Periodically Grand Seiko like to explore a new theme or concept. It’s nothing so concrete as having an overarching theme that every single launch in a given period of time relates to. It’s more the case that a handful of watch releases spread over a few months will tend to have similar motifs or ideas, such as the original Snowflake series or the Birch designs. Recently, that concept has been ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’, based on the red glow of sunrise as seen from the top of a mountain. It’s a series that started with the GMT released in February and now followed up by the ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ 9R Manual-winding Spring Drive and Sunray 9R Spring Drive.
Grand Seiko ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ 9R Manual-winding Spring Drive SBGY035
First up, and my personal favourite of the two new watches, is the 9R Manual-winding Spring Drive SBGY035. It’s a very svelte watch with a diameter of 38.5mm and a thickness of 10.2mm, leaning into the popularity of vintage proportions in the current zeitgeist. The design of the case is beautifully restrained with understated, flowing lines across the smooth bezel and round shape. It’s a design found in Grand Seiko’s elegance collection, which makes sense.
It’s also in the Elegance collection where you can find other examples of the pinched, wedge-shaped hour markers present on the SBGY035. They have a very distinctive shape with high sides and a chisel-like tip. In fact, there are only five other references across the whole of Grand Seiko’s current range that share this design, all of which also happen to house manual-winding calibres.
Focussing in on the dial, it has a rich red colour with a fumé gradient around the peripheral edges. The texture, which has seemingly random patches of engraved lines tessellating together erratically, comes from the Iwao series of watches like the Katsu-Iro, a group of Grand Seikos inspired by the textures of rocks. It makes a lot of sense for the ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ because it conjures images of the red glow of the sun against the mountain side.
Beneath the dial, which only has central hours, minutes and seconds, is the 9R31 manual Spring Drive movement. Spring Drive movements, if you’re unfamiliar, use traditional mainsprings to power a quartz style regulator, giving you the feel of a traditional mechanical watch when you wind it but the accuracy and reliability of quartz, hence the +/- 1 second per day deviation. The flipside is rather than a year-long battery life, the 9R31 has a 72-hour power reserve.
Grand Seiko ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ 9R Manual-winding Spring Drive SBGY035 is priced at £7,550 and will be available in the UK from November.
Price and Specs:
Grand Seiko ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ Sunray 9R Spring Drive SBGA499
The Grand Seiko ‘Morning Glow of Hotaka Peaks’ Sunray 9R Spring Drive SBGA499 follows the same concept as its manual-winding counterpart with a few notable differences: it’s larger with a diameter of 40.2mm in steel and the movement inside its case is automatic. Specifically, it houses the 9R65, a much more common Spring Drive movement – although it has the same specs as the 9R31 in terms of power reserve and accuracy.
The design of the SBGA499’s dial is both more and less complex than the SBGY035. It features a simple sunray brushed finish, giving it a cleaner, linear pattern that is common across all styles of watch design. However, at the same time, it has more complications present in its display thanks to a date window at 3 o’clock and a power reserve indicator between 7 and 8 o’clock. The wedge of the indicator is a peach tone, like the first sliver of the sun seen over the horizon. That or a nectarine with a bite taken out of it.
To me, the SBGA499 lacks a little bit of Grand Seiko magic due the absence of an intricate texture on the dial. Although that’s definitely being a tad unfair on my end as there are plenty of Grand Seikos that are just different colours of the same archetype watch and they always prove the be popular. Plus, at £5,400 it’s a really solid entry level piece from the Japanese brand.
Price and Specs:
More details at Grand Seiko Boutique.
