Grand Seiko always points to nature and their surroundings as an important part of their inspiration in creating the pieces that go on to inspire watch enthusiasts and collectors both new and old.
I think though that that is a little bit under-explaining things.
To me, after having spent so much time with their engineers and designers and collectors and friends, there is a little more depth.
Their inspiration is more about moments. About the moments that inspire them. About how these moments when they are surrounded or immersed or moved by nature make them feel.
I say this because, when I asked their designers and engineers in Tokyo and at the Shinshu Watch Studio and Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi why their watches feel so different from watches in other countries while still keeping up to or surpassing standards of technical excellence and finishing and such, they did not show me or tell me what they felt.
They immersed me.
Their examples were being surrounded by trees, for example, or of being so close to the trees that you see the pattern of bark. They speak of colors of nature from a particular time of year, and of how that color has seeped into their daily lives for generations in ways you do not really realize until they point it out.
Take, for example, the SLGA021, the most recent Lake Suwa inspired watch. Lake Suwa is in Nagano Prefecture and it touches two different types of areas that provide traditional onsens or hot springs. Both areas have many accommodations with a traditional atmosphere, all allowing different people to spend their quiet time by the water’s edge.
It is this water of Lake Suwa, at a particular time of day, that has provided inspiration for the dial of the SLGA021. The watchmakers and designers say it draws from a time just before dawn, when light is not really hitting the surface yet but the breeze is starting to pick up a bit. So you see the starting of waves, you hear the lapping of the water, as you walk along the shore to greet the day.
The watch dial is a deep dark blue, so what you see on someone else’s wrist is somewhat black at first, but then you may catch its texture, which is like the undulations of the waves.
Up close though, on your own wrist, you really get the up and down feel of the flow, when your own hand moves a bit and light catches the subtle ridges and shapes on the watch dial. So it looks elegant and subtle from afar, enchanting as you get closer.
That is why I feel Grand Seiko watches are very much about the moments and the feelings you have at these special times. They convey not only the location, season, and time of day but also offers the perspective of viewing the water up close versus from a distance. These watches are designed to resonate with you in the same way that locations, seasons, and times of day inspire the watchmakers.
Lake Suwa is about a twenty to thirty minute drive from the Shinshu Watch Studio in Shiojiri city in Nagano Prefecture. This is where the Spring Drives watches are born and where the Micro Artist Studio is as well. So you have this amazing combination of highly technical, highly accurate expertise combining with those that do their best to bring forth the most amazing of arts and crafts and to keep them alive and growing for the next generations. When you drive or ride to work, when you take a walk before your day starts, when you bring the family out to relax, all that is what surrounds those that create these pieces, and what they in turn try to bring out to share with others.
The watch uses the Caliber 9RA2 Spring Drive movement, which has a high accuracy and an extremely smooth hand motion so the silver color seconds hand flows smoothly over what you now cannot help but think of as water surface. The Caliber 9RA2 uses the power of the two mainsprings like mechanical watches to run pulses through quartz to create unmatchable consistency and precision (plus or minus ten seconds a month). This allows, by the way, more efficient use of power, which in turn allows the use of long slender hands. Looking at the back, you will see the skeletonized rotor that allows a better view of the finishing of the watch. The power reserve indication is also on the back, which I very much appreciate as opposed to having it on the dial side. Fully wound, it gives a duration of five days at maximum.
The Spring Drive system takes some explaining sometimes. It was born of the desire for more accuracy and more of an “everlasting” movement, so it combines the accuracy of using crystal as an oscillator but a mechanical movement (The Caliber 9RA2 has two different-sized barrels to better use space) as the power source. This has challenges because the system can be susceptible to temperature change so another system is in place to take temperature data (they say 540 times a day) and compensate for that. These new more modern systems have a beauty and design all their own, but the whole movement is treated as every Grand Seiko would be, wonderfully. The design of the movement draws from what the watchmakers see outside once again, which is the gentle frost that covers the trees in the early winter and the starry sky visible from between their branches. Finishing details like edges and bridges bring out a little evening twinkle.
What I find most interesting about Grand Seiko is often what they, with the quietness of the Japanese character, do not really talk about. You can look at their watches in photos or on screen or in real life and they will draw you in, most definitely. But whenever you have a chance, talk to them, communicate with them. More often than not, there is a story of personal passion and emotion that will help you to better understand where they are really coming from. It is funny, they are so involved in what they see and what they create and how they feel. They want to actually tell people how special things really are and why.
I guess that is why we are here.
Words by Carl Cunanan. Carl Cunanan is Editor In Chief and a founder of C! Magazine and Calibre Magazine.
