Seiko Ananta: Uniquely compelling on several different grounds

Seiko mastered technical know-how-s long back and henceforth went after improvisations and improvements. On its way, they left behind technological marvels, excelled to perfection, one after another. However, Seiko’s best collections often stayed unknown to the rest of the world, at least initially. The best were often reserved almost solely for the domestic market.

From a watch-lover’s POV, this is an unpardonable sin. So Seiko finally ended the years of torment by amending rules. And Seiko’s high-end offering: the Ananta collection went global right from day one.

Fans around the world rejoiced on its in-house Spring-Drive automatic movement. It has been agreed that it’s one of Seiko’s mechanical marvels. This hybrid technology uses quartz-regulation to maintain accuracy while a totally mechanical movement does the rest. The movement features an automatic rotor and a mainspring (to generate and store mechanical power) just like any conventional mechanical watch; also a timekeeping train but the mechanical escapement (with oscillating balance-wheel) is replaced with its quartz version. This is the Glide Wheel (Seiko named it; a wheel spinning continuously) and it generates electrical current to power a quartz oscillator IC chip to measure the speed at which Glide Wheel is spinning. It then applies a magnetic braking-force and limits it to 8 times a second. This is how it keeps time. The vertical clutch drives the chronograph complication.

The rest of the watch is a gleaming flair of Seiko characteristics revved up incredibly. The entire package is a level of quality only a few expect and fewer give. That’s alone enough to make Ananta something thoroughly unique.

Ananta owes the Seiko design team entirely for its masterfully crafted appearance. It is their inherent familiarity with visual comfort that made them go after Ananta. Borrowing from the Japanese Katana sword, Anantas are a standard in cutting edge reliability and precision. It’s the bold, masculine yet refined nature that evolved from Seiko’s sports-watches history, evident in all the five models. But personally speaking, nothing beats the Spring Drive Chronograph (the flagship model) running on the caliber 5R86 Spring Drive movement. Vintage Seiko watches alike, this is also expected to work for decades with very little to nil maintenance. Seiko’s engineers are serious in their efforts and in-house components are best put together in an in-house facility. In this case, it’s Japan.

If you fancy exotic items like blade-polish or diamond-polish then the Ananta is very much for you. It has a beautiful presence and extensive functionalities. That’s a 12-hour chronograph, a second-time zone (with GMT hand), date and a power-reserve. There’s also a subsidiary seconds dial, but any new high-end watch is supposed to have that. What they do not have always is a time-setting work that allows the hour and minute hands to be set separately for Daylight Savings Time or to change into a different time zone.

But then again, even if you are unable to read any underlying appeal in a watch, you’ll love its heft and bulk. At almost half-a-pound, it will always remind you of its presence and all the grandeur its carrying.