Grand Seiko SBGW033 Limited Edition- remake of the original 1960 Grand Seiko
A brief review of a Grand Seiko I acquired in 2012- the GS SBGW033, a remake of the original 1960 Grand Seiko.
The case, snap back case, dial, case diameter, lug size follow the original 1960 GS faithfully.
It is however fitted with the latest GS manual wind caliber 9S64 with a 72 PR. The other updated component is the domed sapphire crystal
Case finishing and movement quality is extremely high as expected from Grand Seiko.
Dial, hands, case and crystal are all beautifully made and finished. The diamond-cut indices and hands easily catches a sparkle in the light.
Dial is a slightly off-white and the beautifully heat blued steel second hand is a perfect match.
As the dial is an exact replica of the original, this is the only modern Grand Seiko watch to-date that does not have "SEIKO" on the dial whereas on other GS, you'll see all 3 logos on the dial; "Seiko", "Grand Seiko" and "GS".
The case is highly mirror polished all round. Other finer details are the beautifully bevelled lugs. As such the finish is very susceptible to scuffs and marks but being a formal dress/dinner watch it is expected to be treated gingerly similar to a VC or PP dress watch.
The case is 35.8mm but it does not seem very small due to the light coloured dial and slim bezel.
This is a limited edition of 1300 pieces, of which only 300 is released outside Japan. All have been fully sold out in 2012 and only some dealers are re-selling NOS at premium prices.
Tech specs:
Grand Seiko 130th Anniversary Collection
Model # SBGW033
- Caliber 9S64
- Manual winding
- Hour, minute and second hands
- 28,800 vibrations per hour
- 24 jewels
- Power reserve: 72 hours
- Mean daily rate between -3 and +5 seconds per day (under static conditions)
- Movement diameter: 28.4 mm, thickness: 4.9 mm
- Case: Stainless steel / 35.8 mm in diameter
- Band: Alligator or lizard with stainless steel buckle
- Glass: High definition dual-curved sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
- Water resistance: 3 bar
- Magnetic resistance: 10,000 A/m
Limited edition of 1,300 pieces
RRP prices:
Stainless Steel SBGW033 USD 6,500
Yellow gold SBGW 040 USD 16,500
Platinum SBGW 039 USD 25,000
For an interesting article on GS, you can try reading this:
http://thirtyfivemill.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/grand-seiko.pdfhttp://www.hodinkee.com/blog/watch-shopping-tokyo-that-time-i-almost-bought-a-vintageThe off white dial with the 100% reproduced fonts and hands from the 1st 1960 Grand Seiko and also the perfect proportions of the hour,minute,second hands as described in my SBGW047 article
A perfect example of the beautifully 3 angled polished hour and minute hands and beautifully heat blued second hand, as well as the diamond cut hour indices that reflect light at the slightest twist of the wrist. Note that the Grand Seiko word is STAMPED not printed, not riveted or glued on which is a much simpler and error-free method. This process is very difficult to execute perfectly even more so when the fonts are cursive. Very very few watches have stamped dials even amongst the modern trinity & AHCIs...
The crown is only signed with a 'S' unlike modern GS watches. This is done to replicate the original 1960 faithfully.
The finely bevelled lugs and mirror polishing
The very finely finished and detailed buckle which is also an exact replica of the 1960 GS buckle.
A very soft and supple alligator? leather strap... expensive to replace
Notice that the minute and second hands which are curved downwards at the tip to prevent parallax reading error. Few watches adopt this nowadays.
The snap case back as per the original 1960 GS, limited to 1,300 pc for stainless steel (300 outside Japan)
Exact replica pf the GS logo on the 1960 original GS. Note the fine finishing of the logo and its background
This is a watch I'll never sell and most probably asked to be strapped to my wrist and buried with me when my time is up..
