Grand Seiko Sport Collection Spring Drive SBGA481 “Tokyo Lion” - Legacy Perfected, A Review (plus Video)

 

I am keen on the Grand Seiko Tentagraph Tokyo Lion Chronograph SLGC009. However, the price for the timepiece is beyond my financial capacity.

 

At a Grand Seiko event a few weeks ago, I was able to express my interest to get a few of their models into the collection. Luck has it that it was heard and I was offered two watches for a special price. What makes the deal sweet is that both watches have two elements that are missing in the collection: The Tokyo Lion watch design and the brand's mechanical manual winding movement. 

 

The Tokyo Lion in question is the Sport Collection Spring Drive SBGA481 which will be the watch being reviewed in this report.

 

There are three styles of Tokyo Lion currently available for fans using the Spring Drive series of movements. There is a chronograph version, a GMT version and the standard 3-hand version. I did not have a free choice but the option that was given to me, the standard 3-hand version is good enough for a start.   

  

Grand Seiko Sport Collection Spring Drive Air Diver SBGA229G - A Handsome Watch and Due to its Flexibility, Proves it Value Beyond Doubt, A Review (plus Video)

Out of the blue, my dealer sent me a short message that he got allocated one unit of the Grand Seiko Sports Collection Spring Drive Diver SBGA229G (let’s just called it SBGA229 for short). I have been looking at something similar for some time now. The original model I was interested in was the SBGA029. That model was first launched in the market in 2008.

The SBGA229 is essentially similar to the SBGA029. In 2017, Seiko decided to make Grand Seiko an independent brand. Hence, before 2017, the model was called the SBGA029 where the generic ‘Seiko’ tag was still prominent, sharing space with the ‘Grand Seiko’ tag on the dial. From 2017 onwards, only the tag ‘Grand Seiko’ is provided thus the change in reference to the SBGA229. 

I quickly took delivery as I heard from the grapevine that Grand Seiko has stopped production for this particular model (can anyone confirm?).

The Series

For the longest time since the Grand Seiko brand was reintroduced back in 1998, the only dive watches under this brand were the SBGA029 and the SBGA031. The former is made out of stainless steel while the latter is made out of titanium. Only after the rebranding exercise in 2017, Grand Seiko decided to introduce a few other dive watches to expand the range. Even so, the original pair continued to be produced under new designations (replacing the digit ‘0’ with ‘2’). Major differences between the two models are the material (stainless steel versus titanium), weight (201 gm versus 137 gm) and price (RM24,300 versus RM27,900).

Seiko’s Grand Seiko SBGA011 Spring Drive “Snowflake” – The epitome of a classic dress watch, A Review (and Videos)

My love affair with Seiko’s top-end line, Grand Seiko continues. This time I was able to grab a classic Grand Seiko, the “Snowflake” with the reference SBGA011. Like a lot of my watch purchases, it was not planned. I happened to drop in one of my favorite shop to ask about something else when my trusted salesperson informed me a consignment of two Snowflakes to his shop. Within 24 hours I decided to get one.


All Grand Seikos are made at the Shinshu Watch Studio and located in the city of Shiojiri, neighboring Suwa and Lake Suwa in a mountainous region of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. This location is almost the center of the country where the weather is slightly different from the typical coastal areas of Japan. Here, the humidity level is lower which causes winter snow fall to be very light and airy. This allows the wind to sculpt the snow into beautiful patterns not seen elsewhere in Japan.

In recognition of the locality that supported the studio’s operations, the designers and artisans of the Shinshu Watch Studio decided to create a dial which resembled this light snow fall pattern. Hence, the SBGA011 Grand Seiko Snowflake was born. It uses a unique 6 step process to replicate the snowfall in the dial. While the most complex dial in the Grand Seiko line takes 12 steps to complete, this Snowflake still counts as one of the most intricate dials in the family. Moreover, using titanium to make it as light as a snowflake, and blue accents to contribute a cold feel reinforces the Snowflake theme.