Research For My First Grand Seiko

One side effect of watching too many Youtube watch videos, is you can’t get Grand Seiko out of your head.

When I went to watch AD I always took a few minutes to look at Grand Seikos. But honestly they looked, kind of normal, or mundane.

Just like how they treat Tudor, Breitling or Tag Heuer, AD usually put an awful lot of Grand Seikos in a single cabinet. This really damages the beauty of dress watches like Grand Seiko. I think this is the main reason why I don’t like Grand Seikos in the store.

You need a lot of space to notice the tiny details of a dress watch. When you put so many “similar-looking” watches in a single window, they just look boring and insignificant. You don’t get the excitement. You are like shopping in Macy for some regular watches. There is no reason to spend thousands dollars on it.

Unfortuantely in the AD only Rolex got the real-estate for it to shine. Rolex probably made sure of it. The niche corner other brands got from these ADs actually do damage to their brands. But they probably have no better choice being in such a small but expensive market.

Good news is in the internet there is infinite real-estate. And Grand Seikos truly shines in that avenue.

So here we are again, giving yet another chance to Grand Seiko and looking to buy one potentially.

I am mainly looking for a classical dress watch that has a small footprint on wrist. I categorize my targets under the different reasons I got excited from them. Within each category I ranked from the most interested to the least interested.

Simple, elegant, and entry-level (cheap)

Model No.	Picture	Collection	Case size	Case height	MSRP	Notes
SBGW231		Elegance	37.3mm	11.6mm	$4300	Special cream dial. Kind of unique among all brands. However I am concerned this watch is just way too popular being on Youtube so much and so “cheap”.
SBGW301		Elegance	37.3mm	11.7mm	$4800	An updated version of the one above. I heard the dial color is slightly different. Good job on the price hike.
SBGW289		Heritage	36.5mm	11.6mm	$5400	Thinner than usual hands. Sakura dial. Limited. No see-through case back.
SBGW285		Elegance	37.3mm	11.7mm	$4800	Green. There are a few colors but this Green-dial one looks most interesting
SBGM221		Elegance	39.5mm	13.7mm	$4600	GMT. Automatic. Special cream dial. But it’s big and thick.
SBGW281		Elegance	37.3mm	11.7mm	$4800	Yellow seconds hand
SBGW297		Heritage	36.5mm	11.6mm	$5400	Radiating dial pattern. No see-through case back.

Looks like a King Seiko

Model No.	Picture	Collection	Case size	Case height	MSRP	Notes
SBGW305		Elegance	37.3mm	11.7mm	$5500	Silver dial.
SBGW291		Heritage	36.5mm	11.6mm	$5200	No see-through case back.

Not Grand Seiko. A King Seiko!

Model No.	Picture	Collection	Case size	Case height	MSRP	Notes
SPB279		King Seiko	37.0mm	12.1mm	$1700	Silver sunburst dial. 6R31 movement
SPB281		King Seiko	37.0mm	12.1mm	$1700	Silver vertical brushed dial. 6R31 movement
SPB369		King Seiko	39.0mm	11.9mm	$1800	Patterned cream dial. With date. 6R55 movement
SJE089		King Seiko	38.6mm	10.7mm	$3300	Silver sunburst dial. With date. 6L35 movement

Looks cool in picture

Model No.	Picture	Collection	Case size	Case height	MSRP	Notes
SBGA491		Heritage	40.0mm	12.5mm	$5600	Another gold on green? I must really love this color combination. Spring drive. US exclusive. There is another variant SBGA489 with a darker dial background.
SBGE295		Sport	44.0mm	14.7mm	$6200	Realistically I would never buy this one because it is so big and thick. But I have to say the color combination looks great.