Introducing: The Grand Seiko Elegance SBGW325, Tribute to the First Manual

The SBGW003 is historically relevant mostly because of what ticks inside its case. Indeed, it was equipped with the calibre 9S54, the first hand-wound in-house movement from the modern return of Grand Seiko – a movement that served as a base for the calibre that we now see in the brand’s current collection, the 9S64, which upgraded the power reserve from 50 to 72 hours, among other evolutions. The SBGW003 was itself a tribute to the past in terms of design, looking back at the brand’s 1960s collection, and it was part of a series of watches that re-established Grand Seiko’s identity for a more global audience. Design was, it was more subtle and more elegant than most GS models based on the Grammar of Design.