Seiko

Seiko has been making watches since 1913, and to mark their 100th anniversary they have re-introduced a limited edition version of the first Grand Seiko — the Grand Seiko 44GS from 1967. Named after the caliber 4420 which originally powered this model, it was the first model produced by Daini Seikosha (whom the company is named after).

The limited edition timepiece, launched in Baselworld last week features a modern hand wound in-house caliber 9S64 movement. The 8-beat caliber (28,800 vph) (+5 to -3 seconds day) has 24 jewels with a 72-hour power reserve. Magnetic resistance is 4,800 A/m. Water resistance is 30 meters.

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Seiko has announced two new watches with fired porcelain enamel dials that pay homage to the first Seiko wristwatch. These special Seiko Presage 100th Anniversary Enamel Dial watches will be released in January in two variations: time/date (shown above, right) and power reserve (shown above, left) — in a limited production of 500 each.

The Presage power reserve version (ref. SARW005) comes in a classic 40.5 mm by 13.3 mm stainless steel case with a curved sapphire crystal and an screw-on exhibition case back. It is powered by Seiko caliber 6R27 — an automatic mechanical movement with a hand winding function, 29 jewels, antimagnetic protection, a seconds hack function and a 45-hour power reserve. The dial is fired porcelain-enamel with painted Roman numeral hour markers, central hour, minute and second hands, power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock and date at 6 o’clock.

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Originally introduced at Baselworld 2012, the Seiko Astron GPS Solar is an unprecedented solar powered quartz GPS watch. It features automatic GPS calibration of hours, minutes and seconds, including automatic and manual time zone adjustment, across all time zones (and with regards to Daylight Savings time); it also has a perpetual calendar function, correct to February 2100.

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Introduced at Baselworld 2012, the Seiko SNDD61 Chronograph features a black IP treated stainless steel case, Japenese powered quartz chronograph, Hardlex crystal, screw down caseback, a urethane strap and 100 meter water-resistance. It will be available in August for a retail of $300.

These are the new Seiko Astron GPS Solar watches. Based around a quartz movement, the Astron GPS is capable of automatically syncing with four or more GPS satellites daily (as opposed to atomic watches which sync with the atomic signal.) The timezone automatically changes when traveling between different timezones. It can also be synced manually.

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The Seiko Orange Monster is one of the most popular, and affordable Seiko timepieces. It comes with a Japanese automatic movement for the price of a typical Japanese quartz timepiece. Needless to say, the value proposition is amazing.

The Seiko Baby Monster (pictured, right), is maybe an even better value. It has most of the features that have made the original Orange Monster (pictured, left) so popular, for approximately one hundred dollars less.

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For the 50th anniversary of Grand Seiko six models have been created, including automatic, quartz and Spring Drive powered models. The one (shown above) is the most accurate of these new mechanical Grand Seiko timepieces. It runs at -2/+4 seconds per day, which is slightly better than the Swiss standard for chronometers (COSC certified-chronometer's rate should be between -4/+6 per day).

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