Introducing The Seiko Astron Giugiaro Design Limited Edition

As you might expect, this is a big boy: 46.3mm x 13.3mm (slim for an Astron, first-gen models were around 17mm thick). It’s got the GPS world-time functionality that’s the basis of the Astron series; it’s solar powered of course, and it has a chronograph function as well. The case is titanium, with Seiko’s highly scratch-and-ding resistant “super-hard black coating” and the bracelet is titanium as well, with the same treatment. On top is a sapphire crystal with Seiko’s “super-clear” coating (basically an antireflective coating that does away with the bluish cast you often get with AR-coated watch crystals) and water resistance is 10 bar/100 meters, with 4,800 A/m magnetic resistance.

There are several sides to Seiko’s character – a lot of people love the classical side, as most clearly expressed in Grand Seiko; but there’s another aspect as well, which has a kind of neon, adrenaline-fueled, Shinjuku-on-a-Saturday-night intensity to it. How you react to that side of Seiko depends a lot on how much you like high energy clashes of design cues, and it probably doesn’t hurt if you spent part of your life overexposed to animé; if Grand Seiko is classic David Lean, watches like the Astron Giugiaro Design Limited Edition are pure Ghost In The Shell.