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A New Member… Part III
The SBGW003 120th Anniversary… a real beauty!
[This story traces my initial interest in watches through first purchases and three years of looking, to the arrival of my Grand Seiko 120thAnniversary SBGW003, one of 300 issued in 2001. If you’ve any interest in a “watch tale,” consult parts I and II.]
Here are some initial impressions of the unusual (enticing, outstanding—in both senses of the word—yet compact and surprisingly modest on the wrist) SBGW003.
Dial and Hands:
SARB017 "Alpinist" The latest (terribly-successful-yet-now-discontinued) Alpinist reference, shown here aboard my trusty John Deere X300.
A mere glance and you know immediately where you stand. And in the sometimes stressful environments of an expedition (or one’s backyard), one wouldn’t want to have to twist and turn to be certain. Therefore, I was prepared for the unusual treatment of the 003’s numerals. Their more slender nature, though, seems to add to their height, giving any stray ray of light a chance to reflect.
Sun's down just before nine o'clock in the Midwest, but the 003 still easily gives away the hour.
Their relationship to that (exactly-what-color-is-that-anyway?) dial was well thought out, too. It seems most complimentary when the color of the dial warms to an egg-cream in certain lights. Combine with these two elements the contrast of those breathtaking hands, and I’m thrilled to report that though the watch has no lume (as do few Grand Seikos, I think), my first evening out with the watch I was able to read the time on the way home in the ambient light of the instruments in my car! That wouldn’t have been the case with many timepieces that sport lume.
I’m not sure why reviewers fail to remind their readers that lume needs to be charged directly to maintain a discernable glow for any period of time. Just wearing the watch all day long will not sufficiently stimulate the lume for a long sleep. Naturally, the 003 won’t tell you the time in a dark room at three in the morning. But the glowing crème of the dial sets off the vivid blue of the hands so sharply as to afford a good check of the time if there’s even the faint glow of a nightlight nearby. I don’t wear my watches to bed. And I certainly wasn’t considering the 003’s possible legibility in dark rooms as I contemplated its purchase. But what a pleasant surprise to find that most of the time it will tell me the hour and minute.
Size:
At ~37.25mm, as reported by my digital calipers, the SBGW003 is quite happy on my 7.25in (18.4cm) wrist.
An experienced seller on another forum called my attention to the fact that cell phone wrist shots often give a skewed perspective due to wider-angled lenses. He uses a 90mm macro to correct for this phenomenon. In fact, the 003 does look a bit more modest on my wrist. All my pics were taken with an iPhone 7.
Well-protected by my forearm (a rarely mentioned advantage of watch case sizes the industry has all but left behind), yet large enough to be a presence, the watch sort of nestles in and gets comfortable as I strap it on. And that GS strap, itself, deserves a moment’s praise. Light, supple, and nicely tapered it disappears in harmony with the timepiece in a wink. The fellow from whom I bought the watch had a marvelous black strap custom made with blue stitching. I haven’t yet tried it on the watch—as I’m trying not to see this as primarily a dress piece, and tend toward brown straps to begin with—but I’m confident it will look… killer! And those drilled lugs will make changing straps far less intimidating.
Lovely custom strap. Now that I look at it more closely I can't wait to try it! (Please note, though, those hands! They really do this sort of thing in the light.)
I do not pretend to have the equipment necessary to bring out all of the highlights of this watch. But this photo comes as close as I’ve come so far. Numerals, hands (most definitely those hands), and that custom strap! What’s not to love?
Then there’s the watch’s heft. It’s just right! You see that you are holding an object that’s not so very large, and yet there is this slightly persistent pull, as though Seiko had managed to measure the gravitational force that might equal merely a reminder that something is there that bears consulting. (As they have measured nearly everything else over the years, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that they had!) I truly forget that I’m wearing the watch as I go through the day. Yet, when I do consult it, I notice that I have something rather substantial there—for all its good looks, solid, impregnable.
Movement:
The overall effect of the 9S54A is beautiful, yet restrained.
A closer look reveals some of the beautiful machining, as well as the impressively precise stamping of "Grand Seiko." My photo doesn't come close to doing the 9S54A justice.
[Part IV includes questions and additional views of the 003.]
FH
A New Member… Part III
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