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Grand Seiko - 55th Anniversary Edition
In 1960, Seiko launched Grand Seiko, a collection of the finest watches Seiko could manufacture. Having been manufacturing mechanical movements since the company was founded in 1881, Seiko knew what was needed to create the best movements and this experience was directly applied to Grand Seiko.
"Grand Seiko was launched at a time when Seiko's watchmakers were continually and rapidly enhancing the precision of Seiko mechanical watch technology," explains Robert Wilson, European Marketing Director of Seiko UK Ltd. "The aim then, as now, was to make the 'ideal' watch. It was a deceptively simply objective - in reality it meant setting new standards in the precision, durability, comfort and usability of a luxury watch. Today, 55 years later, the idea that inspires each new Grand Seiko creation is exactly the same as was the case in 1960. And it always will remain so."
For most of its life, Grand Seiko has been reserved for the Japanese market, yet it still gained fame around the world with the spread of information via the Internet. Seiko finally bowed to customer pressure and made Grand Seiko available outside of Japan in 2010.
"There was already great demand from all over the world for Grand Seiko, but we needed to increase the production capacity especially for mechanical calibers, which are assembled in the Shizuku-ishi Watch Studio, and we were ready to launch Grand Seiko internationally in the autumn of 2010," Wilson says. "Today, Grand Seiko is available in over 30 markets around the world and, just in Europe, we already have over 40 retailer partners, with more wanting to join us all the time. Of course, Grand Seiko is also presented at the Seiko Boutiques in Paris, Amsterdam, Madrid and most recently in our new boutique in Frankfurt, where Grand Seiko will be the focal point of the store."
This year, Grand Seiko is celebrating its 55th anniversary with the introduction of the first of several limited editions, a chronograph powered by the ground-breaking Spring Drive movement. With enhanced accuracy (+/- 0.5 seconds a day, +/- 10 seconds per month), 12 hour elapsed time measurement, a vertical clutch and a column wheel and a power reserve of 72 hours, the Grand Seiko 55th Anniversary Spring Drive Chronograph Limited Edition is truly a special piece. The Seiko lion emblem in 18K yellow gold on the oscillating weight symbolizes the greater accuracy of this limited edition. Assembled by hand, the Grand Seiko 55th Anniversary Spring Drive Chronograph Limited Edition is limited to 400 pieces.
The Future for Grand Seiko
55 years old, Grand Seiko is poised for even greater things. "We will continue to widen the international collection of Grand Seiko, especially with more models using our unique Spring Drive calibers, of which the 55th Anniversary Chronograph is an outstanding example," details Wilson. "Second, we will market the Grand Seiko brand more widely, expanding its appeal beyond the watch collectors who are the core consumers for the brand today. We will bring Grand Seiko to the attention of all those who appreciate fine watchmaking through more advertising and a higher profile at watch events.
"Slowly but surely, we will make Grand Seiko better known, all over the world, as one of the very best watches in the world," Wilson continues. "Grand Seiko is absolutely central to the future of Seiko Watch Corporation. For several years now, sales have been increasing at double digit pace and the success of Grand Seiko in Japan is already beginning to be replicated in other markets, including the USA and Europe. In the long term, Grand Seiko will be one of the central pillars on which our company's success is built."
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Grand Seiko 62GS
Seiko celebrates in 2015 the 55-year history of Grand Seiko. Since its creation in 1960, every Grand Seiko watch has shared the same commitment to the pure essential of watchmaking: precision, legibility, comfort and durability.
In 2013, the 1967 44GS was recreated, in 2014 it was the turn of the 1964 "Self Dater," and in 2015, Grand Seiko returns to 1967 and to its first ever automatic watch, the 62GS.
62GS was not only automatic, it was supremely accurate, achieving the level of the highest published standard of the day. The design, too, established a style that has been passed down the years to today's Grand Seiko. 62GS had a mirrored, multi-sided case and a wide dial opening, achieved with a bezel-free construction and Grand Seiko's unique "Zaratsu" polishing. Together, these elements combined to make 62GS a clean, slim, easy-to-read and comfortable watch whose popularity was both immediate and lasting. It was distinctive, too. The crown was recessed and placed at the 4 o'clock position to dramatize the fact that hand winding was not required, and 62GS also had the long and razor-edge hands that have always been part of the Grand Seiko signature.
There are eight references in the new 62GS collection. Four are faithful re-creations of the 1967 original with an automatic caliber and four are modern re-interpretations featuring Grand Seiko's most advanced movements, including Spring Drive. All are limited editions.
We present today the first four faithful re-creations of the of the 1967 original: the ref. SBGR091 (in white gold), 092 (yellow gold), 094 (rose gold), and 095 (steel).
Water-resistant to 100 m, the high definition dual-curved cases are topped with a sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating, and the case-back is screwn. The house the automatic mouvement Caliber 9S65, with manual winding mechanism, beating at 28,800 vibrations per hour and offering a 72-hour power reserve.
The lion emblem on the case back, the dial layout, the distinctive hour markers and the dial logotypes (notably "Diashock") are all inherited from the original 62GS. The dial color of the steel case model is also faithful to the original dial
An alligator strap completes the watch, whose buckle is of the same material as the case.
600 pieces of the steel version will be produced, and only 100 pieces each of the three gold models.
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Seiko - Astron GPS Solar Chronograph Giugiaro Design Limited Edition
The new edition of Seiko Astron GPS Solar incorporates the 8X caliber, first shown in Baselworld 2014. The watch is the ideal sports watch for the global traveller. It adjusts at the touch of one button to your time zone and features a 6-hour chronograph of high precision*. The advanced exterior design complements the high technology within. A sleek lightweight titanium case encloses a high-legibility dial whose newly-designed Arabic figures and color accents add the flair and sporty style that the global traveller will prize. The case back is sculpted into the shape of a sports car wheel and carries the marking "Giugiaro Design Limited Edition" and the watch's individual serial number.
Each watch comes with a titanium bracelet with ceramic insets and a separate leather strap so that you can change the appearance of the watch at will. The UTC time zones are marked on the interior dial ring, while the bezel is a tachymeter for the instant calculation of speed. Global precision meets motor sport design in this avant-garde creation.
Seiko first commissioned Giorgetto Giugiaro in the early 1980's to create a design for the recently launched world's first analogue quartz chronograph. The partnership flourished, resulting in a series of four designs, two analogue and two digital, that were immediate and lasting successes when they were launched in 1983. A decade later, the collaboration was renewed with the creation of the Macchina Sportiva collection, released in 1996. As with the first series, Macchina Sportiva was designed with motor sport as its inspiration. It, too, was a global success and is today prized by motor sport fans and watch collectors alike.
Astron GPS Solar Chronograph, styled by Giugiaro Design is offered in a limited edition of 5,000. It will be released in the summer, along with six other new Astron Chronograph models. With these new creations, the Astron chronograph collection embraces a full range of tastes, from luxurious leather strap models to rugged designs built for sports.
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Review - What you might have missed...
Chronoswiss made its debut as a partner brand of Worldtempus last month. The brand has major plans, which will become more concrete in August with the official opening of the its new "House of Chronoswiss" in Lucerne in August. The brand has a cult following thanks to classic timepieces such as the Sirius Retrograde Day.
France was the focus for new store openings, with Christophe Claret opening its first store in France in the nation's capital and Harry Winston looking to capture a share of the seasonal custom on the French Riviera with a new store in Cannes.
Baume et Mercier and Longines both put ladies first, the former with the launch of its new Promesse ladies' collection in France and the latter with its Ladies Awards dedicated to women who are active in the equestrian world. As a presenting partner of the Bejart Ballet Lausanne, Jaquet Droz helped to treat Parisians to a rare show by the company last month before it headed off to Mexico.
In the more masculine world of motorsport, Zenith's intrepid ambassador Felix Baumgartner enjoyed his first taste of endurance racing in the Nurburgring 24 hours, where he battled against another watch brand ambassador, IWC's Abdulaziz Turki Al Faisal.
Watches
Richard Mille, Dizzy Hands
Chopard, Superfast Chrono Porsche 919 Edition
Montblanc, TimeWalker Extreme Chronograph DLC
Dior VIII Montaigne
Seiko, Prospex
Perrelet, Turbine Pilot
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Column wheel chronographs - Part 1
"Zenith was not a classic chronograph manufacturer ," Jack Heuer, whose brand is indeed a classic chronograph specialist, reminded me a couple of years ago as I asked him about the race to make the first automatic chronograph that took place in 1969. "They made a technically beautiful product, one of the top movements today, much more complex than ours, of course, which was made based on a modified, existing, self-winding movement."
And it is exactly this difference between the two types of chronograph - beautifully exemplified by Zenith's El Primero and Heuer's Caliber 11 - that we examine today and in coming weeks. Let's start with the El Primero.
The El Primero is a column wheel chronograph, meaning that its stopwatch functions are controlled by a sort of ratchet wheel elegantly called the roue a colonnes in French, which generally boasts six triangular protrusions. The French term vividly calls architectural columns to mind, and this description is not far off: these large teeth extend in a rather three-dimensional manner from the wheel. Usually easily visible in action through a transparent case back in a modern wristwatch, their function is to control (activate, deactivate) the chronograph levers according to the impulses received. In other words, the column wheel acts as a tiny computer that translates the wearer's wish (he or she can choose between start, stop and reset) to the depths of the movement.
At its introduction in 1969, the El Primero was not only automatic, it also beat at a high frequency of 36,000 vph. Today it continues to be considered the epitome of the classic chronograph and has been utilized to power chronograph models of many other famous brands, including - but in no way limited to - Rolex.
New column wheels
This year at Baselworld, Girard-Perregaux introduced its very own in-house chronograph, fittingly christening it the 1966 Integrated Column Wheel Chronograph. Caliber GP0 3800-001 comprising 312 components is not automatic, but rather classically hand-wound and needed five years to fully develop. A beautiful detail included by the brand's movement designer Julien Chaignat and his team is the jumping minute counter, which makes for more precise interval read-off. "Developing a chronograph takes a long time," Chaignat explains in answer to the question why only now this traditional brand is introducing its own chronograph movement. "You have to spend time on the implementation and kinematic of the components as well as the sizing of all different springs. Then you have to take into account all industrial aspects of the caliber."
Christophe Claret's Kantharos, also introduced at Basel, is a chronograph whose column wheel stopwatch has largely been ignored in the wake of the realization that the movement also contains a constant force mechanism as one of its many unique elements. The automatic monopusher chronograph is paired with a chiming function (like Claret's DualTow model, it emits a small chime when the wearer pushes start, stop or reset) and disks to display elapsed time (instead of counters and hands).
A Japanese column wheel
Seiko was also one of the brands to create an automatic chronograph in 1969: Caliber 6139. The Ananta 100th Anniversary Chronograph follows not only Japanese tradition with its Samurai symbolism, but also the company's own rich chronograph tradition beginning with that very movement. Caliber 8R28 includes a column wheel and vertical clutch system (like the one in 1969), as well as the company's own unique three-pronged lever, which ensures highly accurate synchronized motion of all three chronograph hands, particularly when they are being reset, which avoids the typical jump when chronographs buttons are pushed.
Seiko's chronograph designs are so good, in fact, that TAG Heuer now uses the design of Caliber TC78 as its base for TAG Heuer Caliber 1887. Though this movement does not include a column wheel - we'll get into more chronograph types in the next weeks - it does prove that the Swiss also respect the good quality of inventive horology that Seiko is capable of producing. "This movement is respected and known and we thought it was a very good basic design," Jack Heuer said. "We got the license, updated it and made a lot of changes, such as in the escapement and things, even increasing the size. It is our movement now."
During the same conversation regarding the 1969 introductions, Jack Heuer reminisced, "Seiko never realized they were in the same race. But they found out at the Basel Fair . Mr. Hattori, the owner of Seiko, came to visit me at the stand to congratulate me for our self-winding chronograph. He had one ready that they were testing the same year in Japan. Seiko had an old tradition of always testing in its own market before going worldwide, you see. He tested in the summer and fall of 1969, and hit the American market the year afterward, in 1970."
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FHS - 1,500 Internet users under the microscope
Every two years, the FH office in Tokyo commissions a specialist polling company (Yano Research Institute Ltd) to obtain a clearer idea of consumer preferences in relation to watches in the archipelago. Selected online from more than 12,200 individuals, nearly 7,800 replied that they had purchased a watch in 2011 and 37.2% declared an interest in watches costing more than 100,000 yen. The sample used covers 1,500 people.
Compared to 2010, it is clear that overall the proportion of consumers owning two or more watches has fallen, from 82.8% to 78.7%. However the number of men aged between 20 and 30 and women over the age of 50 owning two or more watches has increased significantly, by 4.7 and 4 points respectively. The most commonly owned brands are Japanese (Casio in first place, followed by Seiko and Citizen). Next come Omega, Rolex, Swatch, Cartier, Gucci and TAG Heuer. The 10,000 to 30,000 yen price category is most popular among 19.8% of those surveyed, be they women or men (+2.3 points compared to 2010). Half of men aged between 30 and 40 and women over 30 wear watches costing 100,000 yen or more. This is also the case for 60% of men over the age of 50 and women from the age of 40.
More than half of respondents said they bought their timepiece in the watch section of a department store, particularly women (60.1%), with 43.7% making their purchase in a specialist store, 30.4% in a discount store, 19.9% in a duty free shop or a retail outlet abroad, 20.6% online and 12.2% in an own-name store. Men are more interested in the functions and different specifications of the watch while women pay more attention to the fashion aspect, which greatly influences the type of store visited. Men have a more marked interest in websites than women. They are also more attentive to the price factor, whereas women attach importance to the quality of the after-sales service and the in-store ambience. As in the past however, the choice of distribution channel is governed primarily by the fact that it only sells authorised imports.
Nearly 70% favour classic watches. Men (particularly those aged between 30 and 40) prefer sports watches and multifunctional models, while women have a preference for fashion and jewellery watches. Automatic timepieces are most popular (44.6%), closely followed by quartz watches (42%). The popularity of mechanical watches is increasing (14.4% compared to 10.9% in 2010).
Questioned about their future preferences, more respondents than in 2010 indicated that they would like to buy a watch costing between 10,000 and 150,000 yen (+6.9 points). This phenomenon is marked among young people between 20 and 30 years of age. In addition, 12.5% of those surveyed declared a preference for watches costing between 200,000 and 300,000 yen (16.7% in 2010), 16.7% would opt for the 300,000 to 500,000 yen category (18.7% in 2010) and 13.8% for the 500,000 to 1 million yen category (13.7%). The Rolex, Omega, Cartier, Franck Muller and Bulgari brands top the list of preferences
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Seiko - The collections
December, 1960. Grand Seiko was born. The goal that inspired its creators was hardly a modest one. They were determined to create nothing less than the best luxury watch in the world.
Before the watch came the standard it had to attain. The "Grand Seiko Standard" of precision and reliability was set at a level higher than any yet achieved by Seiko and higher than all the international chronometer standards. The challenge was substantial, as new skills and technologies were required in order to meet and exceed the new Grand Seiko standard.
Today, just as fifty years ago, Grand Seiko is focused on the pure essentials of watch-making. Grand Seiko strives to provide lovers of fine watches with the ultimate, functional watch. Each and every Grand Seiko is as accurate, as reliable, as legible and as comfortable to wear as can be achieved. Grand Seiko is everything a luxury watch should be, with no unnecessary elaboration or undue decoration. Just pure, simple and basic watchmaking raised to the level of an art form.
For fifty years, the story of Grand Seiko has been the story of a team's dedication to perfecting the deceptively simple idea of creating the "ideal watch". Watch lovers in Japan have long enjoyed the pleasure and satisfaction of owning Grand Seiko. Now, the Grand Seiko world is open to all.
Though times change and Seiko's watchmaking technology has evolved rapidly, the spirit and essence of Grand Seiko remained the same. For fifty years, Grand Seiko has stood for the same simple yet exacting ideals. And so it will be for the next fifty years. And beyond.
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Ananta is a Sanskrit word that means 'the infinite'. When the SEIKO design team embarked on this creation, they were told that there were no boundaries. They were given infinite scope to build a watch that embodied the SEIKO dream of "the most technologically advanced craftsmanship in the world". They could explore any design direction and seek new inspiration wherever they chose. Ananta is the result: a collection that expresses SEIKO's dedication to infinite perfection.
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Spring Drive is the only watch whose hands' motion reflects the true nature of time.
Spring Drive is the summit of watchmaking mechatronics achieved by SEIKO's technology and heritage, and hand assembly is done by our most skilled craftsmen in Japan.
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Sportura is SEIKO's leading sports watch collection. Inspired by high-performance motor sport, each Sportura watch is presented in a high-grade stainless steel case, with 10 bar water resistance and a sapphire crystal, so that it is durable, practical and legible, even at high speed. Quartz, Kinetic or Automatic, for men or for women, Sportura is engineered for the new road ahead.
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The SEIKO Premier collection combines classically refined inspiration with subtly modern expression. Premier has established itself as SEIKO's leading dress watch collection.
The Premier design is inspired by the eternal beauty of neo-classical architecture. Each Premier case has the solidity and grace of a Palladian villa and each dial has a depth of sculpted detailing that draws its inspiration from the architraves of a Greek temple. However, these classical features are also expressed with a modern flair. Premier is classical yet modern, reverential yet bold, restrained yet eye-catching.
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SEIKO Velatura is a collection of high performance marine watches for men and women, each of which combines innovation of function with refinement in design. At the heart of the collection are two entirely new calibers, Kinetic Direct Drive and a Yachting Timer, both designed expressly for Velatura and for the needs of professional and recreational sailors alike.
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Since 1997, Arctura has been the signature design for SEIKO's Kinetic technology. Arctura stands for b, solid build quality and aerodynamic design inspired by the arc of nature; in rainbows or in the curvature of the earth, the arc is central to nature's plan and Arctura draws its strength from the eternal beauty of this shape.
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Seiko - Shinji Hattori, CEO
Name: Shinji HATTORI
Title: President & CEO
Place and date of birth: Tokyo - January 1 1953
Education: B.A. in Economics, 1975, Keio University, Tokyo
Work experience2010.6-present: President of SEIKO Holdings Corporation
2009.6: Vice President of SEIKO Holdings Corporation
2007.6: Director of SEIKO Holdings Corporation
2003.6-present: President & CEO of SEIKO Watch Corporation
2001.6: President of SEIKO Precision Inc.
1984.7: Entered SEIKOSHA Co., Ltd. (currently SEIKO Clock Inc., SEIKO Precision Inc.)
1975.4: Entered Mitsubishi Corporation
[Rating: 5 / 5 stars]
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