BY DHANANJAY PATHAK
Heritage reissues have gained immense popularity in recent times and brands with a rich horological history are making the most of it. Born in 1960, Grand Seiko is one such brand that has long been a true representative of high-end Japanese watchmaking. And to celebrate its 60th birthday, the brand has announced a trio of modern Grand Seiko watches that pay a tribute to the first Grand Seiko ever made.
While the current Grand Seiko catalog looks quite diversified, back in 1960 things started on a dressy and elegant note, and these new watches attempt to keep the vintage spirit alive. All three watches feature a round case that like the original watch has a sleek profile but has been slightly upsized to better suit modern-day wrists. It measures 38mm in diameter and has a thickness of just 10.9mm that would ensure that the watch slides easily under the cuffs as a dress watch should. As far as the choice of materials is concerned, one can choose from either Platinum, Gold or lightweight Titanium. There is a sapphire crystal on both front and back, and water resistance is limited to just 30 meters.
On the dial front, Grand Seiko has chosen elegant looking silver, cream, and blue colorways to complement the platinum, gold and titanium cases. Like the original 1960 reference, the dials have been slightly domed, and the layout has been kept quite clean with a heavy focus on legibility. There are twelve faceted applied markers for hours and a printed track for minutes. The sword-shaped handset is well proportioned and has been slightly bent towards the end to follow the curvature of the dial to ensure that reading time is always a breeze. Even text is kept to a bare minimum with a true to original applied Grand Seiko logo underneath the 12 O’clock marker and the ‘Diashock 24 jewels’ text above 6.
Powering these new watches is Grand Seiko’s in-house 9S64 caliber. This is a hand-wound movement that operates at a frequency of 4 Hz and offers a healthy power reserve of around 72 hours when fully wound. The escapement of the movement has been produced using MEMS technology that makes sure that the movement keeps accurate time within -3 to +5 seconds a day. It has also been beautifully decorated using perlage and Tokyo stripes and can be viewed in all its glory through the sapphire exhibition case back.
Pricing is as follows:
SBGW257 (Platinun): USD 38,000
SBGW258 (Gold): USD 26,000
SBGW259 (Titanium): USD 8,000
In all, the new 60th anniversary Grand Seiko Watches, in my opinion, manage to deliver a vintage experience in a modern package. The watches would come attached to matching leather straps and are thankfully not limited in nature.
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