We?re now in the fifth month of 2022, so it feels like it?s about that time of the year when it begins to become appropriate to call something a ?trend.? This is a massively overused word in our hobby, mostly because of the incredibly long lead time for a new product to come to market. Watch brands can?t just turn around and capitalize on increasingly rare mono-cultural moments immediately – it takes months or even years for an idea to make its way to a watch boutique. That said, it?s hard to ignore common threads through a brand?s releases over the course of a calendar year, and this year, for Grand Seiko, it feels like they?re going small. Just in the past several weeks, we?ve seen new additions to the Elegance line of 37mm dress watches as well as a surprise limited edition in the form of a smaller, vintage inspired 44GS case. Yes, they also debuted a massive new dive watch at Watches & Wonders, but the overall impression a potential customer will get of new Grand Seikos when they check out the display case will be one of moderation and traditional case sizes, at least at this nearly midway point in the year. This week Grand Seiko added another smaller watch to their collection, a new entry in their increasingly popular 37mm dress watch footprint, the U.S. exclusive SBGW279.
As we?ve seen with other exclusive releases to the U.S. market the new SBGW279 takes cues from nature and Japanese culture. The blue dial on this new watch is inspired by the Orur...