Kenny Loggins song, Danger Zone, encourages you to get out of your comfort zone and test the boundaries of endeavour, and I can relate it to my watch collecting. I have just purchased my first Grand Seiko and I am not sure if I have done the right thing. Let me set some background before delving into the watch.
Most watch collectors have a good understanding of where they sit in the whole financial equation of collecting. It is important to stay within your financial boundaries for lots of different reasons, not the least being your relationship with your bank manager, and more importantly, your partner.
I was doing a pretty good job until this Grand Seiko came along, but now I feel the sands are shifting and I need to watch my spending very carefully. This watch has tantalised and introduced me to a whole new standard of excellence which is sort of within reach – my Danger Zone.
The name Grand Seiko came about in the 60’s when Seiko deliberately created competition between their two factories – the Suwa factory, and the Daini factory. Suwa manufactured the Grand Seiko, and Daini the King Seiko. This was the era in which Seiko seriously challenged the Swiss for timekeeping excellence. It also heralded Seiko’s “Grammar of Design” philosophy that set a standard still influential today.
Seiko ceased manufacturing Grand Seiko's in the 70’s, only to re-introduce the brand in 1988. Today, Grand Seiko is a separate entity, “a luxury watch brand that offers timepieces made by master craftsmen” and competes with the giants of the watch industry. The brand has grown significantly in importance, particularly over recent years.
My watch is a humble SBGX009, made in 2003, and available for around A$1500 with a leather strap (models with steel bracelets tend to be more expensive). The watch is a simple three hander utilizing a rather wonderful quartz movement, the 9F. There are a number of Grand Seiko’s around this price, but this is about as low as they go.
I described this watch as “humble” reluctantly because there are many attributes here that are quite outstanding. The slim (10.5mm) stainless steel case is a modest 36mm in diameter with polishing on the sides and bezel, and light brushing on the top of the lugs. There are steps from the polished sides, to the brushed top, and on to the bezel which adds definition and gives a classic look that I find very attractive.
The dial is a luscious matt cream, or eggshell colour, and consistent with the “Grammar of Design”, is completely flat.
The broad steel hands are shiny and faceted with both the minute and second hands extending right out to minute markers at the edge of the dial. The hour indices are arrowhead shaped with multiple facets and this is where Seiko show some brilliance. You might think that steel indices on a cream dial could restrict readability, but those indices, and hands, are so sparkling they stand out clearly even when glare is high, or light is low. It is easy to read the time in all but the darkest conditions.
The SBGX009 doesn’t have a date window and I would describe the overall effect of the design as “pure”. It has the bare minimum of decoration and just does its job of telling time with razor sharp focus and excellence in materials and application. I love what Seiko have done with the design.
But to just focus on case design would be doing the watch an injustice because the movement that drives the time telling is an absolute standout. Let me list some of its features.
- For starters the 9F is rated at plus or minus 10 seconds per year - yes, per year.
- It achieves that accuracy with some electronic wizardry that includes measuring the ambient temperature 540 times per day and adjusting the movement accordingly. (Temperature effects the operation of the quartz crystal.)
- The movement is hermetically sealed to keep dust out of the mechanical components, and at the same time inhibit oil in the jewelled bearings from drying out. It is claimed that service intervals can reach 50 years.
- Regular quartz movements suffer from second hand vibration as the hand moves and then stops for each second, but this watch has a small hair spring located in the mechanism to absorb the vibration. Eliminating vibration means the hand strikes the second marker exactly every time.
- Regular quartz movements have narrow hands because step motors don’t have sufficient torque to accurately move larger hands. But Grand Seiko wanted the broad hands common to their mechanical brethren. So, they fitted a two pulse step motor that ticks twice per second and can move larger hands. This happens too fast for the human eye to pick up.
- On date versions, the date changes instantly within five minutes either side of midnight.
- Seiko do everything in house. They even grow their own crystals for quartz watches and adjust each movement for the unique characteristics of its crystal.
- Like mechanical movements, there is an adjusting screw to enable fine tuning should the accuracy stray over decades of use.
This is indeed a special movement and combined with a “pure” overall watch design the SBGX009 is a wonderful addition to my collection. It has surely led me into the Danger Zone of Grand Seiko ownership, and like Kenny Loggins, I am up for it (as long as my wife approves of course).
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