Steal Vs. Splurge: GMTs from Seiko and Grand Seiko

Short of bursting into the Seiko offices and interrogating the design team, there’s no way to know for absolute certain that this year’s new Sharp Edged GMTs were inspired by Grand Seiko’s newly downsized Spring Drive GMTs. But they sure look like it. Here, we scrutinize the tiny differences in these colorful models – and help decide which one’s right for you. Steal The Watch: Seiko Presage Sharp Edged GMT (available June 2021) Why It’s Cool: This angular watch has a way with light. It’s marked by alternating polished and matte surfaces, which reflect light brilliantly and enhance the dimensionality of the cases and bracelets. The same principle applies to the dials, which come with hands and indexes that effortlessly play with light. The reflections considerably enhance the watch's overall legibility, and provide a pleasing visual contrast to the patterned dial surface, which Seiko says recalls a hemp-leaf pattern seen in designs dating to the Japanese Heian period. The Sharp Edged GMT comes in a handful of color combinations that bring to mind Grand Seiko GMT classics old and new. Among these is a brown dial and bezel paired with a gold/salmon GMT hand – to my eye, this one resembles a USA Eagle limited-edition version of the Spring Drive GMT made especially for the newly launched Grand Seiko GS 9 club here in the United States. When shopping for GMT watches, particularly those at more accessible price points, it’s important to consider movement functionality. Whether the local hour hand can be set easily and independently in one-hour jumps can make quite a bit of difference to how you can and will use the watch. In the world of GMTs, there are so-called callers and true travelers (or flyers), and traditionally the latter have been more expensive. The modern Rolex GMT-Master II is probably the best known example of a flyer. Tudor, through Kenissi, makes a one, too. And ETA has the C07.661 for certain Swatch Group flyers from the likes of Mido. Grand Seiko GMTs like my own beloved SBGM221 tick the box. The Seiko 6R64 caliber, which debuted in 2018, does as well. Just jump the conventional short hour hand to show the time wherever in the world you happen to be at any given moment, and the date disc moves in unison. As for the GMT hand, it stays put during such resets, and the seconds hand doesn't miss a beat. One potentially polarizing aspect of this design is the sub-dial used for the date; when I first glanced at it, I assumed it was a small seconds display. Why It’s Affordable: It’s no Spring Drive, from either a technological or aesthetic standpoint. With the Spring Drive watches we'll be looking at in a moment, you get a very nicely finished movement that operates on a proprietary technology that no company outside of the Seiko family has. Moreover, with the Sharp Edged GMT, the bezel is steel with ion plating. In the Grand Seiko watches we'll see later, they're colorful ceramic. There is lots of value here. Seiko makes the light-reflecting hands and indexes using a process that is similar to that employed by Grand Seiko. Molded and pressed to form their shape, they're then sharply faceted with a diamond-cut technique. However, the way that technique is applied is different from Grand Seiko – for example, the number of faceted sides on the indexes. Splurge The Watch: Grand Seiko Sport Spring Drive refs. SBGE253, SBGE255, SBGE257 Why It’s Cool: The GMT is something of a Grand Seiko specialty. It's the complication that can be found across the company's main movement types, from the Spring Drive models you see here to Hi-Beat automatics to conventional automatics and even a selection of quartz-powered watches. The bummer, for those of us not built like sumo wrestlers, has been the 44mm size. Now, at last, GS has repackaged the Spring Drive Sport GMT in a much more wearable 40.5mm diameter that changes the wearability equation entirely. You also get a Spring Drive watch, which delivers accuracy comparable to traditional quartz while preserving the sweep hand and mainspring power of a mechanical watch. It’s a movement that appeals to even the most fastidious horology nerds. On top of all that, the attention to detail on the dial is simply extraordinary. GS diamond-polishes the hands and indexes to a very high level, elevating the look without losing the GMT’s inherent sportiness. Jack told me that he has seen the polisher at the Grand Seiko Suwa factory individually inspect indexes using a small hand mirror. Why It’s Expensive: In these three Spring Drive models from Grand Seiko, we have ceramic bezels in different colors as well as cases and bracelets with Grand Seiko's much-touted Zaratsu polishing. And the Spring Drive movement is a piece of technology that is, generally speaking, reserved only for higher end products in the Seiko family. Finally, Grand Seiko is a luxury brand. It may seem obvious, but it does bear mentioning because many watch collectors have tended to view it as a hidden gem for enthusiasts. The secret is more or less out at this point, and the company's upmarket push in recent years has been hard to miss. When a brand opens its flagship boutique in Paris' Place Vendome in the old Fred space, making neighbors with the likes of Breguet and A. Lange & Sohne, as Grand Seiko did early last year, it's fully arrived. How To Decide The decision here largely depends on how much you value the level of execution in the dial craftsmanship, movement manufacturing, and finishing. Grand Seiko receives heaps of praise from all corners of the watch world for the singular quality of its dials, for its Zaratsu polished cases and bracelets, for its use of a movement tech – Spring Drive – that elegantly splits the difference between quartz precision and high-end mechanical watchmaking. It’s not just watchmaking; it’s fine watchmaking. If you’re walking around with one of these, you’ll receive nods of approval from other cognoscenti, and will carry the satisfaction of supporting true Japanese craftsmanship. Do you care about any of that? Then buy the Grand Seiko. //document.querySelector('.grand-seiko-vs-seiko').parentElement.classList.add('block--fullbleed'); If you don’t, the truth is that the core Seiko gets you the look for less. Way less. At the end of the day, to buy the Seiko Sharp Edged GMT, you mainly need to care about the way the finished product looks on your arm. To buy the Grand Seiko, you have to care about the rigor that got it there. Where to Buy Them The Grand Seiko models are currently available from the HODINKEE Shop. The Seiko Presage Sharp Edged GMTs are expected to become available at retail in June.They look basically the same. So should you spend almost five grand more for the GS?