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Seiko‘s high-end and highly celebrated spinoff brand Grand Seiko is once again making American watch fans swoon with Japanophilia. Four new models represent the second time the brand is making US-market-specific editions, but this time they’re not limited, and each one is designed to represent a romantic interpretation of a season. Executed with the brand’s typically stunning level of refinement, dial textures and colors are meant to evoke things like cherry blossoms, summer foliage, an autumn sky and snow.
The four models feature the brand’s horological signatures with two mechanical Hi-Beat models running at the unusually quick rate of 5Hz, and two models using the brand’s unique Spring Drive technology. Summer, with a green dial and gold highlights, and fall, with a deep blue dial, are automatic, using the 9S85 movement with 55 hours of power reserve (reference numbers beginning with SBGH). The Spring Drive models are spring (naturally), with a pale pinkish dial, and winter, in a more somber gray (their reference numbers start with SBGA). You can quickly differentiate the models with the 9R65 Spring Drive movement by the 72-hour power reserve indicator on the dial.
All models in the new Grand Seiko Seasons collection, regardless of movement inside, are 40mm wide and 12mm thick with 100m of water resistance, and feature a sapphire crystal affixed directly to the case without a bezel, as per a vintage model from 1967. The cases feature mixed finishes and the brand’s zaratsu polishing technique, but the Spring Drive models are further differentiated by being offered in titanium, while the other models are in steel. Available in the fall, each of the four models will have a price of $6,300.
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TAG Heuer Carrera Calibre 5 ($2,500)
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