I have some catching up to do....

[Boothroyd]

I have had peripheral interest and respect for Grand Seiko and only just found out that a local AD (Minneapolis) picked up the line this week. Had not delved into the brand as closest AD's were over 400 miles away, and wanted a local office for connection to their service network.

I look forward to reading the threads in this section to catch up.

Confusion reigns for me, however. Would the 36,000 High Beat be considered superior to the Spring Drive? Sorry to ask a Seiko "newbie" question, but would appreciate a commentary on reliability and accuracy of their various movements.

Apologize if I missed a previous thread on the topic.

Thanks!

[Old Expat Beast]

Welcome to the bright side

Seiko has been making 36,000bph movements since the 1960s, and was the second watch company (after GP) to do so. They're basically the same as your Rolex/Omega/etc 28,800bph movement but they beat at ten times per second instead of eight. They tend to be more accurate but also require more frequent servicing (potentially anyway).

Spring Drive is a whole other thing, and, very crudely put, is a kind of quartz mechanical hybrid. No other company makes them.

GS 9F quartz movements are also worth looking at.

This is a great place to start, for learning about movements and more: https://www.grand-seiko.com/us-en/ Just scroll down to the "Three Movements" bit.

[Boothroyd]

Thanks, Adam! Now I didn't realize that that High-Beats needed more frequent servicing. But the WIS in me thinks this is the movement to start with. I can feel a hole burning in my pocket.

[Locust]

Spring drive is more accurate

[bdex75]

Their spring drive is one of my favorite movements.


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[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by Boothroyd

Thanks, Adam! Now I didn't realize that that High-Beats needed more frequent servicing. But the WIS in me thinks this is the movement to start with. I can feel a hole burning in my pocket.

I don't know for sure if they still require more frequent servicing, but they certainly used to. The first Seiko Hi-Beat watch, the Lord Marvel 36000, came with a booklet that recommended service every 18 to 24 months, but that was back in the 60s.

There's a little bit of background and chat about Seiko Hi-Beat movements in this thread: https://www.rolexforums.com/showthread.php?t=585001

[Old Expat Beast]

This is worth watching as a quick GS primer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfhhxC1VHDA

[Lol-x]

Servicing every 18 to 24 months is comparatively a very short period compared to what we now see from Rolex being up to 10 years. Interesting, I must say.

Surely modern technology would have lengthened the service interval on modern 36,000 high beat movements produced today?

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by Lol-x

Servicing every 18 to 24 months is comparatively a very short period compared to what we now see from Rolex being up to 10 years. Interesting, I must say.

Surely modern technology would have lengthened the service interval on modern 36,000 high beat movements produced today?

Sure, no doubt. But it'll likely still be marginally shorter than a regular 28,800 movt I would think.

[Txkill]

Originally Posted by Boothroyd

I have had peripheral interest and respect for Grand Seiko and only just found out that a local AD picked up the line this week. Had not delved into the brand as closest AD's were over 400 miles away, and wanted a local office for connection their service network.

I look forward to reading the threads in this section to catch up.

Confusion reigns for me, however. Would the 36,000 High Beat be considered superior to the Spring Drive? Sorry to ask a Seiko "newbie" question, but would appreciate a commentary on reliability and accuracy of their various movements.

Apologize if I missed a previous thread on the topic.

Thanks!

Seeing them in person is whats going to sway you one way or the other. Handling them and seeing them in person was the thing that totally pushed me over the edge and made me put some money down. All of there models are pretty awesome. I own a Hi beat Gmt and love it. You can't go wrong with any of them.

[Boothroyd]

I look forward to investigating locally and my guess is I have a model by "spring"-time. Thanks for all the comments and links!

[imperio]

Subscribed!

[ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ{Adventure!)]

Spring Drive is hands-down a class in its own. A Quartz That requires absolutely no batteries thanks to its mechanical innovations.


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[pickettt]

Originally Posted by ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ{Adventure!)

Spring Drive is hands-down a class in its own. A Quartz That requires absolutely no batteries thanks to its mechanical innovations.


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I don’t consider Spring Drive to be a Quartz watch at all. The quartz crystal is used in an entirely different capacity than in a quartz watch.

[Old Expat Beast]

Then there's the Kinetics...

[ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ{Adventure!)]

Originally Posted by pickettt

I don’t consider Spring Drive to be a Quartz watch at all. The quartz crystal is used in an entirely different capacity than in a quartz watch.

A quartz crystal that doesn’t draw power from a battery but instead from a mainspring— innovation where the best of automatic movements are married to modern circuitry that supplement one another.

I agree you can definitely separate it from the conventional thought process of today’s quartz timepieces, but in turn that’s also what makes it such an epic conversation starter.






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[PJ S]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

...

Spring Drive is a whole other thing, and, very crudely put, is a kind of quartz mechanical hybrid. No other company makes them.

...

Apart from Piaget, that is (was?).
700P caliber fitted to the Emperador model, which retails (retailed?) for $68K, iirc.

[Star Ferry]

Originally Posted by Old Expat Beast

Then there's the Kinetics...

Does this imply that wearing a Seiko Kinetic will improve my luck with women?

[Dsmith1974]

Grand Seiko err on the side the caution - they understate the accuracy (by quite a bit) and have pessimistic service intervals.

What this means in practice is that your GS will be more accurate than advertised and require servicing no more often than an Omega or Rolex.

Whenever I've bought a GS from the boutique in London they've offered the first service free if taken within 5 years. So you won't need to pay for a service for at least ten years.

[the_natural]

Originally Posted by Dsmith1974

Grand Seiko err on the side the caution - they understate the accuracy (by quite a bit) and have pessimistic service intervals.

What this means in practice is that your GS will be more accurate than advertised and require servicing no more often than an Omega or Rolex.

Whenever I've bought a GS from the boutique in London they've offered the first service free if taken within 5 years. So you won't need to pay for a service for at least ten years.

This is really not helping me resist the SBGJ217 I fell hard for at the Paris boutique....

[pickettt]

Originally Posted by dsmith1974

grand seiko err on the side the caution - they understate the accuracy (by quite a bit) and have pessimistic service intervals.

What this means in practice is that your gs will be more accurate than advertised and require servicing no more often than an omega or rolex.

Whenever i've bought a gs from the boutique in london they've offered the first service free if taken within 5 years. So you won't need to pay for a service for at least ten years.

+1

[SPMN]

Thanks for the heads up that a dealer picked up GS in Minneapolis! I had no idea, and now know where I’ll be making a lunchtime stop this week.

[metalgear]

the spring-drive vs. mechanical movement questions makes its rounds periodically and i think it is going to come down to personal preference, so long as Seiko continues to support Spring drive parts for a long, long time.

the spring-drive movement to me clearly is innovation for mechanical watches done right. I am equally impressed with solar + GPS as the innovation for quartz, and long term i hope we start to see the watch industry start building and promoting across these 3 broad categories to increase interest and demand for watches.