The New Seiko 5 Sports Yuto Horigome Limited Edition Unveiled during a Musical Event in New Delhi

Street culture and luxury watches may seem like chalk and cheese, but they have become increasingly intertwined in recent years. Street culture, often associated with urban lifestyle, hip-hop, graffiti, and skateboarding, has made its mark on the world of luxury watches in various ways. Brands have collaborated with streetwear labels to create limited-edition timepieces. These collaborations often feature bold designs, unique colorways, and elements inspired by street art and graffiti. Some luxury watches have adopted more youthful and edgy aesthetics influenced by street culture, compared with others. These include unconventional materials, bold colour choices, and avant-garde designs that appeal to a younger and trendier demographic. 

In New Delhi, where the temperature is hovering over 4.9 degrees Celsius, Seiko invited passionate timepiece journalists, collectors, and influencers to witness the meeting of the two seemingly disparate worlds. At the event, the brand released its new special-edition Downtown Tokyo Nights’ Seiko 5 Sports x Yuto Horigome Limited Edition III (Ref. SSK027K1).

Made in partnership with Japanese professional skateboarder Yuto Horigome, this urban take on the do-it-all Seiko 5 Sports Style GMT has been given a stealthy overhaul. Born on January 7, 1999, in Tokyo, Japan, Yuto Horigome, influenced by his father’s legacy, started skateboarding at the age of six. He has been skating vert ramps since he was a child. After graduating from high school, Horigome moved to the US, where his talent blossomed further. Within a year of his 2017 debut in Street League Skateboarding (SLS), the world’s top skateboarding competition series, he won the first place in the three 2018 SLS stops and became one of the top skateboarders in the world.

In 2019, he became the first Japanese skateboarder in his discipline to win the X Games in Minneapolis. Horigome also won the 2019 SLS Los Angeles Stop and earned second place at that year’s World Championships. In 2021, after the season was suspended due to COVID-19, he won the World Championship for the first time. And in 2023, he became the first Japanese skateboarder to win at the Tampa Pro, one of the oldest skateboarding contests in the United States.

All attendees at the collab watch launch in Delhi grooved to the music of singer Faizan, who sang his original songs, including Keh Dena from Season 1 of Class on Netflix. Other songs included Saer, Sukoon, and Thehra. Even though mercury dipped outside, it was warm inside, as guests enjoyed cocktails like Highball, Strawberry, and Passion Martini, crafted by the bartenders.

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Now the main highlight, the Seiko watch, which comes in a stealthy black layout. The 42.5mm, stainless steel, 2,700-piece limited-edition watch is finished with a black coating from top to bottom. The bidirectional rotating bezel has a metallic blue-and-violet insert with a 24-hour scale, allowing wearers to track three time zones simultaneously. The screw-down crown sits at 4 o’clock and is protected by a pair of guards protruding from the caseband. A Hardlex crystal with a magnified glass covers it all. 

The black-dial watch gets dotted and triangular hour markers with LumiBrite. The same is also found on the broad hour and minute hands, and the red-lacquered triangular GMT hand. A black-and-white central seconds hand completes the timing indications. The limited-edition timepiece also gets a magnified glass date window at 3 o’clock and the whole dial is surrounded by a printed 24-hour scale. Also, this watch is an Office GMT, and not a Traveller’s GMT. Powering the watch is an in-house, automatic, manual winding Calibre 4R34 with 41 hours of power reserve. Turning the watch over showcases the exhibition caseback with the engraving of ‘LIMITED EDITION’ and the serial number of the watch out of 2,700, a stainless steel oscillating weight, and Yuto Horigome’s signature. The watch is finished on a stainless steel bracelet with black coating and a three-fold clasp with push button release. The watch is water-resistant for up to to 100 metres.