Cazalea shares his experience visiting Feldmar, a Grand Seiko dealer in Los Angeles, as part of his ongoing goal to explore GS retailers. This post offers a detailed look at the store's extensive Grand Seiko and Galante inventory, providing valuable insights for prospective customers and enthusiasts alike. It highlights the importance of physical retail experiences for luxury watch brands.
As moderator of this Seiko Forum, I have set myself the goal of visiting Grand Seiko dealers wherever there is one within a hundred miles of me. This week I was able to visit Feldmar, the GS dealer in Los Angeles, and I am happy to report that any prospective customer should be pleased with the Seiko inventory and assistance they offer.
Before we begin, I should disclose that I have been to this store a half-dozen times at least in the last 10 years, and have purchased several Seiko watches here - but not on this trip
.
The family has owned the building and the business for about 100 years. Here's the old look:
About 2-3 years ago they did a complete remodel, while remaining open, and the new look is like this:
I was given permission to photograph any watches I liked, inside or outside of the case. To save aggravation for all of us (except you, the reader), it seemed best to leave the wrapping on the new watches; please forgive the fuzziness in some of the photos.
Let's start with a scan of the case(s) for Grand Seiko and Galante:
I think there were about 30 watches on display here in the GS case.
On top I found another shelf with divers and chronographs.
A rare gold Grand Seiko. This looks like it might be the yellow gold 130th anniversary manual wind from 2011, SBGW040
Here's another rare item, a Galante "Fire" Spring Drive
with its very wild case architecture, red stitching and red inside lining on the black strap
Here's a new High-Beat Automatic Special with a scalloped dial
and a sporty automatic GMT with blue dial and blue tungsten rotor; SBGM029
The 10th anniversary edition Spring Drive - this was just coming off "the assembly line" when Mrs C and I were visiting the
Shinshu Watch Studio in October.
Creamy dial GMT with automatic movement and high-dome crystal
Here's a Spring Drive Chronograph, assembled by hand at the rate of 2-3 a day.
Silver or Black dial, or you can have black dial and titanium case with gold hands and markers.
Here are some Grand Seiko divers. This white dial watch has a 9F quartz movement
while the blue dial version has a Spring Drive movement
Finally there were some ladies watches too - here's pink mother-of-pearl dial with diamonds
After a half-hour taking pictures of the GS case, I decided to walk over to the other side of the store and catch the "regular" Seiko cases. They are in the middle between Citizen and Bulova.
I didn't take too long to scan this case but there is a great variety in prices and looks here.
On top we have the Astron GPS series.
And other high end models, like the Sporturas and the Ananta Chronograph (automatic column wheel movement)
The Astron special edition with ceramic bezel and bracelet links, with white dial.
Here's a combo tuna-can/bullhead style diver with kinetic movement.
I could go on and on, but I think it's time to stop. Thanks for reading, and special thanks to Scott, Jamie and the rest of the folks at Feldmar Watches.
Mike aka Cazalea
PS - they carry many other brands too --
There's something for everybody in this store!
