Colour Can Definitely Break a Watch, but Can It Make It?
A quick look into some bravely coloured, modern Japanese watches.
The Precursor
I’ve unintentionally put together a very colourful group of watches this week. There are four hard-to-find watches that I’ve never featured before, along with one classic that I’ve written about previously. For your convenience, I’ve placed the “repeated” watch at the end of the newsletter.
Let me know if you have any other suggestions about the newsletter - your feedback would be immensely helpful! Either leave a comment below, or email me or contact me via Instagram.
Seiko SBCG003 Kinetic - Limited Edition (300)
Released in 2004 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the first Japanese Chronograph. When Tokyo hosted the Olympics in 1964, Seiko was given the honour of being the “Official Timer” for the event. Seiko saw this as a prime opportunity to promote their brand on the global stage and quickly got to work designing various watches for the games. One notable creation was Seiko’s (and Japan’s) first chronograph watch: The Crown Chronograph.
With its simple mono-pusher, it was designed to give anyone quick and easy access to a “stop clock”. Combined with Seiko’s amazingly complex, and arguably world’s first, digital stopwatches, Seiko left a lasting impression at the Olympics with their timekeeping performance. Seiko considers the Tokyo Games to be a turning point for their reputation as an international watchmaker. It’s possible, and this is pure speculation on my part, that this success gave Seiko the confidence to compete with the Swiss brands in trying to develop the world’s first automatic chronograph just a few years later in 1969.
Built with the same design philosophy as the 1964 Crown Chronograph—focusing on usability and readability—the SBCG003 looks busy yet sharp. With sapphire crystals on both the front and back, and a scratch-proof ceramic bezel, it’s clear that Seiko spared no expense. This was reflected in its original price, as it cost several thousand dollars in 2004, not accounting for inflation. However, the real prize lies within the watch...
Seiko’s legendary 9T82 Kinetic 38-jewel movement is a marvel of innovation. Power is generated by the motion of your wrist, spinning a rotor similar to an automatic watch. However, instead of storing energy in a wound spring, this energy is stored in a rechargeable capacitor. This design provides the reliability of a quartz-driven movement with the longevity of an automatic. And the capacitor only needs replacement approximately every 15 years, compared to the 1-2 year lifespan of a typical quartz watch battery!
The connection between the 9T82 Kinetic and the modern Spring Drive is undeniable. The 9T82 was introduced a few years before the Spring Drive’s commercial debut, with both aiming to create a self-powered movement that offers quartz reliability. The future of the 9T82 movement is also closely tied to the Spring Drive, as the movement can only be serviced by the Grand Seiko repairmen in the Shinshu Watch Studio, which is the same artisan studio that hand-assembles every Spring Drive.
The image above shows the teardown required to merely replace the capacitor, highlighting why this watch demands an expert’s touch. Luckily this is only required every 15 years or so - and the watch was serviced and had the capacitor replaced in 2024, so you’re good to go until at least 2039!
Grand Seiko SBGA371 AJHH - Limited Edition (500)
A striking Grand Seiko designed by one of Japan’s most famous record producers. Yasushi Akimoto describes time displayed on smartphones as “flavourless” and prefers to give watches as gifts whenever possible. As one of Japan’s most successful producers, he certainly has the means to indulge this habit, but for him, it’s not about the monetary value of the watch. Akimoto believes that by giving someone a watch, you are offering them a true understanding of time and its fleeting nature. You can choose to sit and watch the seconds tick away or use them to do something meaningful. Admittedly depressing, but true.
And that is exactly why Akimoto chose to highlight the 9 o’clock hour marker in vermillion red. It’s often mistakenly thought that Akimoto sought to highlight 9 because it’s the time employees should arrive at work and leave work (9am to 9pm). It plays into the salaryman stereotype in Japan, so you’ll find that explanation across the internet, but the real reason is more nuanced.
Akimoto sees 9am as the time you do your most important work. It’s fairly common for office workers in Japan to arrive at work at 8am, and spend and hour building up to their most important tasks. In a mirrored philosophy of his ideal morning, Akimoto thinks if you start drinking at 8pm, you should hit the sweet spot by 9pm! If you can achieve balance between both types of nines, you’ll live a good life according to Akimoto.
Interestingly, the coppery-pink hue that graces the dial has been promised to Akimoto as “his” color. Grand Seiko has assured that they will never use it on another watch again. The exclusivity doesn’t stop there; the SBGA371 was released as a Limited Edition for the AJHH (Association Japon de la Haute Horlogerie), meaning it was only available in AJHH-affiliated stores. There are just 26 of these stores, and they are all located in Japan.
I’m confident the juice is definitely worth the squeeze with the SBGA371.
Seiko SBCJ023 SSASS Alpinist - Limited Edition (500)
The SSASS (Seven Summits Actions for Sustainable Society) is the rarest modern Alpinist and a well-deserved grail watch for many Seiko collectors. It was created for Ken Noguchi and his mountain preservation foundation. While the idea of climbing famous peaks like Mt. Everest is often romanticised, the reality is more depressing. Over-tourism has turned these popular mountains into scenes resembling music festivals rather than awe-inspiring summits to be conquered.
In 1999, Ken Noguchi became the youngest person to climb the Seven Summits—the highest mountains on each continent—at the age of 25. However, a visit to a litter-strewn Mt. Everest in 2000 left Noguchi deeply disillusioned. Determined to make a difference, he led an eco-conscious team of climbers who ended up removing 8,000 kg of rubbish from Mt. Everest over several years. Trying to imagine the enormity of removing tonnes of waste from a mountain is impossible, so I’ll let Noguchi explain it in his own words:
You carry the garbage from 8,000 meters down to 6,000 meters again and again. It's really hard, especially when temperatures are up and there is one avalanche after another. I worried I may become garbage myself.
Noguchi later focused his efforts on Mt. Fuji, and Seiko honoured his foundation’s remarkable work by naming their most beautiful and rarest Alpinist the “SSASS.”
The SSASS is the high-accuracy quartz sibling of the SCVF Alpinist collection (with the SCVF005 showcased below). Just how accurate is it? With a precision of +/- 20 seconds per year, it approaches the accuracy of Grand Seiko’s 9F movements - an impressive achievement for a neo-vintage piece from the late 1990s! The case and bracelet are made of pure titanium, making this the perfect lightweight yet strong sports watch.
Campanola CTR57-1101 “Grand Complication” Minute Repeater
The Campanola “Grand Complication” is aptly named. A moon phase, leap year perpetual triple calendar, 12-hour split-time chronograph, 24-hour dial, and a minute repeater. Most of those functions won’t need any explanation, but a minute repeater deserves to be talked about.
When you press and hold the minute repeater button, a chime plays different sounds to indicate the time. A musical Morse-code for time keeping, if you will. Interestingly, the chime can be set independently of the time displayed on the watch, allowing it to function as a GMT “hand.” This feature is best appreciated in action, so please watch the video below to hear the chime (timestamped to 1:09):
The grandeur of this watch extends beyond its movement. It features a double-domed, anti-reflective sapphire crystal, a hand-lacquered urushi dial with flecks of embedded titanium that give it a starry aesthetic, and Citizen’s patented “Duratect” coating - a surface treatment that makes the metal five times harder than steel. Like Grand Seiko watches, all Campanolas are hand-made and hand-assembled in Japan by Citizen’s master craftsmen.
Seiko SCVF005 Black “Red” Alpinist
The impossible task of introducing a watch that needs absolutely no introduction. The “if-you’re-going-to-copy-my-homework-please-change-it-a-little-bit” Alpinist that all future Alpinists look remarkably similar to. You can’t blame them though - it’s an enviable design. And while I do like the modern SARB and SPB Alpinists, I can’t help but feel they’re missing the special finishing touch that the bright red “Alpinist” brings to the SCVF’s dial.
Not only do the modern Alpinists come up short in the looks department, there’s also the movement comparison that is hard to ignore. The SCVF series has the impressive 4S15 28,800 bph (“Hi-Beat”) movement; solid, reliable, with a smoother sweeper. The SARB017 has the normal bph and often maligned 6R15 movement, and the SPB has the 6R35 which is essentially just a power reserve upgrade of the 6R15.
Don’t forget to follow my Instagram to see all of the watches above in full cinematic glory.