Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition

Quick specs Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition
Price: $ 13,400 | € 14.000 | £ 12,000 | CHF 14’000
Size: 44.5 mm
Reference: SBGC275 – limited to 700 pieces

The Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition celebrates the use of the mechanical quartz-sauced movement of the brand. This now 20 year old 9R caliber is available in many variants, and is renewed for its hybrid techniques, combining a mechanical automatic with a touch of quartz.

In short it works like this: instead of using an escapement mechanism and a balance wheel to regulate energy from the mainspring, it uses a glide wheel. This glide wheel is regulated by an electronic speed control mechanism that has a tri-synchro regulator. Which is a quartz crystal, an electromagnetic brake, and a rotor. And because of this electronic regulation, no battery or whatsoever is involved, and it has a deviation of about 10 seconds per month. Also, these movements don’t tick, but “glide”.

Rising sun on the dial

The dial color reflects the pink to orange colors when the sun rises at the Hotaka mountain range in the Shinshu region of central Japan. It is where all Grand Seiko Spring Drive watches are made, and somehow, they love those sunrise (and sunset) colors very much. As the recently released Grand Seiko Heritage SBGA507 and SBGA509 also refers to that topic. Well, Japan is the land of the rising sun, so it’s not a complete surprise.

When you move the 44.5-millimeter titanium Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R under a light, the dial color changes from light orange to red. Every view angle brings its own hue. For this the dial has an optical multilayer coating using a physical vapor deposition process. Which means that layers of nanoscale film are applied to the base plate creating special effects that change color depending on the angle of view and the light that falls on it.

In the dark, even under water, possible up to 20 bar, the hour and minute hands, plus the hour markers glow green. The GMT hand and the hours on the bezel glow blue.

The Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition has a power reserve of 72 hours

The movement of this Grand Seiko Sport SBGC275 Caliber 9R 20th Anniversary Limited Edition is the Grand Seiko caliber 9R96 with a power reserve of 72 hours. Even when the column-wheel chronograph that can time up to 1/5^th of a second is running.

This 9R96 is an improved version of the Grand Seiko caliber 9R86 that is accurate to +/-15 seconds a month. As said, this 9R96 does +/-10 seconds a month. Apart from a column wheel chronograph, it also sports a GMT function with a 24-hour hand correlating with the rotatable bezel. There are small seconds at the 3 o’clock position, and a 30-minute and 12-hour totalizer on the 2 and 4 o’clock position. In between them is a date window, and at 7 there is a power reserve indicator.

Gold lion medal

The automatic winding rotor is adorned with an 18K gold medal depicting a lion. Which is the symbol of Grand Seiko since their first watches in the 1960s. And with some fantasy you can see a lion’s head if you look at the shape of the case.

This new SBGC275 comes on a titanium bracelet with three-fold clasp with push-button release, secure lock, and extender. And the model is limited to 700 pieces only.