There are a lot of threads on this board and others with folks' thoughts on Kinetics - some love them, some hate them. Just do a quick search for any thread that discusses any aspect of Kinetics - usually general opinions come out even in the most technically-oriented threads.
Operationally, you can expect the same performance as a quartz watch (that's all they really are - a quartz movement with a tiny generator integrated into the circuitry). Personally, I own two Kinetics - one with a 5M62 and one with a 5M65 - and have found them to be reliable and accurate.
The major sticking point seems to be that to get one fully charged and keep it there, you have to wear the watch very frequently (i.e., every day, or at least every other). For this reason (and because anyone on this site likely owns multiple watches!), solutions on the internet range from buying one of Seiko's own Kinetic induction chargers (read: $$$), to mickey-mousing one out of an old Sonicare charger, to (of course) wearing it all the time. I'm not too OCD about keeping mine fully charged - they usually hover somewhere around the 7-days-to-1-month charge indicator, which is fine with me. Occasionally wearing one on a jog doesn't hurt, either.
Give the other threads on this site a read, and why not buy a used one online (or in the SCTP) and give it a test drive?
Cheers,
TW
Operationally, you can expect the same performance as a quartz watch (that's all they really are - a quartz movement with a tiny generator integrated into the circuitry). Personally, I own two Kinetics - one with a 5M62 and one with a 5M65 - and have found them to be reliable and accurate.
The major sticking point seems to be that to get one fully charged and keep it there, you have to wear the watch very frequently (i.e., every day, or at least every other). For this reason (and because anyone on this site likely owns multiple watches!), solutions on the internet range from buying one of Seiko's own Kinetic induction chargers (read: $$$), to mickey-mousing one out of an old Sonicare charger, to (of course) wearing it all the time. I'm not too OCD about keeping mine fully charged - they usually hover somewhere around the 7-days-to-1-month charge indicator, which is fine with me. Occasionally wearing one on a jog doesn't hurt, either.
Give the other threads on this site a read, and why not buy a used one online (or in the SCTP) and give it a test drive?
Cheers,
TW