From an enthusiast and collector perspective, these are significant watches in several respects. The only hand-wound Grand Seiko Spring Drive watches heretofore have been the 8-Day models and of course hand-wound Spring Drive movements have generally been found, in recent years, only in very high end Credor models like the Sonnerie, Minute Repeater, and Eichi I and II models. That the 9R02 offers the same immaculate hand-finishing which until now, could be found in a hand-wound Spring Drive movement only in the 8-Day Grand Seiko and Credor models, opens up the potential to use this and other high-end Spring Drive movements more widely at the top of the Grand Seiko collection as well. And, for most Grand Seiko clients, the really exciting development is caliber 9R31. A sub-$10,000 hand-wound Grand Seiko Spring Drive has been on my personal wish list for many, many years; the new model is a limited edition of 700 pieces but I can think of literally dozens of things, without breaking a sweat, that I’d love to see Grand Seiko do around this one.
Introducing The Grand Seiko 20th Anniversary Of Spring Drive (Live Pics & Pricing)
