The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
The fastest and most secure way to protect the watches you love.
We've minimized the paperwork and maximized protection, so you can stop worrying about your watches and focus on enjoying them.
In most cases, you'll get a personalized quote in seconds and your policy kicks in immediately.
Wherever you are on planet Earth, your watches are protected. Rest easy and travel safely.
If you suffer a covered loss, there's no deductible and no gimmicks. Ever.
Each of your watches is covered up to 150% of the insured value (up to the total value of the policy).
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The SBGZ007 Limited Edition is a fully engraved platinum showstopper honoring Seiko's 140th Anniversary.
An immaculately finished dial is Grand Seiko's calling card. But even within a lineup famous for bright, shiny interfaces, there are levels. I love my entry-level SBGM221, but when I gaze into its creamy dial and note its diamond-polished hour and minute hands and heat-blued GMT hand, I have no illusions that it's all GS can do. At the very top, representing the ne plus ultra of Japanese watchmaking craftsmanship, you'll find pieces like the one you see here, made at Grand Seiko's Micro Artist Studio.
Ever since Grand Seiko became its own independent marque in 2017, it's been on an upmarket trajectory, with more lavishly finished watches joining the ranks on a more frequent basis, including those from the Micro Artist Studio. The Studio means business and the devotion the team of ten-plus artisans brings to what they do is intense. Look no further than the small shrine to the Shinto deity of time, perched on a shelf above the craftspeople as they work, for evidence of this serious work. Today, we're introducing the latest of their masterpieces, the SBGZ007. Note that the watch we photographed for this article is a prototype.
With the SBGZ007, a fifty-piece limited edition created to mark the 140th anniversary of Seiko, the craftspeople of the Micro Artist Studio bring the same obsessive attention to detail associated with high-end Grand Seiko dials and movements and apply it to the case, engraving its Zaratsu-polished surfaces with an intricate pattern that invites repeated zooming on retina monitors.
Not that the dial of SBGZ007 is a slouch. It's made with the same complex, multi-step process we see in references SBGD201 with diamond-dust dial and SBGD202 with star-dust dial. The unique dial manufacturing and finishing technique involves stamping, plating, and painting to craft a complex dial that looks different depending on the viewing angle. The biggest difference between this execution and the two others mentioned is that SBGZ007's dial is in blue. This "star-dust" style of dial is meant to evoke distant stars over Achi, a mountain village known for its spectacular night skies. It does so with subtle beauty, a faint shimmer brimming in a depth of royal blue suffused with purple. The color of blue is somewhat lighter than what I'd label night or midnight blue, but it does nothing to detract from the beauty of the dial. The 14-karat white gold hands and indexes have all the high-polished brilliance you'd expect from Grand Seiko.
The SBGZ007 is a watch that makes an immediate impression when you have it in front of you. It cuts a slender figure, measuring 38.5mm in diameter by 9.8mm thick, thanks to the manually wound 9R02 Spring Drive movement. The 9R02 is an exceptionally finished, fairly thin caliber that makes the most of Grand Seiko's top level finishing. It also capitalizes on the energy loaded into its dual spring barrel, thanks to the torque return system, which uses surplus energy at the top of the wind to rewind the dual mainsprings and provide a power reserve of 84 hours. According to Seiko, when the watch has been fully wound, 30 percent of the energy output from the mainsprings would go to waste. This system captures and recycles that energy. An ornamental plate on the movement will, by default, come engraved with the words “Micro Artist," but if you want the 9R02 to say something else, Grand Seiko can accommodate.
The patterned case has an Italianate-grandeur, reminiscent of jewelry with a Florentine finish. Far from a model of discretion, it wants to be noticed, reflecting light with a resplendence not wholly unlike a pavé setting. This feature alone feels at once apart from and a part of Grand Seiko. For a brand that has such an instantly recognizable design, there is considerable range to what a Grand Seiko can be. I've met Grand Seiko collectors whose tastes run the gamut from those who flock to the most elaborate dials – the ones worthy of nicknames like Peacock, for example. And I've also met plenty who choose Grand Seiko for its ability to often bring a less-is-more, zen-like quality to watch design. This watch leans toward the latter.
The engraving on the case is done with the same tooling as was used for the SBGZ001 of 2019, but whereas that watch had a pattern with lines more or less all pointing in a single direction, here the pattern is more time-consuming to produce.
The Grand Seiko Masterpiece Collection Seiko 140th Anniversary Limited Edition SBGZ007
38.5mm x 9.8mm 950 platinum case with intricate engraved pattern. Manually wound cal.. 9R02 Spring Drive movement with power reserve of 84 hours and accuracy to +/- 15 seconds per month and dual-barrel torque-return system. Power reserve indicator (on back). Dual curved sapphire crystal with antireflective coating. See-through screw-case back. Water resistance to 3 bar. Crocodile strap with three-fold clasp with push-button release. Price: $79,000. For more information, visit Grand Seiko.
The HODINKEE Shop is an Authorized Retailer of Grand Seiko watches; explore our collection right here.
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