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VIDEO: The purity of the Grand Seiko Spring Drive Snowflake VIDEO: The purity of the Grand Seiko Spring Drive Snowflake

VIDEO: The purity of the Grand Seiko Spring Drive Snowflake

Felix Scholz

One of Grand Seiko’s most in-demand and instantly identifiable watches is the Snowflake, AKA the SBGA211. For many, this pure, and deceptively simple, watch epitomises the high-end Japanese maker, and it certainly exhibits all the Grand Seiko hallmarks: exceptional casework, precise finishing techniques, and those glimmering hands and hour markers. And then, of course, there’s the dial — textured like a field of fresh snow, that can, at a distance, be passed off as a simple white. Look closer though and you’ll find yourself sucked into the richness and serenity of its lustrous beauty. And then there’s the impossibly smooth sweep of that hand-blued second hand, a tell-tale marker of the Spring Drive movement whirring behind the scenes. Spring Drive, unique to Seiko, is an innovative hybrid of quartz accuracy and mechanical perpetuity that is as intriguing and ingenious as the titular dial, if not more so. Add to this the watch’s supreme wearability and it’s easy to see why it’s still such a popular option.

Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA211 ‘Snowflake’

Grand Seiko Spring Drive SBGA211, titanium, $8400

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