Feature: Is Grand Seiko A Better Choice Than Rolex?
Rolex was the king, Grand Seiko the young pretender. For a while. Then, things started to change. Not a lot, not all at once, but it changed. People who’d considered buying a Rolex, and had perhaps even bought one previously, chose a different path. A very different path. They put their money in the little-known luxury arm of budget watch mass-producer, Seiko. Would they do the same again today?
Background
It’s crazy when you think about it. Grand Seiko just sort of came out of nowhere. Yeah, Seiko’s existed for longer than Rolex and yeah, Grand Seiko’s been around since 1960, but you could use a variation of that same excuse for mobile phone manufacturer Blackberry and it still doesn’t make one anything less than a waste of cheap plastic and a battery. I’d be better off with a carrier pigeon.
It seems Grand Seiko used something a bit more modern and effective than avian comms to get the word out because somewhere in the last few years there’s been a bit of a quiet revolution. We were frogs in a pan we once thought was cold, the whole while Grand Seiko was building a raging fire beneath it. There’s BGS—before Grand Seiko—and there’s AGS—you can figure that one out for yourself—and in this AGS period, many of us have started looking at Japanese watches through a different lens.
Don’t forget that this great upheaval started before all the Rolex watches disappeared off to Narnia, so it’s not just about being the consolation prize. People, some people, actively started spending their money on Grand Seikos instead of Rolex by choice. Maybe it doesn’t seem quite so bizarre now we’re a bit more used to the idea, but being amongst the first to commit thousands of dollars to a watch made so far outside of Switzerland it may as well be Mars is properly nuts. First adopters buy new tech for $500, not Japanese wristwatches for $5,000.
So how did Grand Seiko do it? Look at most newcomers today and you’ll typically see two approaches: one, outright copy Rolex with just enough tweakery to avoid court; or two, create something so big and loud and outrageous it gives you a headache just looking at it. Grand Seiko did neither of those. Thankfully, Japan is rich in two things: insanely focussed people for whom attention to detail is a philosophy with an actual name, Kodowari, and natural wonders so beautiful, people there ride on trains up and down the country just to look out the window at it.
An idea was born: high quality watchmaking inspired by nature. Sounds like an advert for an air freshener, and yes, some—much—of the marketing comms reads like a badly translated erotic novella, but the principle was sound. The watchmakers mastered the discipline of watchmaking to the ridiculously high standard we’ve come to expect of the Japanese, and every day the commute would fill their brains with inspiration.
To top it all off, Grand Seiko also ended the feud between quartz and mechanical by merging the two together, ditching the worst parts of each to create a mechanism a hundred times more accurate without being constrained by a battery. It’s like the last two centuries of watchmaking didn’t even exist and Grand Seiko just rewrote history.
Not to mention the artistry. Imagine if, mid, “any colour you like as long as it’s black” speech, someone booted Henry Ford off stage and rolled out a car gleaming with a fresh coat of flip paint. Prior to Grand Seiko, we’d become so resigned to the idea that watches had plain black dials that when they showed us that not only could they be a different colour, but have textures as well, it was like giving sight to the blind.
Complacency. That’s how I’d summarise Rolex’s misstep that gave Grand Seiko a chance. A Grand Seiko wasn’t necessarily cheaper than a Rolex, but it was more exotic, more impressive, more interesting in all but every way. It was quickly becoming the Alpha Romeo of the watch industry, except it actually worked. The question is, now we’re all used to it, is it still working?
Review
It’s incredible how quickly things evolve. The first Grand Seikos to really compete with Rolex cost a decent $4-5000. There are still many that cost that, but the ones we’re interested in have crept up a bit. The ones we’re really interested in, the newest, most accomplished models, are heading well on their way to $10,000. There’s competing with Rolex and then there’s pretending it outright doesn’t exist. Which, to be honest, for most of us it doesn’t.
Rising costs is not a symptom just of Grand Seiko’s growth. Rolex is partial to helping itself to the wallets of the lucky few who are blessed to be ordained into the inner sanctum of the holy crown. Difference is, where Rolex simply added cost to the same watches, Grand Seiko made new watches too to justify the difference. New calibres, new technologies, new cases, dials and bracelets. Developments that even cynical curmudgeons like me allow into the hairline cracks of our stone-cold hearts.
Better watches at stronger prices is all very well and good for those who are privileged enough to enjoy them, but for the rest of us it’s just like popping to the toilet at a party, only to find the party’s moved on somewhere else when you re-emerge. If you had $5–6000 aimed squarely at a Rolex Submariner, you’re now obliged to lower your expectations dramatically and maybe consider an Oyster Perpetual instead—and you’re expected to be grateful it still says Rolex and not Tudor!
With Grand Seiko, those additional watches don’t replace the old ones. You can still enjoy the Snowflake as you always could, for not too much more than it used to be. Even more exciting is the fact that Grand Seiko has added to that end of the collection too, like with this Skyflake, which even improves upon the Snowflake in a whole raft of ways. Not bad for a watchmaker that produces some 40–50,000 watches per year. That’s five percent of Rolex’s output. It’s nearly half that of Patek Philippe’s.
A Grand Seiko isn’t going to be for everyone. I mean, just looking at the statistics it’s painfully obvious the Grand Seiko isn’t for 95% of Rolex buyers. But for those people who want something a bit different, who are inspired by the delicacy and meticulousness of Japanese craftsmanship, is Grand Seiko still a worthy alternative today?
To me at least, that seems to be true now more than ever. The extent at which Grand Seiko is demonstrating its capabilities is mind-boggling. From the cheapest quartz all the way up to the game-changing Kodo, Grand Seiko is doing things in watchmaking than Rolex doesn’t even dream about, because that would be like a bird dreaming about aeroplanes.
To put it another way, Rolex is just as good as it’s ever been. Solid, dependable and reliable, just like a Mars Bar. A Mars Bar always is and always will be a Mars Bar. Grand Seiko is something different. It’s like a fresh mango one day, then dragon fruit the next. You never quite know what to expect except that it’ll be fresh and exotic and will outright leave you feeling a lot more wholesome at the end.
Do you think Grand Seiko’s still got what it takes to beat out Rolex? Or has it become too expensive and unattainable?
