It’s been a big year for Grand Seiko. Not only did they finally overhaul their dive watch collection with, amongst other things, 300m water resistance, but they also reprised their all-over case engraving with the Majestic Waterfall. Both sit at very different ends of the Japanese brand’s horological spectrum and both are stunning.
At the same time, neither is going to be the first watch that springs to mind when you hear the name Grand Seiko. That’s because the Elegance collection does what Grand Seiko does best: finish-forward cases, Spring Drive movements and incredible dials. Both are on full display in the new SBGY043 Iwao Blue.
‘Iwao’ translates to rock and that’s precisely what has inspired the new dial here. If you look closely, you can see the various crags and outcrops lifted from natural rock formations, though from afar the effect is a bit more abstract. To me it looks more like a cloud of dark ink diffusing in water. I imagine a lighter colour would show the craggy texture a bit more, but there’s a reason for the deep blue here.
The specific shade here is ‘Katsu-Iro’, a name taken from a distinctive indigo dye that dates back to the 15th century Sengoku period – the time of famous samurai daimyo Oda Nobunaga. He would have been well aware of the dye as it was a favourite amongst the Samurai for their armour.
Textile history aside, it’s a gorgeously deep and dark blue, enough that you need direct light to actually prove that it is blue rather than a tapestry of greys. It’s the kind of subtlety of execution that Grand Seiko excel at; to see what sets it apart you really need to look. Even the hands maintain a low profile in silver rather than the bright, thermally blued steel that we’re more used to. The ‘Katsu-Iro’ shade is dark enough that blue steel still would have worked, but the silver is just that much cleaner and more readable.
This isn’t the first time Grand Seiko have used this dial of course. Back in 2021, they launched it into the Heritage collection for a boutique-only edition. It was one that I honestly put out of my mind until the return of the look, largely because I found the dial-side power reserve and date window to ruin the aesthetic. I want uninterrupted rock face – which the SBGY043 delivers with recognisable restraint.
The same aesthetic restraint informs the 38.5mm case with its typically superb polishing and the Elegance collection’s slightly more rounded silhouette. The lugs are shorter than most, meaning it wears slightly smaller than you might expect. Paired with a 10.2mm thickness – slim but not exactly ultra-slim – and you have an eminently wearable watch for smaller wrists but one that might feel a little too diminutive on larger.
That slimness comes from the fact that the movement here is a manual-wind spring drive calibre, specifically the 9R31. This, almost as much as their dials, is why collectors love Grand Seiko. The Spring Drive is essentially the bastard lovechild of mechanical and quartz movements, using the energy source of the first – a mainspring – to power the innate accuracy of the second. To put that in numbers, the 9R31 loses no more than a second a day – and at 72 hours of power reserve, that’s a well-timed weekend.
Unless you want to swap it onto another strap yourself – onto, say, Grand Seiko’s own new inky blue, Japanese-printed straps – the only option is the 9-link steel bracelet. I actually love this bracelet. It drapes nicely on the wrist but still feels like a proper, solid bracelet. For contrast, Cartier’s new Santos-Dumont bracelet goes the other way to the point where it feels like mesh held together by bars. 9 links is much more understated.
The SBGY043 might be the most Grand Seiko of watches. From afar it’s a simple, refined, everyday watch. Up close – and behind the scenes – it’s a painstakingly realised mix of almost excessively perfect finishing, dial mastery and Japanese movement technology.
At £8,700, it’s also great value. Again though, if a non-watch collector were to look at a steel watch with a nice but subtle dial, that might seem like a substantial amount. Reasons like that are why Grand Seiko is still arguably the ultimate collectors’ brand (at least in the realms of affordability for most people). The excellence is there, you just need to know what you’re looking at.
Price and Specs:
More details at Grand Seiko Boutique.
I really wanted a blue dial GS, And I was looking at the 375, I wanted something with texture. I saw the SBGA469 on the online boutique and thought That’s the watch for me! It has the same dial as this watch.
Imagine my disappointment when it arrived and the watch is basically a black dial with no texture in anything less than intense direct light.
I get the whole Grand Seiko dial backstory BS and this being the color of samurai, but they really should make an effort to make the blue visible in regular light. I absolutely love it. On the rare occasion, a light hits it in just the right way and you can see the beautiful blue texture, but those times are few and far between.