DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles
The subject of our focus today is the first professional diver’s watch to carry the Grand Seiko brand name, the SBGH257. Earlier Grand Seiko Diver’s watches are primarily aimed at recreational divers, and have been quite a success. With this new release, in titanium and a hi-beat movement, it is one of the launch products to celebrate the independence of Grand Seiko as a brand. We take a deep look.
We covered the coming out of Grand Seiko as a brand-name on its own standing apart from being a collection within the Seiko umbrella earlier this year as part of our Baselworld articles. Several watches carried the launch flag, among them the rather fabulous re-creation and modern interpretation of the first Grand Seikos as seen in the SGBW251, the SBGW252, the SBGW253 and also the SBGW305. A Black Ceramic collection with the Spring Drive Chronograph was also at the launch package. We will cover this in a detailed review soon. And for this article, a in-depth (pun intended) review of the Hi-Beat Diver.
Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 Professional 600m Diver’s SBGH257
The Grand Seiko Hi-Beat 36000 Professional 600m Diver’s Limited Edition SBGH257.
We begin a brief discussion on Seiko and dive watches. Seiko’s affiliation with diving began with the 62MAS, which we discussed in detail together with a review of the 2017 re-creation (the SLA017) here. In that review, we explored the origins of the Seiko 62MAS (autoMAtic Selfdater) which was first ever diver’s watch from Seiko, and was introduced in 1965. It was designed for reliability and legibility under harsh conditions and was used by the Japanese Antarctic Research Expedition from 1966 to 1969. The watch’s significance is far from just meeting the stringent standards set by the Expedition, but it was hugely popular in the leisure diving community and even with a wider public and set Seiko on the path of being the supremo in diving watches. And from there stemmed a whole universe of Seiko diver watches, ranging from the inexpensive and unpretentious like the Seiko PADI SRPA21, to the top of the line watch we have on our hands now.
The SBGH257 and its unlimited brother the SBGH255 (not reviewed) are the very first two watches to bear the Grand Seiko nomenclature, to signify superior workmanship and finishing.
The case, dial and hands
The Grand Seiko Hi-Beat Diver is housed in a massive titanium case, measuring some 46.9mm in diameter and 17.0mm in height. This is a huge case, even by the standards of most dive watches, which tend to be a bit larger than the norm.
The case is a massive 46.9mm diameter and a height of 17mm. Made in what Grand Seiko calls high-intensity titanium with their signature Zaratsu polishing.
The dial is a study of legibility. The markers are huge with a large surface for the luminous material. The hands are also very large and clear. The seconds hand is long, slender and marked with a lollipop as a counter balance which increases legibility. The dial is made of iron, and unusual material for a watch dial, but is […]
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Article from: DEPLOYANT – Luxury watch reviews & horological lifestyles, by Peter Chong
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