Grand Seiko builds a lot of regional exclusives, and most of them are dial variations on a case you already know. The SBGA527 is one of those, a Honolulu boutique piece made with the American jeweller Ben Bridge, and it works for the usual Grand Seiko reason, which is the dial. Anthony DeMarco wrote it up for Forbes on 20 August, and Grand Seiko lists its collections at grand-seiko.com.
Made for two boutiques
The SBGA527 is sold only at the two Ben Bridge Grand Seiko boutiques in Honolulu, at the Ala Moana Center and on Kalakaua Avenue, and it is limited to 50 pieces. The idea behind the dial is a link between Shirarahama, a beach in Japan's Wakayama Prefecture, and the water off Waikiki, the kind of story Grand Seiko tends to attach to its nature dials. What matters on the wrist is the execution.
The dial
The dial is a textured deep blue, closer to the sea than the sky, worked with a fine grain that shifts with the light in the way Grand Seiko's better dials do. The hour markers are faceted and diamond-cut, the hands are the brand's usual sharp polished set, and the seconds hand is blued and sweeps in the continuous glide of the Spring Drive rather than a tick. A power reserve indicator sits at 8 and a date window at 3, with "Spring Drive" and "Japan 9R65" printed toward the bottom.
Titanium case and bracelet
The 40mm case and its integrated bracelet are made from Grand Seiko's High-Intensity Titanium, harder than standard titanium and lighter than steel, and finished with the distortion-free Zaratsu polishing that gives the flat surfaces their mirror quality. It is the same restrained sports-dress case Grand Seiko uses across the 9R Spring Drive line, so the watch that carries the special dial is a known and well-sorted one.
Spring Drive 9R65
The movement is the Spring Drive Calibre 9R65, the automatic version of the technology that regulates a mechanical mainspring with a quartz oscillator and an electromagnetic brake in place of an escapement. It holds a 72-hour reserve, is rated to one second a day or fifteen seconds a month, and drives the power reserve hand on the dial. Water resistance is 100m.
Price
At US$7,600 the SBGA527 sits where Grand Seiko's titanium Spring Drive watches usually sit, and the premium over a catalogue model is really the price of the dial and the fifty-piece run. You have to be in Honolulu to buy one, which is the point of a boutique exclusive, and it is a better reason to make the trip than most.
