cazalea
[Seiko Moderator]
20761
Spring Drive
In theory, the Spring Drive might need service eventually. There is less stress on the watches as there is no start/stop, tic/toc of the movement. The smooth running, no-contact escapement/time regulation circuits have no wearing parts, other than pivots in sapphire jewels as normal in a watch. All Spring Drives should have fine quality lubrication with current generation oils. Having said all that, I have not personally witnessed or heard of anyone doing a service, I have had nothing done to my fleet of Spring Drives, and so you shouldn't have to worry about it for "a lifetime".
I should mention that there are multiple levels of Spring Drive quality, just as there are levels with mechanical watches. I'm talking about the mechanical components, as well as the precision of the timing quartz regulators.
HIGH-END
Cazalea
Grand Seiko Evolution 9
In 2021, Grand Seiko introduced a high-beat watch inspired by the slender and beautiful white birch trees of the Hiraniwa Plateau in northern Japan. This timepiece was warmly praised by watch fans worldwide for its intricately textured dial and for the re...
Argh
Thanks - I assume this is the press release? GS does a lot of things nicely. I’m not going to go over them. May I please instead politely recount a few of my frustrations with GS? First, the extraneous dial text. It’s like they’re channeling Rolex…but not...
Yes, the copy is from compiled from several press releases and the website.
You're entitled to express your opinion. As for ritual flogging, that depends. Not everyone is entitled to that! As regards the numbering scheme, I have partially deciphered it, and you can see the results for yourself: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q 1...
Great work Mike …
Your spreadsheet detailing the references is a labour of love and I’m sure it will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for all the effort.
Yes…
As it is highlighted as a link I did and was pleasantly surprised. Thank you again as I’m enjoying exploring it.
A watch that nobody asked for?
I thought the "white birch" was one of the special dials which helped showcase the fantastic Caliber 9SA5. I do like spring drive in general and find the new iteration interesting. But why put the new movement in a replica of the automatic? This makes so ...
A range of improvements …
On a watch that’s becoming a classic for GS… Isn’t that called evolutionary progress.
I think perhaps the Evolution 9 is a new generation of cases into which many existing/new movements will go
A GS watch "family" might be populated by manual wind, regular automatic, hi-beat, Spring Drive and/or quartz movements. NOTE: Chronographs are seldom sold by Grand Seiko and have their own sort of lineage and by necessity their own cases. This is not nec...
Thank you for this great post and overview (also for your excel with links!!)
I'm just starting to delve deeper into Seiko and have been considering the SLGA009: or even the (much more expensive) SLGA008 model: But also the model SLGH005 (Hi-Beat version) which - as we see - looks completely like the SLGA009 (these names…..) It's s...
Spring Drive
In theory, the Spring Drive might need service eventually. There is less stress on the watches as there is no start/stop, tic/toc of the movement. The smooth running, no-contact escapement/time regulation circuits have no wearing parts, other than pivots ...
Thanks a lot, cazalea!
This was very helpful. You mentioned that there are multiple levels of Spring Drive quality. Do you know if the SLGA009 and the SLGA008 have implemented the same quality of Spring Drive movement? Many thanks in advance Thomas
I believe it’s the best so far!
Caliber 9RA2 At the birthplace of Spring Drive, the Shinshu Watch Studio, craftsmen and women assemble timepieces by hand, from the case, dial, hands and indexes to all other components. At every step of the process, from development and design to manufac...