Cazalea's thought-provoking post delves into the creative challenges faced by a Grand Seiko product manager in developing new models while adhering to the brand's established design language. By drawing parallels to Porsche's 911, he highlights the delicate balance between innovation and tradition. This article explores the various avenues Grand Seiko has pursued, from movement choices to material innovations, to introduce novelty within its distinct aesthetic framework.
Everything under the sun has been done!
So the unfortunate product manager looking to create something Brand New at Grand Seiko is in much the same kind of fix as his equivalent at Porsche who's got the 911 to look after:
"You can do anything you want as long as it looks exactly the same".
At Grand Seiko they basically have one set of hands (varying length), one shape of case (round, with varying angles and lugs), an infinite number of dial variations to play with, and a few movement choices.
So as our imaginary worker stares out the window of his office, he ponders HOW WILL I MAKE A NEW MODEL??? the deadline is approaching! The early warning alarm is about to go off! The Samurai is approaching!
WHAT CHOICES DO WE HAVE?
"OK, I have mechanical wind, automatic wind, quartz, Spring Drive to choose from. Let's say Spring Drive because my brief is to get the price over $10k so it has to be both accurate and justify a relatively expensive price.”
CHRONOGRAPH
Chrono? No, that's not in my portfolio, someone else has the Chrono segment. And they are set below $10k.
Back a few years ago it was near $13k, sales died, dealers complained and they had to slide back under $10k.
The current experiment is to affix Ceramic side plates, bracelet links and a golf-ball texture dial... but is that worth a $5k bump?
Or style everything blue & white and tie the watch to a new Nissan, then add a white strap .
CERAMIC
The NON-Chrono product guy used a GMT Hi-Beat movement, ceramic case sides, links and bezel, textured dial, fancy numerals AND lume plus titanium to creep up to $13k.
I am not sure they are flying off the shelf, because now the watch is a bit large!
Fastening on the ceramic bits with screws looks (from the back and sides anyway) a bit less than high-tech.
Enamel dial? No they are reserving that for Presage for the moment and all the enamelers are working flat out to accommodate the sales we've already booked.
Gold or Platinum? No, too expensive, I have to bring it in just above $10k.
A guy in the Limited Editions department used fancy hands, special treatment dial, rare lume material, unique markers, bezel numbers, Zaratsu polishing and some fancy movement decoration - he came up with a pretty special combination and justified a $10k price.
And then there's the other guy who took a quartz watch and put in some bright yellow color, textured dial and a GMT hand and the price is $3500.
Of course they had to make a new quartz movement with a GMT function -- but this is Seiko!
We can do that with our eyes closed and one hand tied behind our backs.
His rival across the room slipped in a Spring Drive movement, added a rotating bezel, a gold second hand, lumed markers and cut the sharp tips off the hands, for a $6k price.
He threw in a sporty orange silicone strap as well.
We can’t use a solid case because that triples the price (and upsets the precious metal boys over at the Micro Arts Studio)
But I noticed a rose gold two-tone at $11k in the Limited Heritage models. I need to get to about that same list price, but no dressy case or automatic movement, as that turf is occupied already.
EUREKA! I've generated a new model; a niche not yet filled!
We will put a Spring Drive movement in a sporty case, and give it a two-tone look!
To avoid extravagance, perhaps just a gold bezel and hour/minute hands, while leaving the rest of the case in stainless.
A gold crown would be nice too! And for consistency we'll make the power reserve, GMT and second hands gold, and use gold markers (with just a touch of lume).
Blue dial of course. No one at Seiko has yet proposed this sporty / bling watch combination for a GS.
We can put the crown at 4 like on our divers, which allows us to rotate the Spring Drive’s power reserve up to 9, and put the date at 4 so the big lumed markers at 3,6, & 9 match each other.
