Serica has added a third colorway to its 8315 Travel Chronometer line, and Golden Green is the warmest of the three. It joins the existing Black and Sand Red versions with an olive green enamel dial, yellow gold accents, and a two-tone ceramic bezel that shifts between golden beige and almond green as the light changes. Price is $2,330 direct from Serica, and orders are open now.
Golden Green takes its name from the golden hour, that short stretch at the end of the day when everything sits in warm light. Gold tones run through the dial furniture and the upper half of the bezel, while the olive enamel keeps the watch grounded and readable. It reads like a sixties travel watch that never made production the first time around.
Price: $2,330
Where to buy: Serica
A bezel cut from one block of ceramic
Each bezel insert starts as a single block of ceramic, finished in two tones, ivory and golden green. Ceramic shrugs off scratches and holds its color, and cutting both tones from one piece keeps the split between them clean all the way around. Serica splits the scale into two twelve-hour segments marked Ante Meridiem and Post Meridiem, with an asymmetric day and night indicator built into the layout.
Reading a second time zone stays simple. Your main hands show local time, the extra hand tracks a second zone on the bezel scale, and the AM and PM split tells you at a glance whether home is in daylight or dark. The bezel turns both ways, so lining the scale up takes seconds.
Under the ceramic sits an olive green enamel dial with no logo printed on it, a Serica signature. Enamel gives the green a depth that lacquer rarely matches, and the color moves between deep olive and something close to gold depending on the light. Applied markers and hands carry yellow gold tones that match the bezel’s warm half.
One detail is pure Serica. Its second hour hand ends in a round lollipop tip, a first on a GMT hand. A round tip can’t be confused with the main hour hand at a glance in an airport, and it suits the retro brief.
Caller style GMT with COSC certification
Inside sits the Soprod C125, an automatic GMT movement running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 42-hour power reserve. Every 8315 leaves as a COSC certified chronometer, tested by the Contrôle Officiel Suisse des Chronomètres. Serica worked with Soprod and the COSC on certification for its Professional range.
Here’s how the GMT function works, because it shapes how you travel with the watch. On the C125, the 24-hour hand adjusts independently in one-hour steps while your local hour and minute hands stay put. Set the extra hand to home time before you leave, then read home time off the bezel wherever you land. Local time still sets the normal way, through the main hands.
That layout suits a traveler who checks home time often or keeps a second office on the dial. Frequent flyers who reset local time at every landing and want the local hour hand to jump on its own should look at a different movement layout. Neither setup is wrong. They serve different habits, so know which one you’re buying before you pay.
39mm case and an Expedition bracelet
Stainless steel casework measures 39mm across, 12.3mm thick, and 46.5mm lug to lug, with 20mm lugs and a domed sapphire crystal up top. Water resistance is 200 meters, printed on the dial and repeated on the closed caseback. Super-LumiNova C3 fills the markers and hands, so the dial stays legible long after the cabin lights go down.
Serica’s Expedition bracelet comes standard. It merges the fine adjustment of the brand’s Bonklip design with folded blade links, so sizing lands in small steps instead of whole links, and the fit can shift through the day as your wrist swells. On a 39mm case, the watch wears compact and flat, closer to a vintage sports watch than a modern GMT.
Buyers pick a crown position at order time. Crown at 3 o’clock is available now, while the left-hand crown at 9 o’clock has sold out. Shipping is free worldwide, with delivery in five to ten days for in-stock watches, and coverage runs two years under an international warranty with a 14-day return window.
The same idea for $520 from Seiko
If Golden Green appeals but $2,330 doesn’t fit the budget, Seiko sells the closest shortcut. Its 5 Sports SSK035 pairs a green dial with a two-tone Sprite bezel for $520 on Amazon, and its Seiko 4R34 movement works the same way as the C125, with a 24-hour hand that adjusts independently. You get the green GMT look and the same setting logic for under a quarter of the Serica’s price.
What the extra money buys at Serica is finishing and certification. Enamel instead of a standard dial finish, a bezel cut from one block of ceramic, a COSC chronometer certificate, and a 39mm case with 200 meters of water resistance. Seiko counters with easy Amazon ordering and a deep owner community. Both chase the same sixties GMT idea at very different levels of execution.
Price: $520
Where to buy: Amazon
| Serica 8315 GMT Golden Green | Seiko 5 Sports SSK035 | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2,330 | $520 |
| Movement | Soprod C125, COSC chronometer certified | Seiko 4R34 automatic |
| Second time zone | 24-hour hand adjusts independently | 24-hour hand adjusts independently |
| Dial | Olive green enamel | Green |
| Where to buy | Serica direct | Amazon |
Where Golden Green lands
Golden Green asks Swiss chronometer money for a watch that sets its second zone from the extra hand, and that trade decides the buy. Accept it, and you get a compact 39mm GMT with an enamel dial, a ceramic bezel nobody else cuts this way, and colors pulled straight from a late afternoon in 1965. Skip it if your travel routine needs the local hour to jump by itself.
Price: $2,330
Where to buy: Serica
At $2,330, Golden Green is the 8315 to buy if color drew you to the line. Black and Sand Red play it straight, and neither one catches late light the way this dial does at golden hour.
