BY JOVAN KRSTEVSKI
Seiko’s luxury arm Grand Seiko has gained a fair bit of momentum in the last few years since it was declared an independent brand in 2018. While improved global availability can be considered as one of the major reasons behind the brand’s recent popularity, Grand Seiko has also ensured to keep its catalog updated by offering customers new products on a frequency basis. The latest offerings from the house of Grand Seiko are two new high beat GMT’s the SBGJ237 and SBGJ239.
When one thinks of Grand Seiko, what immediately comes to mind are elegant and dressy timepieces that have a timeless charm to them. Having said that, the brand does offer a great selection of sports watches as well, and the new SBGJ237 and SBGJ239 are a testimony to the same. Featuring a case that measures 44.2mm in diameter and 14.2mm in thickness, these watches can easily be considered some of the boldest offerings from Grand Seiko. The large case size is not only meant to offer presence but also practicality as it is water-resistant to 20 bar that is aided with the help of a threaded offset crown at 4 and a closed screw-down case back. Sitting on top of the case is a bi-colored (blue and white or green and white) sapphire GMT bezel to complement the blue and green dial. And, what makes things exciting is the fact that the bezel is fully lumed.
To match the tough and rugged exterior of the watch, the dial has also been given some nice sporty touches while maintaining the Grand Seiko design DNA. For instance, the applied markers are highly faceted and finely finished showing a mix of brushed and polished surfaces in true Grand Seiko fashion. But at the same time, they have also been coated with luminous paint to offer nice low light visibility. Similarly, the hour and minute hands are also a little broader and along with the arrow tipped GMT hand have been filled with Seiko’s potent Lumibrite lume formula to make it easy to read the time in the dark. Located on the outer periphery is a 24-hour scale that can be read using the GMT hand and there is also a nicely framed date window at 4, that annoyingly replaces the marker.
Powering these new watches is Seiko’s in-house caliber 9S86. This is an automatic movement with a GMT function that operates at a frequency of 5 Hz that results in a super-smooth sweep of the seconds hand. The movement comprises 37 jewels and offers an autonomy of 55 hours remaining highly accurate between -5 to +3 seconds a day.
The SBGJ237 (Blue dial) would come attached to a stainless-steel bracelet and would retail for USD 6,800. The SBGJ239(Green dial) would retail for USD 6,600 and would be accompanied by a brown alligator strap making it the dressier of the two.
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