Seiko aimed for perfection right from the beginning and finally defined the parameters of what a timepiece should be, in its truest sense. They did it without going over the common man’s budget; without putting a hefty procurement cost to it. The Grand Seiko – even its most basic models – receive the same attention on the accuracy and precision grounds. With a GS, there’s no infatuation; either you love it forever or you don’t!
It goes without saying its Seiko’s quest for higher beats that introduced the GS, but all that Seiko basically wanted is building thebest basic watch in the world. That shows it is meant to do its primary job without failing a tad bit, so all the fascination with higher beats, accuracy, reliability and the good looks fit into place on their own. Seen individually, just any good brand can deliver it; together, the Seiko charm can’t be replicated.
It’s all the more Seiko’s idea of sticking to the traditional skills and values at the core while laying over it the technical filigree layer by layer. Materials, components and their manufacturing – the hi-beat calibers like the Caliber 9S85 and 36000 today stand as epitome in the hi-beat Grand Seiko history. 41 years is a long time, but there’s no short cut to great masterpieces.
Now, some of you may pose the question: “Why high beat? Does a 4 or 5 second jump or lag really matters that much?” While for professionals a second’s difference might mean life or death, to most of us habituated to urban life it’s not, but then again, being precise and perfect is a mindset. Hi-beat just caters to that. That aside, a high beat caliber resists shocks better, has a stronger torque and all that within very durable, supportive structures, right from the first high-beat 61GS (auto) and 45GS (manual) to the 10-beat 9S85.
To know other factors that put GS into high regards, read on:
- Mainspring: SEIKO makes its own springs out of patented alloys for the GS and aided by the Metal Material Laboratory (Tohoku University). So the 10-beat caliber delivers a 50% higher torque than any standard 8-beat movement and stores 55-hours worth of power.
- Balance spring: It’s the beating heart of a mechanical movement and this too is made from patented alloy material. It has a higher resistance against any kind of impact, including magnetic power. Accuracy with stability and durability.
If that gets you interested in GS and you want to get introduced to automatic mechanical watches through GS only, then look for the SBGR family to start with. They are no-complications watches and just tells the date, the time aside.
