The Halios Seaforth: Four Generations of the Watch That Made Microbrands Credible
The Halios Seaforth is probably the most important watch in microbrand history because it proved that a one-person operation making a few hundred watches at a time could produce something that didn't just compete with established brands on value, but made people obsessive in a way that established brands rarely manage.
We've written a full Halios buyer's guide on the CWC blog. This piece goes deeper on the Seaforth specifically — what changed across four generations, what the movement story tells you about the state of the industry, and what you're actually getting if you manage to find one (We have a few).
At a Glance
| Series I (2017) | Series II (2018) | Series III (2019) | Series IV (2022+) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Movement | Miyota 90S5 | ETA 2824-2 | ETA 2824-2 | Sellita SW200-1 |
| Date option | No | Yes | Yes / No | No |
| Case material | Steel | Steel | Steel | Steel or Titanium |
| Diameter | 40-41mm | 41mm | 40-41mm | 40-41mm |
| Thickness | 12mm | 12mm | ~12mm | 12.4mm |
| Bracelet | No | No | No | Yes (titanium) |
| Lume | C3 | C3 | BGW9 | Globolight XP + SLN |
| Standout | The original | Swiss switch | Peak hype, special editions | Titanium, bracelet, ceramic markers |
The Background
Halios is Jason Lim, working out of Vancouver, Canada. Founded in 2009. One person designing, sourcing, quality-controlling, and shipping. Earlier models — the Delfin, the Tropik, the Puck — built the reputation. But the Seaforth is the watch that turned Halios from a respected small brand into a cult.
The Tropik was the predecessor. When Lim retired it, the Seaforth took its DNA — the clean dial, the considered proportions, the finishing that exceeded its price — and pushed it into a design that felt more modern and more versatile. It launched in 2017 and immediately sold out. Not in days. In minutes.
That sell-out pattern would define the Seaforth for the next seven years. Forum threads full of people who'd missed the drop. Secondary prices above retail. A watching community that treated each new generation as an event. The Seaforth became the watch that proved scarcity could be genuine rather than manufactured — Halios wasn't restricting supply for hype. Jason Lim was one person making watches as fast as one person could.
Series I (2017): Where It Started
The first Seaforth was a statement of intent. 41mm case (40mm fixed bezel variant), 47mm lug-to-lug, 12mm thick, 200 metres water resistance, double-domed sapphire with inner AR coating, screw-down crown with those three crescent moon logos. Brushed case with polished lug chamfers — the finishing detail that became Halios's signature. Four dial options: gloss black, gloss black with gilt accents, sunburst blue, and the now-iconic pastel blue.
The movement was a Miyota 90S5 — a no-date calibre from the 9015 family, designed for skeleton and open-heart dials. The Seaforth uses a solid dial so the skeleton feature isn't visible, but Jason chose the 90S5 because it was the right no-date movement with the specs he wanted. (The Miyota 9039 is the other no-date 9015 variant — same specs, no skeleton capability. Either would have worked; the 90S5 is what he sourced.) The point is that he specifically chose a no-date calibre rather than using a 9015 and covering the date window, which meant no phantom crown position and no wasted mechanism.
No-date only. No bracelet option. Leather straps included. Packed in a Nanuk waterproof case, which was a distinctive and slightly mad packaging choice for a sub-$700 watch.
The lowest production numbers of any Seaforth generation. These are now the hardest to find on the secondary market and the pastel blue commands the highest premiums.
Series II (2018): The Swiss Switch
Series II made the biggest mechanical change: the movement switched from the Miyota 90S5 to the ETA 2824-2. This was pre-ETA supply restriction — the 2824-2 was still available to independents and it was a genuine upgrade in perceived credibility, if not necessarily in performance. The ETA ran at the same 4Hz as the Miyota but had a bidirectional rotor (quieter, more efficient) and carried the weight of being the most recognised Swiss automatic movement in the world.
Series II also added a date option — the first time the Seaforth wasn't exclusively no-date. Dial colours shifted: abyss blue, nimbus grey, Bahama yellow, and pastel blue continued. Rubber strap became the default with leather and canvas alternatives included. Still the Nanuk case.
A small GMT run was also produced using a different movement — a collector's piece that rarely surfaces.
Production numbers increased slightly but still sold out almost instantly.
Series III (2019): Refinement
Series III kept the ETA 2824-2 but offered both date and no-date configurations. For the no-date models, Halios found a workaround to swap the set lever and eliminate the phantom date crown position — the kind of detail that most brands don't bother with but that Halios customers notice and appreciate.
Lume switched from C3 to BGW9. Dial options: abyss blue, sunburst grey, signal orange, and pastel blue again. The watch pouch replaced the Nanuk case for packaging. Case dimensions remained consistent.
This was the highest-production Seaforth generation — relatively speaking, since "high production" for Halios still means low numbers by any normal standard. It was also arguably the peak of Seaforth hype. The combination of a proven ETA movement, refined execution, and the brand's growing reputation created a feeding frenzy that each generation since has struggled to match in pure intensity.
Special editions appeared: the Roldorf Edition with a fixed bezel, DLC or steel case, printed 3-6-9 dial, and a more premium ETA 2892-A2 movement. Bronze variants with fumé dials in grey, blue, and green. These are the deep-cut collector pieces that command serious premiums when they surface.
Series IV (2022-present): The Current Generation
Series IV represents the biggest evolution in the Seaforth's history.
The movement switched again — this time to the Sellita SW200-1. This reflects the industry-wide shift from ETA to Sellita after ETA's supply restrictions made the 2824-2 effectively unavailable to independents. The SW200-1 runs at 28,800 vph with a 41-hour power reserve. It's no-date across the board — Halios dropped the date option entirely for Series IV, which is consistent with Jason's design philosophy of cleaner dials and simpler operation.
The case is now available in titanium as well as stainless steel. The titanium version was the headline addition and it changed the Seaforth experience — lighter on the wrist, more comfortable for all-day wear, with that distinctive titanium character where it picks up surface marks quickly but wears them well.
Dimensions refined slightly: 40mm fixed bezel or 41mm rotating bezel, 46.5mm lug-to-lug, 12.4mm including the crystal. Bezel options: fixed or 120-click unidirectional in black ceramic or a 12-hour configuration for tracking a second timezone.
The biggest quality leap is in the details. The Series IV introduced 3D ceramic lume hour markers with crisp black borders — a real step up from the applied metal indices of earlier generations. Lacquer dials with depth and a liquid-like texture. Globolight XP markers calibrated to fade uniformly with the Super-LumiNova on the bezel and hands, so the whole watch dims together rather than the markers outlasting the hands or vice versa.
And finally — after years of customer requests — a titanium bracelet with tool-free micro-adjustment. Curved end links that integrate cleanly with the case. A clasp with a concave, recessed button to prevent accidental presses. This is the Seaforth that Halios fans had been asking for since 2017.
The ordering process has also improved. Pre-orders with transparent timelines have replaced the frantic drop-and-pray model of earlier generations. You pay, you wait, and the watch arrives. It's not instant, but it's civilised.
Pricing: $735 USD with fixed bezel, $775 with rotating bezel. At the time of writing, a new titanium batch of the Series IV is in production with delivery scheduled for June 2026.
The Movement Story as Industry Mirror
One of the most interesting things about the Seaforth across four generations is how its movement history traces the entire arc of the microbrand movement supply chain.
Series I: Miyota 90S5. The default starting point for quality microbrands — Japanese, reliable, affordable. The 9015/90S5 family is where most serious independents begin.
Series II-III: ETA 2824-2. The aspirational upgrade to Swiss, back when ETA was still accessible. A marker of ambition and growing scale.
Series IV: Sellita SW200-1. The practical Swiss choice after ETA locked the door. The movement that now powers the majority of independent Swiss-movement watches.
That progression — Miyota to ETA to Sellita — is the same path dozens of microbrands have walked or will walk. The Seaforth just did it in public, with a community watching every generation closely enough to document every change.
The Honest Criticisms
The Seaforth isn't perfect, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.
The lack of a bracelet option for the first three generations was a genuine frustration that Jason heard about constantly and took years to address. The ordering process for Series I and II was a mess — website crashes, carts that wouldn't load, drops that sold out before most people could complete checkout. That's improved significantly with the pre-order model, but it cost goodwill along the way. The website itself has always been functional at best.
The hype has also cooled. aBlogtoWatch noted that Series IV didn't generate the same frenzy as Series III, and that's fair. The microbrand landscape in 2026 is different from 2017 — more competition, more options at the same price, and the novelty of the Seaforth has inevitably faded. It's still an excellent watch. It's no longer the only excellent watch at its price.
And the design, while I think it's beautiful, isn't for everyone. It's restrained to the point that some people find it plain. There's no bold design signature that grabs you across a room — it's a watch that reveals itself up close and through wearing. If you want a visual statement piece, the Seaforth isn't it. If you want something that gets better the longer you own it, it might be exactly right.
Buying One
New Seaforths are available through pre-order on the Halios website. Sign up for notifications, watch the Halios Discord and Instagram, and be ready when the window opens. It's no longer a seconds-to-sell-out scramble, but popular configurations still go quickly.
On the secondary market, prices vary by generation and dial colour. Pastel blue commands premiums across all generations. Series I watches — especially the sunburst blue and gilt variants — are the rarest and most expensive secondhand. Series III offers the best balance of availability and quality for someone who wants a Seaforth without paying collector premiums. Series IV titanium is the current standard-bearer.
Expect to pay $600-1,300 on the secondary market depending on generation, dial, bezel configuration, and condition. Some rare variants and special editions go higher.
The Actual Take
The Seaforth matters because it demonstrated that a microbrand watch could be more than just good value for money. Good value is table stakes at this point — plenty of brands offer solid specs at fair prices. What the Seaforth proved is that a watch from a one-person Canadian operation could generate emotional investment. People didn't just buy Seaforths because the spec sheet was right. They bought them because the proportions, the finishing, the dial design, and the overall coherence of the thing made them want it in a way that a spreadsheet comparison couldn't explain.
That's not something you can reverse-engineer from specs. It's design. It's taste. It's the accumulated result of a person who cares about watches making exactly the watch they think is right, rather than the watch the market says they should make. Jason Lim has been doing that since 2009 and the Seaforth is the purest expression of it.
We stock Halios at CWC when we can get them — which isn't often, for the same reasons they're hard for anyone to get. If you're looking for a specific generation or dial, let us know. And if you've never held a Halios, the first time you do, you'll understand what the fuss is about.