Grand Seiko’s New Watch Has a Classic Detail Only True Fans Will Notice

The resurrected 1960s dress watch hides a fun detail in plain sight.

Published September 5, 2024

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Updated September 10, 2024

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Grand Seiko debuted a handful of fall releases this week, and in between the usual drop-dead gorgeous nature-inspired dials (like this one and this one), the brand also brought back an old favorite from its formative years.

The new reissue resurrects the 45GS, a lesser-known vintage Grand Seiko dress watch released one year after the far better-known 44GS in 1968.

The 44GS is regarded for establishing Grand Seiko’s signature design language, and its case style can be found throughout the brand’s catalog today. The 45GS, by contrast, is more of a deep cut that’s known mainly to Grand Seiko collectors.

The 45GS was still an important watch for the Japanese luxury brand, however, as it was the first Grand Seiko watch to feature a high-beat manual-wind movement.

Grand Seiko SLGW005

$9,700 at Grand Seiko

The New Grand Seiko 45GS

The new reissue of the 45GS mimics the original’s mid-century case design, right down to the hooded lugs that are absent on the brand’s modern 44GS watches. It also clocks in at a vintage-friendly 38.8mm across and 10.4mm thick. (The original 45GS had a case size of 36.5mm.)

Naturally, the watch is powered by Grand Seiko’s new in-house Cal. 9SA4 movement. Introduced earlier this year in the SLGW003 at Watches and Wonders Geneva as the brand’s first high-beat hand-wound movement in 50 years, the 9SA4 is the spiritual successor to the Cal. 4520 that powered the original 45GS.

vintage grand seiko watch — The original Grand Seiko 45GS from 1968 was the brand’s first high-beat hand-wound watch.

The 9SA4 is quite the upgrade, however, as it’s one of the most impressive mechanical movements ever produced by Grand Seiko. It boasts twin barrels with an 80-hour power reserve, an accuracy of +8 to -1 seconds per day, a dual-impulse escapement, 47 jewels and a power reserve indicator on the movement side featuring a heat-blued hand.

The click is even shaped like a wagtail bird, offering a fun bit of visual entertainment when you wind the watch. Unlike on the original 45GS, the movement on the recreation is fully visible through a display caseback.

grand seiko mechanical watch movement seen through a display caseback — Grand Seiko’s new high-beat manual-wind movement was the natural choice to power the reborn 45GS.

An Easter Egg for the Seiko Nerds

Finally, we get to the dial of the new 45GS, and again, it’s very reminiscent of the original. The dial is off-white with Grand Seiko’s typical faceted indices and sharp dauphine hands. The dial text copies the original, with an applied “Seiko” logo at 12 o’clock and a smaller applied “GS” logo at 6 o’clock along with text for “Hi-Beat,” “36,000” and the logo for the vintage Daini Seikosha factory where the original 45GS was produced.

Old-school Seiko fans should appreciate the return of Seiko branding on the dial here. For most of its history, Grand Seiko operated as a sub-brand within Seiko, and all of its watches used to feature this dual branding with both “Seiko” and “Grand Seiko” on the dial. But the practice went away in 2017 when Grand Seiko became its own independent brand.

The Seiko logo returns to the dial of a Grand Seiko watch.

Grand Seiko

Since the branding change, Seiko has been careful to keep the higher-end Grand Seiko separate from Seiko, with modern Grand Seiko watches only featuring Grand Seiko branding. But the new 45GS release reverses course and happily embraces the connection between the brands by prominently returning Seiko branding to a Grand Seiko dial. The watch also features Seiko branding on the buckle of its crocodile leather strap, another callout to the brands’ shared history.

Pricing and Availability

Grand Seiko has launched the 45GS redux in two versions. There’s the SLGW005 in stainless steel and the SLGW004 in yellow gold. The former retails for $9,700, while the latter is far pricier at $30,000 (you can thank the gold for that).

Both are limited editions, with the gold version limited to just 200 pieces and the steel model getting an extra thousand pieces for a run of 1,200 watches. Both the SLGW004 and SLGW005 will be available this November from Grand Seiko dealers.