Unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2022, the Grand Seiko Ushio Tide Planting season Drive SLGA015 redefines the actual practical dive watch featuring its strongly patterned black face, exquisitely polished case along with ultra-precise Spring Drive motion. Mark McArthur-Christie points out precisely why Grand Seiko tends to be " a bit obsessed" and then gives his thoughts on this exciting underwater timepiece.
Grand Seiko - a lttle bit obsessed
Describing Seiko as " a bit obsessed" is probably fair and a supplement. Other watchmakers might obtain a dial from here, a set of fingers there, a case from anywhere else, but Seiko does it most in-house. It will also be of an excellent00 standard. Even a basic Seiko watch will have a look in addition to quality that would be the coveted by of many other, more expensive suppliers. Then there's Grand Seiko. If Seiko is " a little obsessed, " GS is the kind of place exactly where every sugar crystal within the bowl on the staff canteen table is polished yourself.
Grand Seiko Shinshu Watch Studio
This isn't just nitpicking in the interest of being nitpicky, though. Typically the Grand Seiko Shinshu the making of watch studio alone needs to proceed the watchmaking awards they also have won. The Men's See Award at the Grand Tarifs grand public de la Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) 2021 goes to the particular Hi-Beat 36000 80 Time cal. 9SA5. However , typically the brand’s talents are not limited by creating mechanical movements pre-loaded with the brand’s double-pulse escapement. Instead, they extend for you to its unique Spring Drive movements, like the one you’ll find inside the Grand Seiko Evolution being unfaithful SLGA015.
Spring Drive - Ryoichi Akabane
To be fair, Seiko's attention to detail means Seiko doesn't rush anything. Watch manufactures cannot send anything in the world that is not nearly best. It took more than 20 years via Yoshikazu Akahane's initial conceiving of the Spring Drive activity to 1999, when it started to be the first model produced only in Japan. Since then, often the movement has gone through a number of manual-winding calibres and 20 automatic-winding calibres, until their current two calibres. Often the movement saw the light involving day.
planting season driven pulley
Very much has been written about the Spring Drive movement, so you can say that it is a mechanical/quartz mixture movement that combines the top of both methods of keeping time. You get the " soul" of a mechanical watch, which include its running gear educate (minus the balance wheel as well as escapement), but with the accuracy and reliability and reliability of a quartz watch. The escapement and also balance wheel are swapped out by a " pulley" in which powers the watch's secs hand and is regulated by simply an electromagnetic brake. You may identify the Spring Generate by the way the second hand will not tick or even stutter along the dial in tiny measures, it just slides. The closest thing comparison is what the mere seconds hand looked like on an aged tuning fork Accutron mobility.
9RA5 motion
In this case, the Grand Seiko Ushio Tide Spring Drive SLGA015 is power by a 38-jewel Spring Push 5 Days cal. 9RA5, self-winding movement. When entirely charged, it can provide you with plenty of power for 5 nights for continued use. Regarding accuracy, as you'd count on, the Spring Drive movements is very precise, with an fault of just 0. your five seconds per day. It’s fashionable nice-looking move. The watch dial has perlage, bevelling, high temperature blued screws, and the Fantastic Seiko name in orange.
ISO 6425 standard
Just see that black dial. Divers should be all boring older utilities, right? Not in cases like this. Grand Seiko tells us how the texture on the dial should certainly reflect “…the dynamic and quite often violent tides caused by the actual Kuroshio Current…” This is the Kuroshio Current, which flows upper through Japan toward the particular North Pacific. It is one of several largest ocean currents on the globe. Regardless of where Seiko got to complete from, it's an amazing a single. The dial is just as understandale as a regular black switch (still meets the ISO 6425 standard for ski watches), and it looks wonderful too.
Lustrous hands
The covered hour and minute palms are clearly visible versus it (as is the slick seconds hand with its lustrous lollipop base). That hr hand is almost a tall hand with three portions of lume. The minute side is the classic Seiko diver's flared arrow tip along with again has plenty of candeliere. All in all, it’s a great see face in terms of legibility, lucidity, and fun. The employed markup allows you to browse easily.
High durability titanium
Seiko is usually making the cases for this distinct series of watches out of the things they call “high-strength titanium. ” After some digging, apparently this is not a case finishing course of action, but refers to the composition on the metal alloy itself; ti, iron, and niobium. The actual watchmaker also says the combination is more scratch-resistant than steel, with a Vickers hardness size of 250-350 (stainless stainlesss steel is typically around 150-250). Probably luckily they decided to employ titanium instead of 316L considering that it's a chunky old event, nearly 44mm in height and about 14mm thick. Substantial weight savings - typically the metal they use is about a third lighter than stainless steel.
Grand Seiko Ushio Tide Spring Drive SLGA015 - Case Finishing
As you'd expect coming from a Grand Seiko, the polishing off of the case is done directly from the best drawer. There is usually some sort of brushed finish on the principal case and a polished finish about the faces that join the perimeters and top of the case. The particular bezel has ceramic completing and is one of the clearest in addition to smartest I've seen with a diver in a while, using arrow markings underneath every single number. Seiko did not overcoat the edges of the porcelain to allow the texture to show by way of next to the knurled border on the metal bezel area.
In fact , often the crown screws onto a new smooth positive thread which is protected by two solid guards that flare right out of the sides of the case. The bottom hat also screws down, as well as Seiko are pleased to admit the entire structure will be water resistant to a depth of 200m - far more than almost any one will ever need until they make a living sitting in the saturation diving chamber. Typically the mirror is sapphire very with anti-reflective coating.
Technical specifications
Model: Grand Seiko Ushio Tide Spring Drive SLGA015