The SUS military watch is a fan favorite in the Seiko watch community. Some however will know about the GMT complication that the 4S caliber also offers, specifically.. another SUS, labeled 4S12. Then again let us not forget about the quartz SUS.

This attractive "student edition" SUS was a quartz with all possible complications down to leap years aimed at the young watch nerd (18 to 22 year old) - here the Simple and Strong of SUS actually could best be interpreted to mean a Steel and Sturdy case that would just not sit modestly on the wrist, even though the U referred to the (rather bookish) mathematical symbol for unity.. 

Introduced in 1998 with the caliber 6M26, this model was only produced until 1999, specifically as a watch being simple yet assertive and all metal, it would not fall apart under some abuse. Of course all SUS models are 10bar waterproof.

Design wise Seiko lay focus on textures - on the dial and the finishing of the case. This was a watch for the student with his own lifestyle. The brochures claimed that the watch was to enable the wearer to know all aspects of time...

The 4S12 civilian models (JPY 38,000) and the student's quartz SUS (JPY 38.000) were more expensive than the military 4S15 models (JPY 30,000) and more flashy for sure, they came in four color options, the white SCFJ005, the aquamarine metallic blue SCFF009, the black SCFF005 and the red metallic sunburst SCFF007. All have Seiko's hardlex fitted (the 4S on the case back also) and all are lumed with Lumibrite but interestingly the application of it can be uneven, one may surmise that even in the nineties not everything in the Seiko factory had been automated.