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So many new GS watches? A Review of 2020-2022 Releases
After a flurry of Seiko and GS watch releases, It seemed a good time to take inventory. Are there too many Grand Seiko watches? Can there be too many?
Jewelry set watch with Spring Drive
New spring drive movement 9RA5 in a diver watch
New high-beat movement 9SA5 in a gold case
Concept watch with constant force tourbillon (not for sale)
Hi-beat with new dual-impulse escapement and 80 hour autonomy (seconds hand all red, new fatter hour hand and 12 index)
Kintaro Hattori commemorative edition remake of original GS in platinum
Platinum hand-engraved case with special thin manual-wind Spring Drive movement
Gold Spring Drive with wood grain inspired dial and new hand design
New Hi-Beat GMT movement in titanium case, with lume (rare in GS)
Two Sports Dial Spring Drive GMT watches - one Spring Drive Chronograph GMT and one regular watch with rotating bezel and lume
Whew! I hope this past early morning hour spent building this article is not in vain, and it gets at least one reading!
Even as your moderator I found it extremely hard to keep up, so I thought it worth a review to see how many there really are.
Let's see what has appeared in JUST THE LAST TWO YEARS, since COVID slowed the world down a bit (although we have to remember "a new watch" takes years in the planning and creating).
High-accuracy quartz
Quartz sports with ceramic bezel
JAN 2020 60th anniversary models
Automatic Hi-Beat
Women's with diamond-set bezel
High-accuracy quartz
Quartz sports with ceramic bezel
3 SPECIAL 60th anniversary watches with hand-wound mechanical 9S64 movement in platinum, yellow gold and titanium
Engraved platinum, manual wind
Yellow gold with machined dial patterns, manual wind
Jewelry set watch with Spring Drive
New spring drive movement 9RA5 in a diver watch
New high-beat movement 9SA5 in a gold case
Automatic, not high-beat (seconds hand only half red, traditional hands)
Concept watch with constant force tourbillon (not for sale)
Hi-beat with new dual-impulse escapement and 80 hour autonomy (seconds hand all red, new fatter hour hand and 12 index)
Kintaro Hattori commemorative edition remake of original GS in platinum
Remake of original Grand Seiko in gold
NOW MOVING ON TO 2021 now, we find:
White birch tree dials and Series 9 design
4 GMT watches with 4 seasons themes; 2 with hi-beat movements and 2 with Spring Drive
New Spring Drive Chronograph with ceramic bezel and gold highlights
Masterpiece jeweled platinum Spring Drive
Wood grain dial platinum Hi-Beat Kintaro Hattori model
New quartz GMT movement in a sports watch
Platinum hand-engraved case with special thin manual-wind Spring Drive movement
Blue dial inspired by Lake Suwa, new Spring Drive with power reserve on the back, new fatter hour hand and 12 index
Gold Spring Drive with wood grain inspired dial and new hand design
Gold Spring Drive diamond-set case and winter "snowflake" like dial, traditional hands
New Hi-Beat GMT movement in titanium case, with lume (rare in GS)
And that brought 2021 to a close, so now we are into 2022.
White Birch Forest dial with a Spring Drive movement rather than Hi-Beat, and fat hour hand
Two Sports Dial Spring Drive GMT watches - one Spring Drive Chronograph GMT and one regular watch with rotating bezel and lume
Newest Spring Drive movement and newest Hi-Beat, each in a case of new Ever-Brilliant Steel
Whew! I hope this past early morning hour spent building this article is not in vain, and it gets at least one reading!
Cazalea
Thank you for putting this together - I'm sure it was a marathon!
To your verbose post I have a succinct reply: Probably.
Thanks and to avoid bias I took out the "Too Many" in my title
But left the question in the post, so your answer is still probably correct ... it's amazing they can crank out all these watches.
It gives you a sense of HOW BIG Seiko and Grand Seiko are as companies.
Agree. They are MASSIVE.
I remember seeing a chart of Swiss watch makers and how many unites and dollar values they were selling. Seiko was, obviously, not part of it but it would have been so interesting to see how it stacks up versus Rolex.
Wow - that's a lot of new watches
Have they dropped an equal number, or is this more of them expanding their range and output.
Cheers
JML
Cheers
JML
Expanding!
I’m sure some drop off when inventory runs out, but I see some models in the catalog that have been in production for 20 years.
Cazalea
Cazalea
The platinum with the engraved cases...
...are so fantastic. I would love to see one in person...maybe next time I'm in Tokyo.
They just released 2 more today. Def diluting the brand
SBGA469 just released oct
Than today 2 more watch releases. Seems like 1-2 new releases a week.
Brand management may be a Western concept
The way Seiko is run is a case study of the word “inscrutable” and we can leave it at that.
BTW - these releases would normally be done at annual trade shows but that sort of venue is in jeopardy, so they’re metering them out to the world “a few at a time”.
BTW - these releases would normally be done at annual trade shows but that sort of venue is in jeopardy, so they’re metering them out to the world “a few at a time”.
Hugely appreciate the effort!!
I was actually looking to learn precisely what you have provided for us here Mike! Sincerely appreciated, Filip
66 in 2021, 61 in 2020
It's extremely surprising to me that nobody here seems to be aware of the work done by Anthony Kable over at Plus9Time, who has documented every single Grand Seiko (and Seiko) release for a number of years now. Not least because if you do a Google search for Grand Seiko 2021 releases (no quotes necessary), Google returns a featured snippet to his website at the very top of the search results.
Anthony also has a searchable database detailing every single Grand Seiko of the modern era.
2020 - 61 references released.
Seiko -
2021 - 408 references released. And yes, he documents them all.
I'll leave it there for now, but plenty more on his site.
Those two Kintaro Hattori watches are my favourite releases.
Eye candy from the dial to the caseback.
Hard to keep up with these releases.
I like the brand and particularly admire their dials. I purchased the skyflake last year because of the dial texture and color. I’m curious whether others like the new fat hour hand that does not go to a point (looks sort of cut off at the end). I still much prefer the older sword hand, but I’m wondering if I’m in the minority, because so many of the new releases have the fat hour hand.
Personally I don’t care for it
At least in photos. I haven’t worn a watch with those hands so I’ll have to suspend judgement until then.
Cazalea