Review: A Grand Seiko Recommended by the Wall Street Journal
Some collectors don’t think the Grand Seiko Spring Drive is a pure mechanical watch and stay away from it. To me, an engineer by training, the Spring Drive represents a fascinating tour de force in technology and craftsmanship that deserves more appreciation. The Grand Seiko Spring Drive GMT SBGE205 was released in 2017 and I purchased my piece from Chrono24 in 2018. I was very happy to read in the Wall Street Journal one year later a recommendation for the exact same model “for the discreet cubicle drone with tastes beyond Timex” (see a link below).
The basic idea of Spring Drive is to use a rotor to convert energy from body movements of the wearer to electricity which is used to power the quartz based electronic regulator. The result is a level of timing precision that no mechanical watches may match, and there is no battery needed. The error in timing is 15 seconds for a month, based on the specifications. My own measurement came out to +0.1 second per day measured over a period of time. One characteristic feature of a Spring Drive watch is a very smooth sweeping second hand, which is just unbelievable and mesmerizing. This is a perfect depiction of passing time at a constant speed without any minor pause. The incredible accuracy and the smooth sweeping hand are the reasons for my falling in love with the GS Spring Drive.
SBGE205 comes with 2 additional complications that I really enjoy, in addition to the date function. One is the GMT which may track a second time zone. A blue GMT hand is used to point to a time on a 24-hour ring with hour markers. When I travel internationally, the GMT hand would point to my home time. Another useful complication is the power reserve indicator. Some people say that once you experience a business class for a long haul flight, it is hard to go back to economy class. I would say that once you experience a power reserve indicator, it is hard to go back to a watch without one.
SBGE205 is an excellent timepiece with precision time keeping and elegant design. No wonder that WSJ would recommend it to its readers. If I have to mention a drawback, there is one, which is often associated with GMT watches rather specifically to this GS piece. As one crown push-out position has to be used for GMT hour adjustment, there is no control for quick date change. Therefore, one will need to turn the hour hand two circles in order to advance the date by one day. In the worse case, one would need to rotate 30 times. This is one reason to get a watch winder I guess.
Lastly, one useful tip to share is that the manufacturing date of a Grand Seiko watch is encoded in the serial number. For example, the serial number of my watch is 84N103, out of which the “84” indicates a manufacturing date of April 2018.
From “Your Watch Says More About Your Status Than You Think”, Wall Street Journal, Aug 27, 2019.