The Grand Seiko Spring Drive
Grand Seiko SBGD201 / Credit: FratelloWatches
Honestly, I still don’t have a definitive answer to give you guys apart from ‘Spring Drive’. In my never-ending research into vintage Grand Seiko it is a question that constantly comes up, keeping me from sleep while I try to perfect my watch collection wish list. If it is quartz, is that okay? Do I want quartz in my collection at all?
Well I definitely want a Grand Seiko Spring Drive, and I guess that’s the point. The Spring Drive is a true piece of horological innovation, and in my opinion nor mechanical nor quartz. It is essentially a fully mechanical watch with a quartz regulator…does that make it mecha-quartz? I don’t think so. Comparatively there’s the Piaget 700P, released in 2016, that features a similar quartz-regulated movement, although their technology is more like Spring Drive-lite, closer to Seiko Kinetic…expect for the $70 000 price tag.
The Grand Seiko Spring Drive was conceived in 1977 by Yoshikazu Akahane at Suwa Seikosha (now Seiko Epson). It took 230 patents and 10 years of development to make the technology commercially viable. The movement was first presented at Baselworld 1998 and was released to the public in 1999 inside a limited edition Credor. The first Spring Drive was the 7R68 which featured 30 jewels and the date function. Today we find ourselves at the 9R series of Spring Drive movements, the latest of which is hosted in the Seiko SBGD201, which finally features the power reserve indicator in a more discrete location: the display caseback. Another notable feature is that the latest iteration of Grand Seikos is the first to eliminate ‘Seiko’ from the 12 o’clock position on the dial and replace it with Grand Seiko, you could say its one of the most beautiful Grand Seiko examples to date.
So back to the question at hand, what is the Grand Seiko Spring Drive? Well I qualify it as the future of watchmaking, a combination of traditional mechanical techniques and advanced modern technology. The result of which is an incredibly accurate, perfect grab and go piece for the contemporary city-dweller…despite the ‘generous’ case diameters…