Editor’s Note: Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) has moved online and Baselworld 2020 is canceled, but that hasn’t stopped watch brands large and small from debuting their new wares. Stay on top of this year’s best new watch releases here.
Of course there’s a Japanese word that specifically describes the moon’s reflection in water. And that word, suigetsu, is perfectly at home as the name for Seiko’s newest porcelain-dialed Presage watch, as the silky texture of porcelain is best appreciated when it plays with the light. This isn’t your affordable Presage dress watch like the Cocktail Time, but a comparatively high-end, limited edition that’s priced closer to Grand Seiko territory.
“Suigetsu” is a catchier moniker, but you can also call the new watch, more blandly, the SPB171. It follows two models from 2019, the SPB093 and SPB095, which are similar to the Suigetsu but for some small details, such as the 12 o’clock index being in red. (The Suigetsu itself is relatively monochromatic with black indices and blued hands.) The specific type of porcelain used comes from a place in Japan called Arita.
Powered by a Seiko 6R27 automatic movement, the Suigetsu features a dial that offers the date via a subdial at 6 o’clock and a power reserve indicator (45 hours) at 9 o’clock. These features make the dial asymmetric and a bit unusual, but they’re also both recessed, allowing the curves in the porcelain to display its texture.
The Seiko Presage Suigetsu SPB171 will be available from brand boutiques and select distributors from July 2020 and limited to 2,000 examples a a price of $2,050.
