Marcus Hanke's comprehensive report from Baselworld 2011 offers a vital historical snapshot of Seiko's diverse offerings, from Sportura to Grand Seiko, during its 130th anniversary. This article provides context for understanding Seiko's strategic direction and product evolution over the past decade. Hanke's detailed observations highlight key models and technical innovations that shaped Seiko's presence in the luxury watch market.
Basel 2011 Novelty reportSeikoby Marcus Hanke
This
year, the Seiko company is celebrating its 130th anniversary and
presents several beautiful models for that occasion. Before showing
these, however, I want to mention the new models of the Sportura Series:
the six variants of the "Sportura Alarm Chronograph" are equipped with
quartz movements, can time events up to 60 minutes and have an alarm
function.
Black PVD version of the Sportura Alarm Chronograph
The "Sportura Kinetic Diver" works with the 5M62 Kinetic movement and is rated tight to 200 meters:
Very
attractive are the new models of the Seiko "Premier Kinetic" with
perpetual calendar. This perpetual has a very clever energy saving
function, called Kinetic Auto-Relay: after 24 hours of inactivity, the
watch is going “to sleep”; the hands stop moving, saving the energy
normally consumed by the electric stepper motors. Internally, the
correct and exact time is continued to be measured up to four years
long. As soon as the watch is moved again, the hands “awaken to life”
and indicate the correct time and date again. The perpetual calendar has
a big date and a month display, and has to be manually adjusted only in
the year 2100.
For
the ladies, the "Premier Date Calendar" features a beautiful dial made
from mother-of-pearl, which comes to life when light hits it at changing
angles:
But
now let me present you the anniversary models: The first is a
strikingly beautiful chronograph from the Ananta-series, the
"Chronograph Diver". This chronograph has a diameter of 44mm, and is
completely PVD-treated, including the bracelet. This is not only valid
for the black colour, but also the pink gold elements are PVD-applied,
resulting in a highly attractive contrast. This impression is also due
to the intensely black dial, which is produced by hand in a very
traditional Japanese lacquer technique: Several layers of lacquer are
applied and individually polished, until a perfectly deep black is
accomplished.
Consequently, the watch
could even be improved, if this wonderful dial would not be compromised
by a lot of text printed on it. Watertight to 200 meters, the Ananta
Chronograph Diver is powered by the new selfwinding cal. 8R39 with 306
parts and 45 hours power reserve. It is a variant of the cal. 8R28 used
in the unlimited Ananta automatic chronographs, improved with thicker
bridges, new alloy for the balance and a modified fixation in the case,
which is said to withstand shocks better than the standard movement.
Unfortunately, this beauty is limited to 700 pieces only - worldwide.
The
unlimited "Ananta Chronograph", with the 8R28 movement, has a fixed
tachymeter bezel instead of the rotating diver bezel of the
abovementioned model.
The
"Ananta Multi-Hand Automatic" features the cal. 6R21 movement and
indicates date, day of the week and power reserve on the dial
Another
anniversary edition, this time from the "Grand Seiko" series, is this
handwinding watch with the new cal. 9S64 movement. It is a replica of an
original Seiko, dating from 1960. With its small case of only 36mm
diameter, the watch appears rather petite. The highly domed sapphire
crystal, simulating the original hesalite, underlines this impression.
The newly developed handwinding movement with 146 parts has a power
reserve of more than 72 hours. Three different case materials are
available: yellow gold and platinum in 130 pieces each, stainless steel
in 1,300 pieces.
Finally,
the highlight of Seiko’s anniversary collection, without doubt is the
minute repeater, made under the Credor label. Powered by the Springdrive
system, this complicated timepiece features a very complex
construction, responsible for an optimal tone of the chime’s coils. In
fact, I have never before heard such a full and clear repetition chime
coming from the small case of a wristwatch. With the exception of the
sound volume, the Credor minute repeater is able to reach the quality of
very good pocket watch repeaters. The optical presentation of the
skeletonized movement is spectacular, but maybe not everybody’s taste -
which might also be true for the price. Since the watch is limited to
three pieces only, the latter is likely to remain an academic matter.
This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2011-04-18 04:48:51 This message has been edited by Marcus Hanke on 2011-04-20 00:34:32
