An Evolution 9 Style dress watch was made possible thanks to a hand-winding movement

The Evolution 9 Collection has pursued a style that was new to the Grand Seiko. Making this possible were the 9S and 9R A-series movements with their brand-new architecture. Along with mechanisms that realize unprecedented high performance, the novel design given to each of these movements made possible thinner watches. The novelty was the idea of dispersing rather than stacking the movement parts.

The basic design of the manual-winding SLGW002/003 resembles the automatic Caliber 9SA5. The development team, headed by Kohei Egashira, say they never intended to make a movement simply by removing the automatic winding mechanism. “Today’s Grand Seiko has come to occupy a much higher stage than before. That’s why we wanted to make the manual-winding movement something quite different from the Caliber 9SA5.”

The conclusion reached by the development team was a dress watch. As Egashira explains, “We had never been able to verbalize the idea of a dress watch in the Grand Seiko line. So we decided to have another go at classifying the design.”

The new manual-winding models in the Evolution 9 Collection have been designed as thin dress watches that emphasize the feel of hand winding. By adopting a manual-winding movement, with no oscillating mass for winding, the same outstanding performance as Caliber 9SA5 can be achieved but in a thinner case.

The resulting SLGW002/003 case has a diameter of 38.6mm and a thickness of just 9.95mm. Considering that the Caliber 9SA4 movement it houses is 31.0mm in diameter and 4.15mm thick, that is a remarkable feat. Naturally, the low center of gravity, wide strap, and other features giving the Evolution 9 Collection its superior wearing comfort have been carried over in the new models.

Making a dress watch while maintaining Grand Seiko’s character necessitated a total rethinking. As Egashira explained, “Relaxing the various standards demanded of Grand Seiko was not an option. For this project, we were determined to push the envelope within the scope of the standards.”

No matter which collection, the Grand Seiko requirements are constant. The watch must be durable, accurate, and have excellent legibility. What’s more, the design is modeled after the Evolution 9 Style, which evolved from the Grand Seiko Style that was defined by the legendary 44GS. Incorporating the sporty Evolution 9 Style, including the case with overall hairline-finished surfaces, was a requirement that largely diverges from the dress watch concept. The development team dealt with this issue by coming up with the notion, “Wear it and stand tall. A dress watch for courageous moments” (Egashira). In other words, more than being just another dress watch, it was to be a new kind of dress watch suited to everyday use.

To realize this, the case design was entirely rethought. First was the case back. To make the case thinner, a screw-down rather than a screw-in mechanism is used for the case back, which achieves water resistance to 3 bar like the Elegance Collection. Benefiting from the thin case are the short lugs. The slimmer profile made it possible to reduce the lug curvature, resulting in a watch with a shorter overall length. The total lug-to-lug length of the SLGW002/003 is just 45mm. That would be equivalent to a diameter of around 35mm for a watch from a previous era.

In making the diameter smaller, the ring around the dial has been eliminated and the minute markers are instead applied directly on the dial. The reason for retaining the seconds hand and minute markers, not normally found on a dress watch, is for legibility. The slender indexes and hour hand, however, give a sophisticated look suitable for a dress watch.

Another change from the Grand Seiko watches up to now is the case structure of the SLGW002/003. With most watches, the movement is enclosed in a movement holder (spacer), which is then fastened to the case. This is done for ease of maintenance. With the SLGW002/003, however, a deliberate choice was made to attach the movement directly to the case, without a holder. While this makes parts maintenance more difficult, priority was given to keeping the case diameter as small as possible. In addition, the clearance between the movement and case back was kept to the absolute minimum.

The size changes extended also to the watch glass. The gap between the hands and watch glass is an even tighter fit than with the SLGH005. This narrow clearance creates a tension befitting a dress watch. Ordinarily, reducing the clearance makes the movement more susceptible to shock. That is why a thin dress watch is said not to be suitable for everyday use. With this watch, however, Egashira says there has been no relaxing of the shock-resistance standard.

While remaining true to the Grand Seiko qualities, the SLGW002/003 have been restyled as dress watches for everyday use. Moreover, some of the original touches found in the Evolution 9 Collection have been further emphasized in the new watch series. One of these is the dial, the design of which is not based on a white birch forest, but on the bark of a white birch tree. Since a pattern made up of small hairlines alone would look mechanical, a jagged, organic shape is used to produce a dynamic design and strong three-dimensional effect, but only to the extent that legibility is not diminished.

The balance between the hairline and mirror-finished surfaces was also completely rethought. After trying out various approaches, such as giving it a different finish than the existing model SLGH005, or making the case entirely of mirror surfaces, the team settled on a design that subtly accentuates the mirror surfaces, as befits a dress watch. For the sake of balance with the mirror surfaces, the hairline patterns were given a different design from the existing one.

The case material is also unique. The SLGW003 is not made of standard stainless steel, but Grand Seiko’s original Brilliant Hard Titanium. Besides its outstanding lightness and corrosion resistance, it has a dense material composition, so that a mirror surface like that of stainless steel can be obtained by polishing.

While more expensive, it was adopted based on the judgment that it best suited a new-generation dress watch. In contrast, emphasizing the hefty side of a dress watch is the SLGW002 with its 18K rose gold case. Creating totally different personalities even with the same appearance is also something that had never before been tried in a dress watch.

The masterful movement and the winding feel of the hand-wound SLGW002/003 watches stand out in particular. What is truly noteworthy about this watch series, however, is the ingenuity that went into the packaging, staying faithful to Grand Seiko norms while creating a next-generation dress watch.