Some people get a little sniffy when you mention Seiko in the same breath as Swiss made watches, but the Grand Seiko collection not only competes with the best standards from Switzerland, it has actually been proven to exceed them.

The platinum Grand Seiko has been created to mark the 50th anniversary of the brand’s flagship luxury collection, Grand Seiko. In fact Seiko is going to release six models to mark the 50th anniversary of the Grand Seiko collection, and the platinum version will be limited to just 30 pieces with a retail price of $25,800 per piece.

Launched in 1960

The Grand Seiko was first developed in 1960. Prior to 1960 it was widely held that Swiss watches were the highest quality and Japanese watches were thought to be inferior, however the boys at Seiko obviously hadn’t read the script because they believed they were capable of producing watches of the same quality as the Swiss.
In fact, the bold ambition was to go one better and create the best ‘basic watch’ in the world; a watch of the highest design purity, supremely accurate, reliable and legible without superfluous design. What this means is that while you won’t find a Grand Seiko with 21 complications and more dials and buttons than there are days in the week, you will find that each watch is designed to attain not only the highest standards Seiko has ever achieved, but higher standards than all international chronometer tests.

Spring Drive movement

Many of the Grand Seiko watches including the platinum edition, incorporate their unique Spring Drive movement. This movement took 27 years, and over 600 prototypes to deliver. The project began in 1977 and was finally brought to market in 2004. Spring Drive’s winding system delivers a power reserve of 72 hours and allows the spring to be fully wound with just half the energy of previous systems.

The Grand Seiko has been available to Japanese customers all these past 50 years, but 2010 marks the first international launch for this their high end watch.