Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 Watch Review
The Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 comprises four timepieces, two fitted with hi-beat movements and two with Spring Drive calibres. Consistent with other GS creations, these new models are inspired by nature and pay due reverence to Japanese culture. Mark McArthur-Christie examines the specification of each reference in detail.
Grand Seiko four seasons
Watches are – at the risk of stating the obvious – machines that tell the time. They’re functional, so imposing elements of whimsy on them almost never works. For example, start by trying to suggest that the pair of jewelled pivots on one of your movements is intended to represent the eyes of a frog looking at the moon. Then attempt to persuade us that your four new watches are designed around elements of the seasons. Bluntly, people will laugh at you. Unless you’re Grand Seiko.
So why does it work for Grand Seiko when anyone else would be accused of purveying more cheese than a Parisian market? It may be because, when you’re operating at such a superlative level of watchmaking, you can afford a bit of levity – the odd joke, even. That frog you can see in the Credor Eichi’s 7R08A movement raises a smile, but the quality of the movement itself raises your eyebrows. The same goes for these four new GMTs from Grand Seiko.
The conceit here is that the Japanese division of seasons is much finer than our lumpy four-sizes-fit-all Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. The Japanese, as is so often the case, are far more concerned with precision and have 72 seasons or kō, that last just five (ish) days. This makes so much more sense. How often have you noticed the minute differences that a week makes in nature, perhaps with the spring leaves appearing just that little bit greener?
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – Hi-Beat or Spring Drive
Grand Seiko hasn’t, sadly, given us 72 new watches but four and these mirror four of the 24 major divisions of the year or sekki, that coincide with our seasons. These are Shunbun (Spring – SBGJ251), Shōsho (Summer – SBGJ249), Kanro (Autumn – SBGE271) and Tōji (Winter – SBGE269). The Shunbun and the Shōsho are powered by the Hi-Beat 36000 GMT cal. 9S86, while the Kanro and theTōji are equipped with the Spring Drive GMT cal. 9R66 movement.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – Shunbun
Grand Seiko states that the green-dialled Shunbun reflects the spring equinox with its sakura blossom and ‘promise of spring’. The grained, green dial of the Shunbun is picked up with the straight graining on the faces of the hour and minute hand. It gives you some idea of the care Grand Seiko has gone to when you see that the edges of each hand are mirror polished in contrast. The rose gold GMT hand takes the same brushed finish to tie everything together. Each hour marker has no less than nine surfaces, with the faces being – you guessed it – straight-grained with mirror-polished sides. Above each hour marker is the GMT hand’s 24-hour scale, with a steep-sided triangle standing between each marker.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – Shōsho
In contrast, the dial of the Shōsho has a silvered, angular wave pattern, intended to bring to mind the “delicate ripples in the many thousands of lakes and ponds that shimmer in the early summer sun throughout Japan.” The reflection-on-water theme is picked up by the hour and minute hands which are mirror finished on each edge. The GMT hand is blued, as are the hour markers – more water imagery. Despite the apparent lack of contrast between the dial and main hands, the Shōsho is a cinch to read at a glance, thanks to its different textures.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – Kanro
With the Kanro, which translates as ‘cold dew’, we switch from hi-beat movements to Spring Drive. Here, Grand Seiko draws a comparison with the second hand’s smooth movement saying it glides “…silently, like the moon across the night sky.” But the movement is far from the only difference. The textured brushing on the dial really does bring to mind a night sky in autumn, with its scudding clouds.
Where the Shunbun and Shōsho use open minute markers, the Kanro’s dial uses a closed minute track – it also loses the GMT hour markers for odd numbers, retaining them only for the even digits. The GMT hours match the long, pointed GMT hand in gold – also picked up by the dial’s gold ‘GMT’ designation just above six. Again, the brushed hour and minutes hands match the hour markers but with the addition of a power reserve indicator, highlighted in silver, keeping an eye on the Spring Drive movement.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – Tōji
Finally, the Tōji (winter solstice). Grand Seiko describes the stippled, silvered dial as having “…the texture and color of a winter landscape as the sun sinks lower in the sky.” The clean, cold theme is picked up with polished hands and hour markers, but lifted by the polished gold GMT hand. Again it features a closed minute track, but this time it is depicted in stark, winter black set against the dial.
Just look at the way GS has used typography. The Shunbun and Shōsho variants have the most text on their dials. They need to carry the GS logo, the words ‘Grand Seiko’, ‘automatic’, ‘hi-beat 36000’ and ‘GMT’ as well as numerals for each even GMT hour and the date. That’s a lot of lettering. It’s also, including the datewheel, in four different typefaces. The plot has the potential to be an absolutely hideous fontfest, yet somehow, because none of it is overstated, the whole thing just works together in a deceptively simple GS way.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – readability
The clarity of design extends to the cases which Grand Seiko has used for the four watches. They appear as simple as possible, until you spot the between contrasting directions of brushed (circular on the bezel face and rehaut and straight on the top lug faces) and polished surfaces. The Shunbun and Shōsho cases are fractionally smaller in diameter and minutely thicker than their Spring Drive relatives the Kanro and Tōji.
It’s good to see pierced lugs too, in case you fancy swapping one of the best bracelets in the business for the comfort of a leather strap. Please though, make sure whoever changes the bracelet tapes the lugs first – that finish is too good to scratch. And think of the poor craftsman who’d lose sleep having to make everything perfect again.
Grand Seiko Calibre 9S86 and Caliber 9R66
It’s splendid that GS has fitted exhibition casebacks as both movements deserve to be admired. The two hi-beat watches use the 37 jewel automatic cal. 9S86, with a balance running at 10 beats a second (36,000 vph). That should happily give you a daily rate of +5/–3 seconds. The two Spring Drives have the 30 jewel cal. 9R66, GS’s first Spring Drive movement that runs at ±1 second per day with a 72 hour power reserve.
Despite the focus on aesthetics, these four watches are designed to be worn. The Spring Drives are water resistant to 3 atm and the hi-beats to 10 atm.
Grand Seiko Elegance GMT 24 Seasons Collection 2021 – closing thoughts
Each watch has its own character of seasonal colour and design, neatly linked in with the way Grand Seiko has chosen the finish for each dial and each type of hand, marker and minute track. The whole thing really could have come off as over-whimsical if the design and watchmaking behind it wasn’t absolutely top-flight. Which rather brings us on to price – how much will one of these Four Seasons watches set you back?
The two hi-beat watches retail at £6,860 and the Spring Drives at £6140. To most normal people, that’s a heck of a lot of money for a watch, but we ‘watchies’ are, thankfully, far from normal. For watches of this quality with this level of finish and these movements, that’s got to be remarkable value.
Further reading
https://www.grandseikoboutique.uk/
Technical specifications
- Model: Grand Seiko Elegance GMT – ‘Shōsho‘
- Reference: SBGJ249
- Case: Stainless steel; diameter 39.5 mm; height 14.1 mm; water resistance 3 ATM (30 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; GMT hand; date
- Movement: Caliber 9S86; automatic movement; frequency 36,000 vph (5 Hz); 37 jewels; power reserve 55 hours.
- Strap: Stainless steel bracelet with three-fold clasp and push button release
- Price: £6,860 (RRP as of 17.4.2021)
- Model: Grand Seiko Elegance GMT – ‘Shunbun’
- Reference: SBGJ251
- Case: Stainless steel; diameter 39.5 mm; height 14.1 mm; water resistance 3 ATM (30 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; GMT hand; date
- Movement: Caliber 9S86; automatic movement; frequency 36,000 vph (5 Hz); 37 jewels; power reserve 55 hours.
- Strap: Stainless steel bracelet with three-fold clasp and push button release
- Price: £6,860 (RRP as of 17.4.2021)
- Model: Grand Seiko Elegance GMT – ‘Tōji‘
- Reference: SBGE269
- Case: Stainless steel; diameter 40.2 mm; height 14.0 mm; water resistance 10 ATM (100 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; GMT hand; date; power-reserve indicator
- Movement: Caliber 9S86; automatic movement; Spring Drive; 30 jewels; power reserve 72 hours.
- Strap: Stainless steel bracelet with three-fold clasp and push button release
- Price: £6,140 (RRP as of 17.4.2021)
- Model: Grand Seiko Elegance GMT – ‘Kanro’
- Reference: SBGJ271
- Case: Stainless steel; diameter 40.2 mm; height 14.0 mm; water resistance 10 ATM (100 metres); sapphire crystal to front; exhibition case back.
- Functions: hours; minutes; central sweep seconds; GMT hand; date
- Movement: Caliber 9S86; automatic movement; Spring Drive; 30 jewels; power reserve 72 hours.
- Strap: Stainless steel bracelet with three-fold clasp and push button release
- Price: £6,140 (RRP as of 17.4.2021)