Post pics of your watches ***Please NO QUOTING PHOTOS***

Grand Seiko SBGX063 this morning. This is a great size (37mm, punches above its weight). It's a real all rounder. Classic gents 3 handed sports watch.

This has a quartz movement rated +- 10 seconds per year (mine is well within that). The 9F calibre is sealed in a cabin within the case, so the battery can still easily be changed but without opening up the movement to dust/contamination. This should mean that the service interval for lubrication is measured in decades. Battery changes are about every 3 years (mine has had 2 since I bought it just over 6 years ago) and battery changes can be done by any watchmaker who you trust to reseal the back of the watch properly (it's rated for 150 metres water resistance). The battery itself is 'standard'.

Another feature of the movement is it's 'anti-backlash' and auto-adjust mechanism, which works so that the second hand hits the indices perfectly, all of them (which it does), and the 'tick' is incredible solid i.e. no vibration in the second hand.

If you look at the watch ticking in super slow-mo you can see that it there are actually 2 distinct movements of the second hand. This design allowed them to use the motor to drive full-sized Grand Seiko hands as opposed to the light weight or modified hands often required where quartz is employed. The SBGX and similar 9F Grand Seiko quartzes are 'real' Grand Seikos in every respect, using the same amazing dials, indices, hands etc and with the level of finish which you would expect from a Grand Seiko.

Finally in terms of interesting points, the date change happens in 1/2000th of a second.

I usually wear it on the bracelet but it also looks great on a black croco strap, and the lugs are drilled for easy strap changes.



Edit: Thanks Wibbs for embedding my MM300 pic I think I've worked it out now.

njburke wrote: »

@ecoli3136
Very nice SBGX063, how do you find the size ?
Is the build and finish quality as good as what we read ?

I've been looking for and bid on a few sbgx083, which is a slightly sportier model with crown guards and a red tipped second hand.
I can't seem to find 40mm diameter 9F grand seiko at around the same money as the sbgx061 and sbgx063.

Niall

Hi Niall.


I really like the size. I have average trending towards largish wrists. I suppose I should say that 42mm is my upper limit, and that would be for a diver, maybe a chrono. As a general rule I look for 36mm - 38mm in anything I would see as a dressy watch. I do have a GS SBGA211 which at 41mm was really pushing my limit but for that I made an exception.



The build and finish quality is everything you would expect from Grand Seiko. I've held mine beside a spring drive model with the champagne dial and there was no difference in the dials. I think there might have been an additional bevelled edge on the indices of the spring drive but I didn't have a loup with me to check. The hands, finishing to the date window were the same. The spring drives and autos generally have slightly more elaborate links in the bracelet (5 piece construction vs 3 piece). The clasps are the same (in fairness the clasps on GS are just 'grand' - well made, but simple and no micro-adjust). The polish and other elements of the finish are the same quality as on the more expensive movements.



I'm based in Dublin city centre. If you (or anyone else considering a purchase) ever want to see one in person pop me a line for a coffee or a pint. I appreciate that these are hard enough to come by in the flesh. While I'm now done buying watches I'm all in for facilitating someone else acquisitions!