ReviewDouble The Drive: Presenting Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive 20th Anniversary Special Elegance Series

At the outset, I must admit that I’ve been a big fan of Grand Seiko for years. Hosted in Japan by Seiko more than a decade ago, I experienced the making of Spring Drive movements, the heart of several beautiful Grand Seiko watches today. This was when the Grand Seiko brand was marketed only in Japan. It’s only much later that it went global.

Spring Drive was first launched at Baselworld 1999, and on its 20th anniversary, Grand Seiko presents slim and classic watches, within the Elegance collection, fitted with this legendary movement. There are four watches in the series, powered by two new manual-winding Spring Drive calibres, featuring the glide motion seconds hand—a signature trait of the series, reflecting the unassuming flow of time. All four watches offer a precision of one second a day, and a significant power reserve, owing to the dual mainspring design of both calibres.

A Momentous Movement

The Spring Drive took the horological world by storm during its debut in 1999. The movement itself took 20 years of development and was based around the idea of creating a mechanical movement with the accuracy of a quartz watch. Grand Seiko did so by driving the potential energy of the mainspring to a quartz regulator, which in turn, accurately regulated the time. Just to give you some perspective on how accurate this system is, a COSC-certified mechanical watch is accurate to +/-5 seconds a day, which adds up to 15 minutes in six months. Meanwhile, a Spring Drive movement is certified up to an accuracy of +/- 1 second a day, which adds up to three minutes in six months, making it true to its vision of creating a mechanical watch with the accuracy of a quartz.

The Spring Drive took the horological world by storm during its debut in 1999. The movement itself took 20 years of development and was based around the idea of creating a mechanical movement with the accuracy of a quartz watch

The New Calibre 9R02

The calibre 9R02, which houses the two parallel mainsprings within a single barrel, features a unique Torque Return System that uses saved energy to deliver an enhanced power reserve of up to 84 hours. To explain the Torque Return System, Grand Seiko says this: ‘When the mainspring has been fully wound and the torque output is at its highest, approximately 30 percent of the available power is not needed to maintain the precision of the watch, and is in effect wasted in a normal movement. The Torque Return System uses this energy to rewind the mainspring, resulting in an increase in the power reserve. In calibre 9R02, this system is activated for 48 hours after the mainspring has been fully wound.’ In other words, the system harvests excess torque from the first part of the power reserve and returns it to the mainspring.

The calibre is derived from 7R14 movement of the Credor Eichi II. The balance power can be checked on the power reserve indicator seen on the caseback. The classic look of these watches is enhanced by the case thickness of merely 9.8mm, made of high-grade platinum 950. The hour and minute hands and hour markers are made of 14-karat white gold, befitting the anniversary celebration.

Snowflake Maximus

The variant that caught our eye, the SBGZ001, features an extravagant design that doesn’t limit the traditional snowflake pattern to the dial, but goes on to feature the same throughout its platinum case. The pattern itself is inspired by the beauty of snow in the Shinshu region, which is home to one of only two manufacturing facilities for Grand Seiko watches in Japan. The dial’s silver finish complements the delicate hand carving on the platinum case. The platinum watch can be personalised with an inscription on an 18-karat gold plaque on the lower bridge. This variant is limited to just 30 pieces.

The SBGZ001 features an extravagant design that doesn’t limit the traditional snowflake pattern to the dial, but goes on to feature the same throughout its platinum case

The pattern itself is inspired by the beauty of snow in the Shinshu region, which is home to one of only two manufacturing facilities for Grand Seiko watches in Japan

The dial’s silver finish complements the delicate hand carving on the platinum case

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There’s another variant, the SBGZ003, that’s part of the regular collection. This watch is essentially the same as its limited edition counterpart, but without the engraved decoration on the dial and case. The Spring Drive 20th anniversary watches are also available in yellow gold and steel versions, powered by the slightly different calibre 9R31.

The Spring Drive has a lot to celebrate on its 20th anniversary. While they could’ve released special editions with a few aesthetic changes, they chose to up their game and released a series comprising some truly remarkable watches and calibres. This is testament to Grand Seiko’s ethos and its passion for and commitment towards excellence in watchmaking.