If I live to be a hundred, then yesterday, I reached the mid-point. I've been indulging in all sorts of self-indulgent fantasy about what I might treat myself to recognise the occasion and have gone the rounds from vintage Rolex DJ to a brief flirtation with the red Black Bay but in the end, my heart won over. I am afraid I am Seiko through and through. The large majority of watches to have passed through my hands have been vintage Seiko, and over the years my tastes have moved from the predictable obsessions with divers through to the more understated, most recently 1960's Seikomatics. With that process providing the sub-text, I settled on a plan to buy something new but referencing my favourite watch period. Unlike a great many folk here, it is not part of my routine to splurge thousands on a wrist watch. The most I have ever spent was about £1100 but most of my expenditure goes into tatty old stuff to renovate. So, any really significant expenditure is likely to be a one-off and I would hope, something to keep and use for a long time. With all of that in mind, I found myself considering Grand Seiko.

This year, coincidentally, Seiko released five limited edition watches in a Historical Collection paying homage to the 1964 Grand Seiko Self-Dater. The original watch was fitted with a manual wind chronometer movement and featured wonderfully sturdy lugs, giving the watch a beefy yet still elegant appearance. Three of these new interpretations are fitted with Spring Drive movements and are consequently well outside my price range. The other two however are fitted with the Grand Seiko 9F82 quartz movement, accurate to ±10 seconds per year and unlikely to need costly services every three to five years. Decision made, I settled upon the silver dialled SBGV009 and opted for a purchase strategy which did not involve coughing up anything like the £3500 required for a UK purchase. I received the watch about 6 weeks ago but it's remained in its box until yesterday. I'll resist waffling on any more and let some pictures do the talking:















Needless to say, I am rather chuffed. The watch is pretty bloody spectacular in the flesh, very comfortable on the wrist and I think will slip in with the other regulars in my collection without looking too out of place. It did come with a lovely bracelet hidden out of sight in a compartment at the bottom of the box and I got half way through fitting it this morning before reverting back to the strap.

Martin