Since I was a teenager, I've lusted for a Rolex Submariner. Always financially out of reach, I bought a "Bond" Omega Seamaster Professional 300 about fifteen years ago, and the luxury watch urge went away for a long while.
Seiko 5
The watch lust re-emerged during a trip to Japan in 2016. I was Seiko-5-curious, and wanted to pick one up to see what the fuss was about (the Seiko 5 family are low end, high quality, automatic watches). Big mistake. The low-end Seiko 5 I bought at Narita Airport in Tokyo led me to step it up a notch, and search for JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) watches from Japanese Online Watch Dealers - who knew this was a thing?
Seiko SUMO
My first acquisition was a Seiko "Sumo" dive watch. I modified that watch with a ton of NATO straps, a custom rubber dive strap and a ceramic bezel insert. I also regulated the watch myself to make it more accurate than out of the box.
Next I bought a Seiko SARB dress watch - fantastic finish, same movement as the SUMO. Then a ladies dress watch for Laura. Then a vintage King Seiko. Then another Seiko 5 that I modified to be a Blancpain Fifty Fathoms homage (called a Seiko Fifty Five Fathoms - or FFF). Then a beater Seiko solar dive watch.
Seiko FFF Mod
During all this collecting, I had been searching for a specific Grand Seiko dive watch - the SBGX115/117 - that I'd seen in a YouTube video. One Sunday early this January, after a year of searching, a SBGX115 in pristine condition came up for sale in Toronto. I contacted the seller, checked his seller profile, agreed on a price, wired him the cash, and the watch was in my hands on Wednesday morning.
Vintage King Seiko
If you think of Grand Seiko to Seiko as you would Lexus to Toyota, and if you think of Rolex as the BMW of watches, then this is a Lexus versus BMW story. One Japanese, one Swiss.
Here's where the interesting Japanese versus Swiss argument begins. There seems to be two camps - and very few people who straddle both. In North America, the luxury watch business seems to be almost all Swiss. There are a handful of Japanese collectors, buy they are few and far between.
Grand Seiko SBGX115
To further separate watch collectors, there is another divide: mechanical versus quartz. Even though quartz almost killed the mechanical watch in the 70's, they were reborn as luxury jewelry, and have enjoyed great success since. The argument is that a mechanical watch (automatic is mechanical with winding done while you're wearing the piece), is elegant and precision and hand crafted (at the high end, at least), while quartz is cold and boring and machine made.
I have both types of watches. The highest end watch I now own is the Grand Seiko SBGX115, and it's quartz. High end, high accuracy, hand made quartz - but quartz nonetheless. I do like the ruggedness and the "wear-readiness" of the SBGX115. The craftsmanship can stand up to anything
Swiss at a pricepoint within a factor of five (or ten?).
Grand Seiko Quartz Movement
I also have mechanical watches (nothing like a Rolex, but mechanical regardless). Beautiful to wear, but a pain to keep wound and the date/day properly set. The argument that mechanical involves much more engineering and artisanship than high end quartz is hollow. I'd argue that there is as much high tech involved in mechanical watch manufacturing today as there is in quartz. The hand finishing is a wash (when talking Grand Seiko anyway - it's as good or better than Swiss). And the steps people take to ensure their mechanical/automatic watches are ready to wear defeat the whole argument about artisanship anyway (I'm thinking watch winders and time graph machines and smartphone apps to set your watch with).
My SBGX115 is hand made. The quartz movement is beautiful. Servicing, for the first fifty years or so, are battery changes and gasket checks. That's it.
The equivalent dive watch - the Rolex Submariner - is more than two times the price, needs to be worn to be accurate, and needs to be serviced every ten years. A servicing is about $1000, and takes weeks (or months).
When I run my numbers, it's a wash (a nod to TGV):
-->
Rolex
Grand Seiko
Submariner
SBGX115
Value
5
9
Design
10
9
Movement
9
9
Brand History
9
9
Quality
9.5
9.5
Style
10
8
Versatility
9
8
Performance
9
10
Durability
9.5
10
X-Factor
10
8
TOTAL
90
89.5
One area (not on the spreadsheet) that is definitely an advantage for Rolex steel sports watches - like the Submariner - is value retention. The Grand Seiko can't come close. So if you want to sell the watch in the future - the Rolex is the much better bet. You will likely make money on the transaction.
If you don't flip watches - the decision isn't so simple......
