Engraved in Time: The Grand Seiko Spring Drive Platinum

When owners and leaders at the very top of the Swiss watchmaking Alps talk to you about something, you tend to pay attention. When some pretty strong brands a little further down the mountainside express concern over the strength, or rather, increasing strength, of that same brand, you pay even more attention.

This is where Grand Seiko is right now in the watchmaking world, and this particular watch shows how it brings together very different passions, skills, and strengths in a way nobody else does. What is most striking about this new watch is the level of finish on the entire piece, from the case to the bezel to the dial itself.

The full name of the watch is the Grand Seiko Masterpiece Collection Hand-Engraved Manual-Winding Spring Drive Limited EditionLimited EditionA product produced in deliberately restricted numbers, often numbered, signed, and distinguished by special materials or design. Limited editions create scarcity, urgency, and desirability, and they are common across watches,Go to Limited Edition Glossary, reference number SBGZ011. We just call it the new engraved manual Spring Drive Platinum.

It’s a fully engraved piece meant to bring to mind a particular waterfall near where the craftsmen at the Micro Artist Studio work. The Tateshina Waterfall is in the middle of a primeval forest in Shinshu, a name well known to those looking for the best and, increasingly, the rarest of timepieces. Everything is hand-engraved, and all the lines run in different and multiple directions, but they come together to create a relatively seamless flow of falls and splashes. This is extremely hard, especially because the different components are produced separately and have to match up. It is even harder when you realize that they are doing all of this on platinum, which is notoriously hard to cut cleanly and crisply and is denser and has a higher melting point than other precious metals. It dulls the hand-cutting tools pretty quickly, too. Even the lettering and minute markers are carved into the dial, creating a very strong feeling of both depth and dimension.

The other really interesting thing here is the movement. It is extremely different from anything else on the global market and took quite a while to be accepted, but is now something many newer and younger collectors and enthusiasts are looking for. Grand Seiko chose its thinnest Spring Drive movement, Calibre 9R02. Spring Drive movements are kind of hybrids in the sense that they use electronic means to even out, as precisely as possible, the flow of power that moves toward the very smoothly sweeping seconds hand that is so enchanting to all those new buyers. But make no mistake, this is not powered by electricity. It is still a watch powered by a wound mainspring, or in this case, two mainsprings set in parallel within a single barrel.

In other words, this is basically pulling power from the same system that all mechanical watches use, which, in the case of an automatic, would be the swinging rotorRotorThe weighted, semicircular metal piece in an automatic watch that spins freely with the wrist's movement to wind the watch's mainspring. Rotors are often beautifully decorated with engravings or madeGo to Rotor Glossary you would see at the back. You don’t see a swinging rotor because this is a manual-wind watch, which, more than anything else, is a statement, if not a shot across the bow to other watchmakers, if you would ever think the Japanese would be so unsubtle as to make a shot across the bow.

So what they are heralding in this watch is several things: the abilities and passions of their watchmakers and designers, the work of their engineers, and the technical craft of those who produce these movements. If you look at the back of the watch, you will see a relatively clean but very well-finished set of bridges that can be customized as the owner wishes because there won’t be a lot of them. You will also see an open-cut barrel, in the shape of the symbol of Shiojiri, the bellflower, that shows you that, yes, this is a mechanically and manually wound piece.

And for those who are particularly technical, you will note that the watch has an 84-hour power reserve with what looks like a normal single-barrel system. That is accomplished because it has both a very special torque return system and two actual springs within that barrel.

This is one of those watches that, when they show it, they kind of just show people because they like to share what they love. There will only be 50 pieces made, and it will only be available in select Grand Seiko boutiques. Most of the time, though, these watches will be sold by a phone call. And I guarantee you that some of those phone calls have come from the offices in Geneva.

This article originally appeared in Robb Report Philippines’ Watches and Jewelry Issue.