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Grand Un-Complication: Simple Perfection and the 130th Anniversary Grand SeikoPosted by Jack Forster
Seiko is a company that is comfortable with paradoxes; to paraphrase Walt Whitman, it contains multitudes. The company that was the first to market with a quartz watch (the Astron, in 1969) continues to push the limits of quartz technology, but also has developed one of the most technically sophisticated, and completely unique, timekeeping technologies in the world in the development of the Spring Drive family of watches, which at their highest level of development (in the Grand Seiko family of Spring Drive watches) represent a fusion of high technology and high craftsmanship like no other in modern watchmaking.
Seiko makes watches at every price range imaginable, from entry level (but always robust and reliable) quartz, quartz solar, and mechanical watches to six figure, elaborately hand finished, extremely small production high complications such as the Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie and this year's Credor Spring Drive Minute Repeater. In many respects, however, the watches that represents Seiko at its most essential, and which forges the strongest links to Seiko's history, are the mechanical Grand Seiko models. The fundamental philosophy behind the Grand Seiko watches, the first of which was produced by Suwa Seikosha in Nagano Prefecture in 1960, has never changed: to make a watch that is extremely reliable, robust, easy to read, and easy to wear. These objectives are easy to state, but it is the single mindedness --a very Japanese, extremely perfectionistic single mindedness --with which these objectives are pursued which makes the Grand Seiko watches almost unique in modern watchmaking. In the context of the last decade of watch design, this single mindedness, and the continuity and consistency with which Seiko has pursued it, have few rivals. 
The resurgence of classically oriented watchmaking of the last two years in many cases certainly represents, in some cases, a welcome re-discovery of a brand's past values and the worthiness of good design rather than the pursuit of novelty for its own sake, but at least where Grand Seiko is concerned, Seiko can state unequivocally that it has never been distracted by the pursuit of the vagaries of fashion, but instead has always adhered to the philosophy which inspired the first Grand Seiko watches in 1960, and has been willing (and also has had the financial resources, and, in its home market, the client support) to allow the market to discover the attractively essentialized watchmaking of Grand Seiko rather than, as has often been the case for other brands, letting the tail of the perceived market preferences wag the dog of design. Thus we present a watch that is not devoid of interest to those who are drawn to watchmaking less for its ability to display affluence, or an imagined affinity with a celebrity, or to project such supposedly desirable (and often borrowed) personality traits as a taste for adventure or personal physical risk: the Grand Seiko 130th Anniversary Edition. They are watches of almost perversely minimalist execution --there is a case (round) three hands (neatly shaped to draw attention not to themselves, but to the information it is their purpose to display) a dial (ditto) and inside, a mechanical movement which has been designed and manufactured not to dazzle the eye with a jewel-like finish, but rather to be an engine for timekeeping of extremely high reliability and to offer the greatest possible convenience for the owner. As with all Grand Seiko watches, the somewhat anachronistic size (35.8mm) and extremely conservative design give modern horological sensibilities little to feed on at first, but it's not so much first impressions as it is long term satisfaction that is the Grand Seiko stock in trade. Over longer acquaintance the flawless finish of the dial furniture (notably the exacting mirror polish of the multifaceted hands, which are miniature works of art in themselves) gradually becomes apparent. Inside the 130th Anniversary Grand Seikos there is also an entirely new, 3 day manual wind movement, the Seiko Caliber 9S64, adjusted to temperature, isochronism, and six positions, and sporting technical improvements (such as the use of Seiko's proprietary mainspring and hairspring alloys, SPRON510 and SPRON610 respectively, as well as MEMS --by which we presume Seiko to mean LIGA or an equivalent technology --fabricated escapement components) which are notable not for offering seductive press release soundbites, but rather for offering --in a shock to modern horological sensibilities --significant improvements in performance. 
Grand Seiko cal. 9S64 It is true that the 130th Anniversary Grand Seikos --like all Grand Seiko watches --are something of a semiotic tabula rasa; they do not provide any of the Walter Mitty-esque reveries by which so many of us --who think of fictional spies, bygone explorers, legendary plutocrats, or what have you when we look at our watches --set great store. The Grand Seiko watch is in a sense a triumph of self-referentiality --more Bach fugue than Romantic program music, it stands not on the strength of anything exterior to its own history, but rather declares its integrity based on little more than the fanatical but quiet perfection of its own execution. Yet there is something undoubtedly refreshing about a watch which begins by declaring its identity only and purely as a watch, and which allows one to, over the years, inscribe upon one's perception of it the tale of one's own experience, rather than monotonously repeating the borrowed drama of someone else's. The 130th Anniversary Grand Seiko will be available worldwide in very limited numbers. Specifications: Caliber 9S64 Manual winding Hour, minute and second hands 28,800 vibrations per hour 24 jewels Power reserve: 72 hours Mean daily rate between -3 and +5 seconds per day (under static conditions) Movement diameter: 28.4 mm, thickness: 4.9 mm SBGW033 Case: Stainless steel 35.8 mm in diameter Band: Crocodile with stainless steel buckle Glass: High definition dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating Water resistance: 3 bar Magnetic resistance: 10,000 A/m Limited edition of 1,300 pieces Approximate recommended retail price in Europe: Euro 5,000 SBGW039 Case: Platinum 35.8 mm in diameter Band: Crocodile with platinum buckle Glass: High definition dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating Water resistance: 3 bar Magnetic resistance: 10,000 A/m Limited edition of 130 pieces Approximate recommended retail price in Europe: Euro 23,500 SBGW040 Case: 18 karat yellow gold 35.8 mm in diameter Band: Crocodile with 18-karat yellow gold buckle Glass: High definition dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating Water resistance: 3 bar Magnetic resistance: 10,000 A/m Limited edition of 130 pieces Approximate recommended retail price in Europe: Euro 15,400 Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2011 05:43AM by Jack Forster.
36mm case? Didn't someone tell them that watches should start at 60mm by now
Seriously though, Seiko has always been the leader of the pack when it comes to getting the most out of something without investing too much. Like everyone else has said, limited numbers will make this a hotly contested piece and I'm sure they'll have no trouble in selling out. |
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