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At last year’s Baselworld, Seiko unveiled a limited edition Chronograph with a beautiful enamel dial to its Presage collection. Now, a year later, Seiko has added four new permanent members to the affordable luxury line, all featuring dials made from, you guessed it, enamel.
The new additions include an automatic chronograph, a “multi-hand” automatic with a power reserve indicator, and two automatic three-handers. The dials are made by lifelong enamel craftsman Mitsuru Yokozawa and his team and feature numerals that are painted on multiple times over to create a positive relief effect. Given the difficulty of making attractive, uniform enamel dials (consider that enamel dials are a fixture of brands like Patek Phillipe and Chanel) — not to mention the fact that these are all powered by in-house automatic movements — the price range for the new Presages are a steal, ranging from approximately $1,170 (for the three-hander) to $2,815 (for the chronograph). They’ll be available worldwide in fall of this year.
For years, Seiko’s Presage line was only available overseas. Last year’s limited edition Chronograph was just the first step towards bringing the Presage line to the US, and with these new watches it’s clear that Seiko wants to bring its more premium offerings here to sway buyers looking at entry-level luxury watches from Switzerland. Frankly, they’re a pretty compelling alternative.
