Seiko New Watches at Baselworld 2016

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• published: 24 Mar 2016
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Seiko is renown to propose innovative and resistant watches for a much cheaper price than its Swiss competitors. It is a Japanese giant that masters all kind of watches, from the simplest ones to the minute repeaters and tourbillons labeled under the name of its sister brand Credor. The new products launched at Baselworld this year illustrate this rare aspect of getting a lot of technical value for not so much money starting with the new Presage collection. All the models come with automatic winding movements with a price starting at about 400 Swiss francs for the simplest hours, minutes, seconds version with a case made out of steel. They have in particular adorned dials with a sort of inverted Clous de Paris pattern that creates very unexpected and beautiful reflects. More refined versions present dial made out of enamel or urushi lacquer. They have also Arabic numbers with a “12” in red in reference to the first wristwatch of Seiko, the Laurel, launched in 1912 and that had such a number. Seiko also extends its Premier line with more architectural and pure models coming both with quartz and mechanical movement. Here again, the pricing is aggressive with a first quartz model available for about 380 Swiss francs. Going to the next level, the prestigious Grand Seiko line welcomes this year the first 8 days power reserve version with a dial covered with diamonds dust. Its reflections are just as mysterious as subtle. New sport models are also integrated with a 5 elements case which case bands are made out of ceramic. The first limited edition comes with a Spring drive chronograph and a green dial evoking the onbashira festival taking place in the Suwa area where the creation studio of Seiko is. The onbashira festival is a whole ritual dedicated to the fir trees of the region. For this reason, the dial is dark green colored. The second limited edition has also a caliber equipped with a Spring drive escapement, an electro mechanical regulator, and displays a second time zone, the date and has a power reserve indicator in addition with the usual functions. But Seiko created a second loop of limited edition, this time in collaboration with the Parisian concept store Colette. They present straps printed with extracts of pictures from the famous Japanese photographers Nobuyoshi Araki and Daido Moriyama and they will be available in this shop only. The most prestigious line from Seiko is called Credor and comes this year with what it said as the smallest tourbillon movement in terms of volume, but also the first tourbillon from Seiko, the Fugaku. In addition to the technique supervised by Master watchmaker Satoshi Hiraga , three different master craftsmen worked to decorate the movement with engraving and urushi lacquer finishing in particular. The decoration symbolizes the Great Wave of Kanagawa from the famous ukiyo-e artist Katsushika Hokusai drawing. In addition, a declination with a skeletonized and also decorated movement has been introduced. Going into sports, Seiko extends its diving Prospex lines with several new references including a “PADI” version with day and date for about 460 Swiss Francs and a GMT with a Kinetic automatic winding quartz movement for about 680 Swiss francs. Going into electronic watches the famous GPS solar quartz line Astron comes with movements displaying fewer functions than the previous ones. Thus the dials, that capture the sunlight to transform it in electricity, are more visible, in particular the version with superior layer made out of mother of pearl.