Grand Seiko Has Outdone Itself with Its Latest Watch Dials

Traditional Japanese artwork and natural beauty combine for a pair of stunning dials made for American wrists only.

Published August 1, 2024

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Perhaps more than anything else, Grand Seiko is known for its watch dials.

The high-end offshoot of Japanese stalwart Seiko has built a reputation as the crafter of some of the finest dials in the luxury watch game, thanks to the plethora of nature-inspired, textured dials found across its catalog.

Names like Snowflake, Shunbun and Lake Suwa and Mt. Iwate have taken on new meanings as signifiers of beauty and quality while forming the basis for some of Grand Seiko’s most iconic models. Now, the brand has launched two new dials that are among the most impressive I’ve ever seen from them — and they’re exclusive to the U.S. market.

grand seiko watch worn by man in a suit — Grand Seiko’s latest dials are among its most beautiful yet.

USA! USA! USA!

Grand Seiko’s new models are the SBGA507 and SBGA509, but let’s ignore the brand’s sterile naming conventions for the time being and stick with the dial style’s nickname: kirazuri.

The name means “sparkling painting” and refers to a centuries-old Japanese art style that utilized mica powder to provide a distinct shimmer to ukiyo-e woodblock prints.

To be fair, we’ve seen Grand Seiko kirazuri dials before. The most notable is the ice-blue SBGH295 Sōkō Frost, which was released as a U.S. special edition back in 2022. 2018 also saw the release of three very limited kirazuri dial watches for the U.S. market, two of which were in precious metal.

grand seiko watch with blue dial — The kirazuri pattern is meant to evoke a traditional Japanese art style that goes back hundreds of years.

The difference in the two watches released today is their choice of dial colors. The dark blue and rosy red dials offer a new richness and texture to the subtly textured and sparkling kirazuri pattern compared to the light blue, silver, gold and white styles we’ve seen in the past.

According to Grand Seiko, the dials’ colors take inspiration from another frequent muse of the brand: Japan’s Lake Suwa. This time, however, instead of the lake itself, it’s the sky above that inspired Grand Seiko’s designers. The rosy red dial represents sunrise over the lake, while the blue dial is meant to evoke the sky’s transition to evening.

two grand seiko watches next to each other against stylized blue and red backgrounds — The two new watches are technically inspired by the transitioning sky colors over Japan’s Lake Suwa, but they also have a certain star-spangled appeal.

Coincidentally, the new red and blue U.S.-only Grand Seikos are arriving right in the middle of the Paris 2024 Olympics, giving the models a patriotic boost while everyone stateside is obsessed with Team USA and rooting for new heroes like “Pommel Horse Clark Kent” and legendary icons such as Simone Biles.

USA! USA! USA!

More than just a pretty face

The dials are certainly the standouts on the kirazuri red and blue USA models, but the watches offer more than a gorgeous face.

Both models use the iconic 44GS case from the 1960s, arguably the most emblematic Grand Seiko case design and an impressive showcase for the brand’s lauded Zaratsu polishing techniques thanks to its sharp angles.

Both watches come in at 40mm across and 12.5mm thick, making them suitable for a wide variety of wrists, and they come on three-link metal bracelets.

The watches are powered by one of Grand Seiko’s proprietary Spring Drive hybrid movements, providing automatic winding, a 72-hour power reserve and accuracy superior to any purely mechanical watch, with precision rated +/- 15 seconds per month.

Both new kirazuri models are water-resistant to 100m with screw-down crowns and boast a magnetic resistance of 4,800 A/m, further boosting their everyday watch bona fides. Sadly, however, there is no lume, but that’s about the only thing I can see wrong with these off the bat.

The SBGA507 (blue) and SBGA509 (red) kirazuri 44GS watches are each limited to 300 pieces and are available exclusively at Grand Seiko boutiques and retailers in the U.S., where they are priced at $5,600.