The Japanese think of changing seasons differently than many in the west. In Japanese culture, each of the four seasons can be broken down into shorter, distinct phases, or sekki. These shorter, micro seasons have served as inspiration for Grand Seiko watches in the past, and allow their design team to get really specific. It?s the difference between a dial inspired by an all out blizzard, for example, and a softly snow swept field. Both are certainly ?winter,? but inhabit different aspects of the same season. It?s a somewhat tough concept to grasp if you grew up not really thinking too much about major shifts within a single season (or in a part of the world where these seasonal changes aren?t as obvious), but luckily the watches that Grand Seiko creates from contemplating these phases are easily enjoyed for their simple beauty. Their new collection of GMTs are an expansion of previous collections to use the changing seasons as inspiration, and it?s striking how vastly different these watches look compared to others already in the collection that reference (roughly) the same time on the calendar. 
Like the previous seasons collection that we introduced here, two of these watches make use of a high frequency mechanical caliber, and two run on Spring Drive movements. The obvious difference in the newer collection is that a GMT complication has been added, and all four of these watches are made in stainless steel (the earlier collection?s Spring Drive watches were ...