Japanese Brands. Grand Seiko, King seiko, Citizen leopard

having seen lots about the grand Seiko and admired its obviously high standard of build quality. movements adjusted to 6 positions and subjected to more rigourous standards(allegedly) than COSC i was googling the brand and also came across King seiko and Citizen Leopard. the seller claimed that the Leopard was Citizens answer to the Grand Seiko. a Grand Seiko costs more than an Omega AT Co-Axial COSC which does seem 'not quite right' although there may be more hand work in the Grand than the omega.

can anyone enlighten me to the quality equivelants of the Grand, the King and the Leopard(if anyone knows anything about the Leopard that is) as i'd quite like to have a high quality non european watch in my collection one day and love to absorb information of any sort.

from what i've read on posts so far i'd rather have a GS than a R*L*X datejust as they look similar are possibly of similar quality(wait for the onslaught) and the GS is far more unusual.

i really kick myself as when i was ebaying cheapo watches i had a Grand Seiko in really nice condition, wasnt aware what it was and let it go for just over £100. how dumb was that

hope to hear a load of info

Cheers

Graham

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Grand Seiko, etc.

By: Tony C. : December 16th, 2007-08:31

Hi Graham, I certainly don't consider myself to be an expert, but I do own three unusual Seikos, two of which are vintage, and one of which is a Grand Seiko. The latter is one of the earliest and finest GS handwind models (pictured). Assuming that you are...

thankyou Tony, i would probably...

By: G99 : December 16th, 2007-10:18

Not Citizen Leopard but this one

By: JoeT : December 16th, 2007-14:42

Hi Graham, Just wanna share an opinion mostly known by Japanese collectors with you here, the answer to GS particularly the first model (3180) and the second model (430 or 5722 or one shown by TonyC) was not Citizen Leopard at all but it was Citizen Chron...

Grand Seiko is really a grand watch

By: cazalea : December 16th, 2007-15:26

Hi I traded off a very nice Swiss Paul Gerber watch and sold a few others and now have a group of Grand Seikos. I have also owned The Citizen super-accurate quartz which is nice, but not as nice as the GS. For example. Here's a manual wind of mine. Look a...

whoops, wrong button

By: cazalea : December 16th, 2007-15:33

...

As they say at Homeland Security, there's a lot of chatter lately on the subject of Grand Seiko. It's getting to be a poorly-kept secret. I couldn't be more pleased with mine. The fit and finish is truly on par with watches costing 2 or 3 times as much. I...

are you happy with the...

By: G99 : December 17th, 2007-13:04

are you happy with the spring drive 'slightly quartzy' movement?

That's the best part. :)

By: omdroparebop : December 17th, 2007-16:33

My car has fuel injection, too.

touche :) i suppose the spring drive is just another evolution

By: G99 : December 18th, 2007-04:19

of the mechanical watch just like the silicium escapements etc and your comparison to fuel injection was accurate. i spent all last night searching ebay worldwide just to get an idea of availability and i only found about 4 all of which i'll have to save ...

been offered a 57 GS chronometer manual wind 35 jewel

By: G99 : December 18th, 2007-08:31

at what seems like a very affordable price. the pics look good apart from a bit of wear to the gold lion. thisi s the 2nd model GS which only has seiko on the gold medal over the lion. its very correct according to a historical chronology i've googled so ...

Hi Gramm...

By: Bill Sohne : December 18th, 2007-08:55

HI I personally would grab a vintage GS if you can find a nice example... I picked this one up a while ago. Was talking to a friend about getting one, was looking at his. He went out to get his mail and a big credt card bill came in and in the heat of the...