Sailing the rough oceans is for the tough. So SEIKO Velatura qualifies.

The Velatura is for them who love the oceans and all the fun it offers, so the Baselworld 2007 launch of SEIKO Velatura also stirred up quite a few mariners too in the World Sailing Championships in Portugal (July, 2007). The Velatura now forms the quattro (others are Premier, Sportura and Arctura) of Seiko’s Elite collection and has eleven, high performance products (in four different calibers: Caliber 7T84, Caliber 5D44, Caliber 7T62 and Caliber 7T82) on exhibit for both men and women, the latter preferring theirs with diamonds (the Kinetic Direct Drive Alarm Chronograph Yachting Timer) more than the rest (SXDA20, SRH005, SNAA93, SPC005).

Arguably the most perfect watch for high-performance sailing, Velatura sticks to marine watch tradition entirely but not to its flaws. To build this, Seiko reworked upon their 1965 Divers technology to give the Seiko Velatura Kinetic Direct Drive a tighter seal around and a harder skin to withstand the demands of an ocean-life. To top this, they rebrushed their 1975 Titanium technology and built it harder to take the high-sea strains. The reason ocean racers trust the Kinetic Direct Drive technology is you don’t need to rely on daylight or some other energy sources to run it.

However, the most prominent of all Seiko Titanium Chronograph – the Yachting Timer - rose to high fames on the fashion streets more for its real-time power exhibits (battery charges if you turn the crown and you see how much power is generated) than its sailing prowess. A completely different reason than that of professional and recreational sailors – which is reliability on a whole – the fashionista crowd loves it more for its exotic power-show feature than its all-round trusty performance.

Yet, sometimes it gets hard to tell who makes the most demanding watch user; or whether the demands of the 49er Class racing requires more precision or is it taking the careful steps on the fashion highway?

So what are the things that make yacht racers fall for it? Precision, which is vital to gain speed and time and gives you the head-start in a race. Its pre-race timer allows the chronograph to take over automatically, which records the elapsed time for the race and allows setting an alarm separately for pre-marked timings.

The Velatura collection draw its design details from pro-level sailing instruments and also some of their mechanisms. For example, the super-secure crown protection system; you don’t need unscrewing or pulling it out to wind and charge the watch. The bezel screws resemble locks on the marine devices; even the steel and urethane used in some of the watches are of the grades used in professional sailing equipment.
Now, that’s another factor adding to its tool status.