuit of paradise.

To best understand this collab, Bamford and Seiko produced a short anime for the release. In it, we see a salaryman at his desk, late at night. Suddenly, his Seiko 5 BAMFORD Limited Edition transports him to a verdant landscape, a sort of Eden outside of the office. While the message behind this video is fairly straightforward, it’s the creative liberty in which the two brands have taken to marry this partnership and solidifying what I have long suspected: Bamford is a concept brand versus a brand who occasionally builds products around a concept. And, as such, Seiko is all the better for it.

In terms of the watch’s design, the blue skeleton dial is, of course, what one notices first, and is inspired by George Bamford’s vision of duality, attempting to capture two worlds in one design. Underneath, we see the inner mechanics of the day-date display. Further design choices which highlight Bamford’s imaginations and Seiko’s know-how include the slightly futuristic bezel, counterbalancing the 1980’s archival indexes and hands. The idea of retrofuturism is brought home by the use of fluorescent accents on the bezel, hands, and nylon strap, tying the watch design together without being on-the-nose. All of this is housed within a 42.5mm stainless steel case. 

This particular reference is powered by a 4R36 caliber, giving 41 hours of power reserve when fully wound. The caseback is further branded with the BWD logo and a serial number – only 2,025 of these watches were produced. 

The Seiko 5 Sports BAMFORD Limited Edition is available now via Seiko’s website with a price tag of $460 – a small price to pay for finding Nirvana on a workday, if you ask me.