The Grand Seiko SBGC247 Chronograph 'Snowflake' - opinions?

[Lostintime]

I really appreciate all the responses, when buying blind it is always useful to have your own biases tested. There are a few NIB for sale by Japanese sellers whom i am in touch with, but I will resist the temptation a little longer until I am sure its the one.



A fantastic watch that I owned for four years and which the new owner will love I am sure. Sold it because it never gets worn over my SD43 or PO2500 which is my most worn watch.



Ihave certainly mulled over the Suwa and if it was 42mm I would have already bought it, Ryan. At 40mm it's unlikely to stay no matter how brilliant the dial is.



On anything but a GS I would agree with you Earl, but lume on a GS spoils the immaculate hands and markers for me. There is no doubt visibility would not be as good as many watches but I think it would be acceptable to me aided by the dial having a matt finish. If it were shiny then the hands would get lost.



Agreed, it is not really a snowflake dial, that was me getting sucked into the web BS.

I can't help but wonder what special LE GS may do next but when it comes to their Chronographs I cannot think of one that would appeal more than this. They do some Chronos with bezels which I am not as keen on and also have a couple of different pusher designs which also spoil it so perhaps, just maybe, this is peak GS Chrono to my eyes.

The Spring Drive Chronograph, calibers 5R84 (Non GMT), 5R86 (GMT), 9R84 (Non GMT, and 9R86 (GMT) were introduced in Japan in 2007, 15 years ago.

I don’t expect to see a second generation 9RA5 based Spring Drive Chronograph until at least 2027, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the current SD chrono calibers.

Even then, a 9RA5 SD Chronograph can easily be double the price of admission of today’s 9R86/9R96 watches. Sure the second gen chronographs will be at least 1-2mm thinner, have 5 days power reserve (a 60% increase over the 9R family) but also be more conventional in look and feel to apease the haters.

I have previously owned a SBGC001 and didn’t like the weird yellowish cream dial. Sold it after a few years. Prior to it, I had an Ananta SPS007, caliber 5R86 Spring Drive GMT Chronograph and I can tell you with 100% confidence that the perfectly beautiful Silver sunburst dial on that Ananta was much better executed and legible in comparison to the GS SBGC001/201.

Fast forward to the summer of 2020 and was able to locate a new old stock (NOS) black dial SBGC003. Absolutely love the watch. To me a Chronograph must have a black dial. It is a sports watch after all. I always liked the 003 better but when GS launched internationally back in 2010, only the SBGC001 was on offer in the sales catalog. The 003 was JDM only but was expensive to buy it from Japan (Seiya, Higuchi) than to purchase the 001 from United States based GS Ad @25% discount from retail.

And why the 003 versus the current 203? Because I prefer dual branded pre-2017 GS watches. To me the Grand Seiko only watches look odd and a move made to appease the Swiss watch only snobs, that at the end of the day, would not give a GS a second look.

The dial symmetry on the 003 with Seiko center at the 12 o clock region of the dial looks much better to my eye than the odd off center GS Grand Seiko on 201/203.

[mondie]

I have always had a thing for white dials, nearly half of my collection is. I agree with you on the 001, generally, I am not a big fan of silver dials but hankered for a light-dialled GS Chrono, hence this thread when I learned of the 247. The symmetry of the Seiko / GS branding is attractive, but I was never keen on the blank space @10 which looked a bit odd to my eye when the rest of the dial had plenty going on.

I have bought a 247 from Japan and am patiently waiting for it to arrive later this month.

[Lostintime]

I have always had a thing for white dials, nearly half of my collection is. I agree with you on the 001, generally, I am not a big fan of silver dials but hankered for a light-dialled GS Chrono, hence this thread when I learned of the 247. The symmetry of the Seiko / GS branding is attractive, but I was never keen on the blank space @10 which looked a bit odd to my eye when the rest of the dial had plenty going on.

I have bought a 247 from Japan and am patiently waiting for it to arrive later this month.

Congratulations!

The purely white Snowflake dial should work much better on the 247. Look forward to your pictures and impressions.

[mondie]

This has proved to be a difficult watch to get my hands on.

I first bought a watch through a Japanese seller on C24 about four weeks ago. After several weeks of silence, I messaged the seller and was told the watch had been lost in transit to them from their distributor and they would have to cancel. The refund came through C24 promptly.

Back on the hunt again with a smaller pool of watches to choose from. Found one on eBay from a reputable Japanese seller, paid up and began the wait, only to find the next morning the sale had been cancelled as the watch had sold through their shop. eBay promptly refunded my money.

Finally yesterday, I agreed to a third attempt to buy from another Japanese seller through C24. So far so good, the watch is in their stock and should ship today. Third time lucky I hope.

All this messing around has led me to track the 247 market closely and I have been surprised at the demand for this model. I hope that bodes well and that it is as stunning in the flesh as I am expecting.

So pics are still a few weeks away.