Grand Seiko Elegance SBGY035 Hokata Peaks

Quick specs Grand Seiko Elegance SBGY035 Hokata Peaks
Price: $ 8,500 | € 9.200 | £ 7,750 | approx. CHF 9’000
Size: 38.5 mm
Reference: SBGY035 – limited to 700 pieces

Another Elegance model dedicated the mountains around Seiko, the Grand Seiko Elegance SBGY035 Hokata Peaks. Also celebrating 20 years of the spring drive movement. The model shows strong similarities with the recent Grand Seiko Elegance SBGA499 Hokata Peaks however, this new one costs more and is hand-wound.

The dial is also inspired by the morning glow of the Hotaka Peaks near to the Grand Seiko studios. Liek most new Grand Seiko dials have something to do with the surroundings of their locations. Here it shows a red dawn that is translated into this dark red gradation dial. The applied hours markers are silver colored, and so are the Dauphine-style hour and minute hands. The second hand is rose gold colored together with the Grand Seiko logo. All a classic composition.

The Grand Seiko Elegance SBGY035 Hokata Peaks has a power reserve of 72 hours

The movement of the Grand Seiko Elegance SBGY035 Hokata Peaks is the Grand Seiko caliber 9R31. A so called spring drive caliber which means it’s a kind of hybrid between a mechanical watch and some quartz components. No battery, hand-wound here, with a power reserve of about 72 hours and an accuracy of +/- 1 second per day.

A tri-synchro regulator controls the powers coming from the two barrels in order to control the speed of the glide wheel (comparable with an escape wheel but without tik-tok sound) to obtain a very high accuracy. The case back is transparent and shows a power reserve indicator. Read our article about the Grand Seiko Heritage SBGA507 and SBGA509 to get some more insights about these spring drive movements.

This SBGY035 comes on a Bordeaux crocodile leather strap with three-fold clasp and the models is limited to 700 pieces. Perhaps that’s the reason why it’s more expensive than the aforementioned SBGA499 that is limited to 1,300 pieces…