Quote:
Originally Posted by Nodelicious
I don't own a gs.
Anyone with both - what's the deal?
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Well at the moment I don't own a Seiko Grand but been looking for a vintage one for quite some time.And IMHO the Seiko Grand can match or surpass all of the Swiss mass produced watches even Rolex. But what they cannot match is the brand name nothing more or less, as today with the stereo brand conscious types many today don't wear the watch they just wear the brand..The Seiko Grand are fantastic watches and Grand Seikos are in a completely different league to the standard Seiko's, and should not be spoken about in the same breath. Grand Seikos are hand made and the vintage ones wiped the floor with the major Swiss brands for accuracy before today's watered down COSC was formed in 1973.
Now before the Swiss COSC was started they used to have Observatory testing and competitions to a much higher standard than todays Swiss COSC. And during the entire 23 years of testing, 5093 wristwatches were submitted for certification, and only 3253 were passed, about 64%, today around 94% pass the COSC test first time a big difference now truth be told today with careful regulation most any movement could pass todays test.Back in the 1960-70s just a few manufacturers participated, and only Omega and Patek did so every year. The other brands. were: Rolex, Zenith, Longines, Movado, Vacheron & Constantin, Ulysse Nardin, Cyma and Favre-Leuba, along with numerous independent professional watchmakers.
That was until the Seiko Grand come on the scene and started to wipe the floor with the Swiss mechanical watch industry.Now in those days only 2 brands in the + 23 years of the competitions submitted movements of only serial production for retail sale(Seiko and GP).All others were specially made movements just for the competition test and not then for retail sale.
Now Seiko first entered the competition,with other watches from all over the world,including most of the Swiss high end brands.But then for a much higher standard than todays COSC,the Astronomical Observatory Authorisation Chronometer Standard (+/- 2/3 seconds/day) Out of many watches submitted only two passed this test a Seiko Grand just a production model, and Giraud Peregaux this time a specially build for the test model.And in the late 1960s there were only two companies, who could sell watches, passed astronomical observatory authorisation Chronometer in those days. Seiko and Giraud Peregaux.As the Japanese had dominated the tests in the late 1960s and the two preceding events, in 1972 many of Swiss watch manufacturers demanded the end of the observatory competitions,and it was ended in 1973,now thats when the Swiss COSC was founded but run by the Swiss for the Swiss brands only.
Check out the regulator adjuster on this one! and movement finish. That's real quality and there own movement test, to a much higher spec than the Swiss COSC
