Grand Seiko Pays Tribute To The First Manual-Winding 9S Model With The Elegance SBGW325

In 2001, Grand Seiko released the SBGW003, the first watch to use a manual-winding 9S movement. It was a simple dress watch drawn from the brand's 1960s designs, and its case is still used today in the SBGW301 and SBGW305. It was also kind of special for using Arabic numerals, which you don't see often on GS watches. The new, just released, Elegance Manual-Winding SBGW325 uses that same case and brings back the original's raised Arabic numerals. Few people outside the Grand Seiko faithful remember the SBGW003, which makes this a more interesting tribute than most.

The steel case is 37.3mm wide and 11.7mm thick, with a lug-to-lug of 44.3mm, which sound like some pretty great dimensions. If only they could bring that thickness down a bit. Zaratsu polishing covers the case, a box-shaped sapphire crystal with internal anti-reflective coating sits on top, and six screws hold a sapphire caseback down. Water resistance is not great. In fact, it's so bad GS doesn't even say what it is. The website just says splash resistant. It's 30 meters, which should be much better.

The dial is a matte deep navy inspired by traditional Japanese indigo dyeing. The raised Arabic numerals were gold on the SBGW003, but are silver colored here. Faceted Dauphine hands, polished and brushed, tell the time, and gold colors shows up in two places: the seconds hand and the applied GS logo. The numerals give it more personality than the usual Grand Seiko dress dial.

Inside is the in-house calibre 9S64, the hand-wound successor to the 9S54 that powered the SBGW003. It beats at 4Hz with a 72-hour power reserve, up from the 9S54's 50 hours. Grand Seiko rates it at +5/-3 seconds per day, and the transparent caseback shows striped decoration and a concave barrel cover. Two 19mm straps come in the box, both on quick-release spring bars: a hand-dyed blue crocodile and a light grey cow leather that contrasts with the dial.

The Grand Seiko Elegance Manual-Winding SBGW325 is limited to 600 pieces, goes on sale in October and it's priced at €5,700. See more on the Grand Seiko website.