Seiko

The Eichi II - Japanese watchmaking at its finest

 

The team credited with that honor is Seiko’s Micro Artist Studio in the township of Shiojin, in Nagano Perfecture. This highly-acclaimed team of 15 engineers and watchmakers produces only two dozen watches a year, including the Credor Minute Repeater or Sonnerie, as well as the watch I am writing about – the Eichi II. The team would only start production after orders are received.

 

The original Eichi (a Japanese word meaning Wisdom) was launched in 2008 and ended its production run in 2012. Altogether, 25 pieces were produced. The watch was to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Credor line and the 15^th anniversary of the Springdrive movement.

 

Eichi II, its successor, was announced in Baselworld 2015, with the following specifications:

 

-       A three-handed, manually-wound, time-only watch

-       39 mm case in platinum (compared to Eichi I’s 35 mm.)

-       10.3 mm in thickness

-       Dial in pure white porcelain (Eichi I’s dial was made by Noritake)

-       Blued steel hands and hand-painted blue indices

-       60-hour power reserve with indicator at the back

-       Doomed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating

-       Patented torque return system

-       7R14 Springdrive movement (an IC-regulated flywheel that spins in one direction serves as the oscillator; an electromagnet then accelerates or brakes the motion as necessary – resulting in a jaw-dropping accuracy of +/- 0.5 seconds per day)

 

The final product was openly endorsed by the legendary Philip Dufour after the Japanese team sent several of its members to learn from the Master his finishing and polishing skills.

 

I was told that from order to delivery, the lead time is typically 9-12 months, but was lucky enough to get my piece after three months of waiting when my dealer pre-ordered ahead of my confirmation. Imagine my pleasant surprise two days ago when I was told that the Eichi II had arrived. I immediately abandoned everything on hand and drove for an hour to pick it up…that’s how excited I was. You can decide whether the excitement is justified by these close-up pictures. I apologize for my appalling photo-taking skills and promise to provide some proper ones in due course…

 

Sam

The hand-painted porcelain dial

The folding buckle

It is a slim watch

The exquisitely finished movement

Note the abundant use of blue screws

An obligatory wrist-shot with a Japanese painting in the background, how appropriate...

When I first tried it on at the AD....