Grand Seiko’s habit of creating one coloured, textured dial after another presents an eternal conundrum for its collectors—what if your ideal colourway is just around the corner? Case in point are these two releases from summer, featuring established references in the Sport Collection with new inspirations and new appearances.
As part of Grand Seiko’s Sport Collection, SBGA481 ‘Tokyo Lion’ (RM42,400) is hence a bigger, bolder wrist presence. Its titanium case is a formidable 44.5mm in diameter, and its facets are in an especially dramatic cut. The bracelet is titanium as well, and its lightweight characteristics helps with the wearability of a watch this size. Despite being a more challenging material to work with than steel, the watch still bears the brand’s customary mirror-like zaratsu polishing. Other sporting features are the luminous material on hands and markers, and 200m water resistance. Inside is the Spring Drive calibre 9R65, which features a date window and power reserve indicator for its 72 hours of maximum runtime, as well as the Spring Drive mechanism’s superlative precision of +/- 1 second per day. Its unique feature is the new, off-white dial that takes after the lion, a long-time Grand Seiko emblem.
SBGE295 ‘Mount Hotaka Peaks’ (RM25,600) instead opts for a verdant green for its dial, inspired by the Hotaka mountains that are the distant backdrop of Grand Seiko’s Shinshu Watch Studio in the Nagano prefecture. Briefly, during summer, the snow on its peaks melts and exposes the rugged, tree-covered terrain beneath. Although its case has the more conservative design of the pair, it is still a considerable proposition with a steel case measuring 44mm in diameter. It holds the Spring Drive GMT calibre 9R66, another well-established movement that also has a three-day power reserve with associated indicator. It is aided by a two-tone 24-hour bezel that allows the user to keep track of a third time zone.
