Hi Gents,
Thanks for bearing with me - it's been a busy weekend and may have bit off more than I could chew on my GS report. Remember that so far I am promising to show you all the Grand Seikos.
Alas! Last night I realized I left one off of the list. How could I forget one of my favorites? (so many watches, so little time). Is it okay if I insert it here?
ONE MORE
This is SBGR025, a special piece in "white titanium" that is very light, very cool in the dial and caseback, and one of my few watches with a brown strap. Those of you who are strap experts can go to work determining the animal source and the stiching pattern. I'll give you a clue - it came on an IWC, not a Grand Seiko. This watch has an extremely nice titanium multi-segment bracelet that I have never worn. Someday ...
I think the Lion etched in the sapphire caseback is a touch of genius (who thought of that?) and I managed to capture it perfectly in this shot, along with the beautifully-decorated movement within. Remember this is a titanium case, with extraordinary finishing quality.
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS
I thought perhaps some of you might be bored with the subjectivity of photographs, so for those people I have compiled some specifications on the watches. This was an eye-opener for me, as I certainly did not expect one of my GS watches to weigh 3 times as much as another one. But those are things that influence comfort, sleeve fit, etc.
All measurements were made today by me, on the actual watches, with a digital caliper, postal scale and eyeballs. Specs came from my Seiko certification papers or published catalogs. I didn't bother with water resistance, count the jewels, or measure the volume of the boxes.
As pplater so eloquently said in his recent post, I paid for all these and haven't received any favors from Seiko. I did get a non-watch-scratching digital caliper as a gift from my pal Alec Dawson at Central Tools who is a madman watch collector too - with well over 100 (more watches than I have).
Most of these are regular production models, or from the Grand Seiko Master Shop line. The SBGW003 (blue hands, gold numerals) is a limited edition, 1 of 300, about 10 years old, and very highly sought after in the Seiko collecting world.
(Note to self, learn how to do HTML Tables BEFORE planning to publish one)
Ok, now to the specifications:
Mechanical | SBGM001 | SBGW001 | SBGW003 | SBGW005 | SBGW033 | SBGR025 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Winding | Automatic | Hand | Hand | Hand | Hand | Automatic | |
Movement | 9S56-00A0 | 9S54-0030 | 9S54-0020 | 9S54-0030 | 9S64-00A0 | 9S55-00A | |
Power Rsrv | 50 hr | 50 hr | 50 hr | 50 hr | 72 hr | 50 hr | |
Timekeeping | -3, +5 sec/day | -3, +5 | -3, +5 | -3, +5 | -3, +5 | -3, +5 | |
Diameter | 39.5 | 36.7 | 37.2 | 36.7 | 35.9 | 37.8 | |
Thickness | 13.7 | 11.4 | 11.1 | 11.4 | 11.1 | 13.3 | |
Crown Dia. | 5.9 locking | 5.8 | 5.3 | 5.8 | 4.8 | 5.3 | |
Material & Weight | Steel 150 | Steel 65 | Steel 55 | Steel 105 | Steel 50 | Titanium 55 | |
Hand Color | 3 silver 1 red | 3 silver | 3 blue | 1 blue 2 silver | 1 blue 2 silver | 3 silver | |
Hand Shape | sword beveled | dauphine pitched | flat | dauphine pitched | sword beveled | sword beveled | |
Crystal | sapphire domed | sapphire dual curve | sapphire dual curve | sapphire dual curve | sapphire dual curve | sapphire domed | |
Date | At 3 | No | No | No | No | At 3 | |
Indicies | applied double at 3,6,9,12 | applied double at 3,6,9,12 | gold embossed arabics | applied double at 3,6,9,12 | applied double at 3,6,9,12 | applied double at 6,9,12 | |
Minute Marks | lines | lines | 2 sizes of dots | lines | lines | lines | |
Caseback | solid screw-in | solid 6 screws | sapphire 6 screws | solid 6 screws | solid snap | sapphire screw-in | |
GS Lion | faces crown | faces crown | no Lion | faces crown | faces 6 o'clock | etched in sapphire | |
Lugs | drilled | drilled | drilled | drilled | solid | drilled | |
Buckle | flip | tang | tang | flip | tang | flip | |
Bracelet | 20 steel oyster | 18 strap 8 holes | 18 strap 7 holes | 18 steel jubilee | 18 strap 8 holes | 19 titanium multi-piece |