Grand Seiko's NEW SUPER-HERO

Durable, robust, accurate and innovative – the Grand Seiko High-Beat Caliber 9SA5 is a new superhero, built to overtake world leaders Rolex and Omega, and win over the hearts of watch fans. We took a close look at this magic bullet.

- Jens Koch

GRAND SEIKO The first Grand Seiko was introduced in 1960. Since that time, the brand’s engineers have been striving to get ever closer to the optimum: accuracy, reliability, legibility and aesthetics are their most important cornerstones. Accuracy was increased early on thanks to innovative Japanese technology: with high-beat, quartz movements and the revolutionary “Spring Drive” system (quartz-controlled mechanics). Unnecessary functions are nowhere to be found. It appears that Grand Seiko only sees second time zones and chronographs as practical. For many years, these watches were restricted to the Japanese market alone, but starting in 2010 they have become more widely available and Grand Seiko itself has been an independent brand since 2017.

Are you familiar with Tetsuwan Atomu? This young robot, also known as Astro Boy, originated as a manga of the same name in 1952 (and later aired as an animated television series). He was created by scientists and given superpowers to defend the world from evil robots and extraterrestrials. He is one of Japan’s most famous superheroes. Caliber 9SA5 is also a tiny machine with special capabilities, developed by Japanese designers. Of course, these are not superpowers per se, but the designers at Grand Seiko wanted to produce the best possible movement and started from scratch to create a new and innovative escapement.