No brand translates landscape and weather onto a watch dial quite like Grand Seiko, and for anyone drawn to that language, they’re hard to look past. The new SLGB006 Ice Forest at Dawn, unveiled at Watches & Wonders 2026 and limited to 80 pieces globally, is the latest proof: 18ct yellow gold wrapped around a dial inspired by dawn in the larch forests of the Kirigamine Highlands, all driven by the brand’s flagship Spring Drive U.F.A. calibre.
At first glance the name doesn’t quite fit what you’re looking at. An ice forest at dawn suggests something pale and cool, but the dial is jet black scattered with gold. Spend a moment with it and the logic falls into place. Grand Seiko’s press images show a subtle lattice of crisscrossing diagonals worked into the dial – a pressed pattern depicting the ice-coated branches of the larch trees the watch is named for, their straight, upward-reaching limbs giving the forest its distinctive geometry. Scattered across that gradient black surface are tiny gold specks, meant to evoke sun pillars – the columns of refracted light you get at dawn when low winter sun catches ice crystals suspended in the air.
In the metal, under Palexpo’s low booth lighting, only half of that story really comes through – and our own rushed hands-on shots don’t capture it either. This is a watch to see outside, in the natural light it was inspired by.
The case is 37mm across, 44.3mm lug-to-lug and 11.4mm thick, Evolution 9 Style throughout, with the distortion-free Zaratsu finishing Grand Seiko are rightly obsessed with. Flip it over and the 9RB2 U.F.A. calibre sits beneath a sapphire caseback, its bridge given a frosted finish to match the winter theme – understated next to haute horlogerie rivals, but the numbers are what matter: ±20 seconds per year from a mainspring-driven watch, 72-hour power reserve and 10 bar of water resistance. Still the most accurate mainspring-powered movement in the world, and by some distance.
At £38,700, the 80-piece run will clear through the Grand Seiko Boutiques ahead of the June release with little effort. A serious statement piece, certainly, but one drawn from the humblest of inspirations.
Price and Specs:
More details at Grand Seiko Boutique.
