Formex Field Automatic vs. Seiko Prospex Speedtimer SSC961 Solar Watch Review

Okay, listen, I know what you're thinking. These are vastly different watches. And yeah, agreed. The Formex Field Automatic is a Swiss-made titanium field watch. The Seiko Prospex Speedtimer SSC961 is a Japanese-made solar chronograph. But here's what they actually have in common: they're both my go-to hiking watches. When I need a grab-and-go piece, these are it. I keep them both on lightweight stretchy straps to lean into that same idea: easy on, easy off, don't think about it twice.

Obviously the Formex is much lighter, because it's titanium, duh. But the Seiko is solar, so it's built for the sun instead. Both watches have crossed the Atlantic with me through my adventures hiking across the UK, and both have earned their keep doing it. I don't hike enough, honestly, to justify having two dedicated hiking watches set up and ready to go. But I can't let either one go. Really, I'm also a little crazy for comparing these two, since they're built on completely different philosophies. They just happen to serve the exact same purpose for me, and that's what makes the comparison worth writing in the first place.

Case and Materials

The Seiko SSC961 is a 39mm stainless steel case, 13.3mm thick, 45.5mm lug to lug, with a curved sapphire crystal and a black tachymeter bezel. It's a proper Speedtimer, tracing its design back to Seiko's role as official timekeeper of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and the case wears that heritage well, with brushed and polished steel finishing, a push-pull crown, a screw-down case back, and water resistance to 100 meters.

It also carries magnetic resistance rated to 4,800 A/m, which is a small but genuinely useful detail if you're ever near equipment or gear that throws off a magnetic field on the trail.

The Formex Field Automatic Basalt Grey takes a completely different approach. It's a 40mm Grade 2 titanium case hardened to 900 Vickers, nearly three times harder than Grade 5 titanium, with a hard-coated titanium bezel to match. It's just 10.6mm thick, with a perceived thickness closer to 8.8mm thanks to the case profile, and weighs a genuinely tiny 54 grams for the case alone.

Water resistance sits at 150 meters. The titanium isn't just lighter; it's hypoallergenic and picks up a natural patina over time, which fits the whole rugged-but-refined field watch identity Formex is going for. The dual-layer dial construction, a sunburst center with a sloped chapter ring, also gives it a sense of depth the flatter Seiko dial doesn't really attempt.

On the Wrist

This is where the two watches really diverge in character. The Seiko comes on a stainless steel bracelet, but it only has one micro-adjustment spot, so fine-tuning fit is more limited than I'd like.

It's tough, reliable, and exactly what you want strapped to your wrist on a rough trail day, but it's not going to flex with you through temperature and activity changes the way a more adjustable setup would. On longer hikes where my wrist genuinely swells a bit by the afternoon, that single adjustment point can start to feel like a real limitation.

The Formex, on the other hand, comes standard on a stretchy nylon-and-velcro single-pass strap, or optionally on a leather strap paired with what I'd call the best micro-adjustment clasp in the game right now. Formex's patented carbon fiber deployant clasp lets you fine-tune the fit by 7mm on the fly, without ever taking the watch off.

That leather strap option bumps the total cost up to $1,115, which is a real jump, but the clasp alone might be worth it if you obsess over fit the way I do. Between the near-weightless titanium case and that clasp, the Formex genuinely disappears on the wrist in a way very few watches manage, hiking or otherwise.

Movement

The Seiko runs on its in-house Caliber V192, a solar chronograph movement that charges off any light source and holds roughly six months of power reserve. It measures elapsed time in 1/5-second increments up to 60 minutes, includes a 24-hour subdial, date, and a power reserve indicator. Zero winding, zero battery changes, just charge it in daylight and go. For a hiking watch specifically, that's a genuinely underrated feature. You're already outside, already in the sun, and the watch is quietly topping itself off the whole time without you doing a thing.

The Formex runs a Swiss-made Sellita SW200-1 automatic, 26 jewels, 28,800 vibrations per hour, 41 hours of power reserve, with a date display. It's a proven workhorse movement, but it does mean if the Formex sits off my watch winder for more than a couple days, I need to actually set it. That's rare in practice, but it's a real difference in day-to-day convenience compared to the Seiko's set-it-and-forget-it solar setup. If you're the type to rotate through a large collection and grab watches at random, that's worth factoring in.

Legibility and Everyday Use

Out on the trail, both watches read clearly enough at a glance, though they get there differently. The Seiko's white sandblasted dial with black subdials and LumiBrite hands gives it strong daytime contrast, and the chronograph function is genuinely useful if you're timing pace on a hike or a run.

The Formex leans on its recessed, deep-filled Super-LumiNova numerals and sloped chapter ring for legibility, and while it doesn't have a chronograph, the simpler three-hand-plus-date layout means there's less to parse at a glance when you just want the time.

Strap Pairings

Now, as I said earlier, I prefer stretchy grab-and-go straps on both watches. My wrist swells like crazy when I sweat, and a bracelet just isn't ideal for hiking. So on both, I've got either the Formex stretchy strap or the StrapHabit Hook and Loop Elastic Quick Release. They've got a hook-and-loop closure and come in a few different lengths, in 15mm increments, so you can really dial in the fit.

I swap between the two since the blue and green both go with just about everything. The nice part is the stretchy section sits on the underside, with a slightly more rigid section on the sides.

Out on the trail, that setup lets the band give a little when my hand snags on something it probably had no business being near in the first place. A rubber strap would also be a great addition to these, such as the Tropical Retro Style FKM Rubber Quick Release Watch Strap.

Price

Price-wise, these land close enough for me to justify owning both. The Seiko runs $725 retail. The Formex sits at $975 on the standard nylon strap. That's not nothing but deals can be had. You can find the Seiko on sale periodically, and the Formex shows up used, and either route can knock around $200 off what you'd otherwise pay, putting both watches in a genuinely comparable range once you shop around. Both are in stock and available directly from the brand or at retailers.

Final Thoughts

The Formex is light years ahead in build quality. The titanium case, the hardened surface, the micro-adjustment clasp, all of it is just objectively more refined engineering than what's happening on the Seiko. But the Seiko comes on a bracelet standard, it's tough as nails, and the solar movement means I genuinely never think about charging or setting it. For now, I'm happy having both in the rotation.

They don't compete with each other so much as they cover the same job from two completely different directions, and honestly, that's exactly why I can't part with either one. If I had to pick just one for a long, unpredictable trip, the Formex's lightness and water resistance edge it out. But for a rough, no-nonsense grab-and-go, the Seiko's solar convenience makes a genuinely strong case of its own.

Formex Field Automatic and Seiko Prospex Speedtimer SSC961 Specifications