Giugiaro brought a sleek post-modernist touch to Seiko in the 80’s that still resonates today
By James Gurney

The respect that watch folk have for Seiko is primarily based on the Japanese company?s mix of quality and value ? beat the basic Grand Seiko Automatic if you can. The ?but? with Seiko is that the brand can come across as a little too plain and simple, just take a look at the brand?s no-frills web site. That?s partly who Seiko really are, they don?t want obscure the watches with lavish lifestyle shots, but I think it downplays how good design is so deeply ingrained into the brand culture ? Seiko, after all, come from a place where even dish cloths are made with care and tradition.

The original Giugiaro design for Seiko’s world-first quartz chronograph That design heritage is why Seiko?s long-standing collaboration with Giugiaro Design works so well ? if there?s no strong core to the design identity such collaborations rarely work over the long term, think Aston Martin x Zagato rather than British Leyland x Ital. The relationship goes back to early 80?s and a series of futuristic designs that were sci-fi enough to feature in 1986? Aliens. And just as the 80?s were being looked at with fresh eyes by a new generation of watch designers (see Rado and Roger Dubuis in particular), Seiko re-released the original 7A28 6000 in various new colour combinations and then followed those up with the Seiko Spirit x Giugiaro Design “Rider’s Chrono...