G99
13685
a 'Grand' collection of Seiko's.
firstly i would like to thank whoever it was who first put Grand Seiko on the forum. i have been introduced to a line of watches which are accurate beyond belief and pretty unusual in UK.
me being me, i couldnt do things by half so i'd like to show you a few Seiko's that now make up my collection. they are i think listed in chronological order, but dont take that as gospel.
1. Grand Seiko 57 calibre circa 1963. a special thanks to CL for this one. described as the highest quality low beat movement ever made by Seiko.
2. King Seiko 44 calibre circa 1964. the 44GS is virtually impossible to find and the 44KS isnt easy so i'm very happy with this.
3. Lord Marvel 36000 circa 1967. a special thanks to Bill Sohne for this one. this is also a 57 calibre, but with the speed doubled from 18000 to 36000.
4. Grand Seiko 45 calibre circa 1968. manual wind running at 36000 this was reported to be the highest quality manual movement used by Seiko and was also used in Astronomical Observor Chronometer.
5. Kind Seiko 'special' chronometer circa 1971. although described as a Hi-beat it actually runs at 28800 not the 36000 you would expect.
6. Grand Seiko 56 calibre circa 1970. again depite being described as a hi-beat it is running at 28800. this was the last model made before they stopped and is also the only mass produced model.
7. Grand Seiko GMT. current model.
8. finally the much loved Discus(burger) current model.
there are 3 GS models not represented, but i hope to obtain at least 1 of them in the near future. the most difficult to find is the first model, the 3180 from 1960. there are also the 62 calibre from 1966 and the 61 calibre from 1968. the 61 is easier to find and i hope to have one within the month. the others have to be searched for.
the first GS i got was the current model GMT. i was so impressed that i searched the web to get a history of the vintage Grand Seiko's. once i'd seen that there were remarkably few models to get i made it my task to try to get the complete collection.
the build quality in the vintage pieces is on a par with anything Switzerland produced at the time and within a similar price bracket, however, where the GS wins is accuracy. none of these watches run more than 4 secs a day fast/slow. the KS44 is so accurate that it is impossible to tell any difference over 24 hours via speaking clock.
what started out as a purchase of a new watch has very quickly led to a near complete collection.
you may not like them, on another forum a Rolex owner made the mistake of stating that 'no seiko can compete with a Rolex and people who run down Rlex do it because they cant afford one'. needless to say i put him right on the matter as did a large number of other members.
if your sitting on the fence wondering whether to take the plunge all i can say is 'go for it' they are great, well built, accurate and you will never get that gob**** asking you if its real 
Graham
a 'Grand' collection of Seiko's.
