2019 Revolution Awards Public Polling: Best Dress Watch

Every year, we get something like closure by racking our brains over, what else, the Revolution Awards. To grease our ruminations, this year we have also created a few categories to be decided by the public. Join us as we unveil an Award Winner every day, counting down to the New Year.

Public Polling: Best Dress Watch
Grand Seiko Elegance Reference SBGZ003
Grand Seiko Elegance Reference SBGZ003

Grand Seiko’s 20th anniversary celebration of the Spring Drive this year brought about several incredible pieces, most notably the highly limited SBGZ001 “Snowflake” that wowed critics across the world and was immediately snapped up by collectors, even at its eye-raising price. But for those of us with a more restrictive credit card limit, the Elegance collection’s SBGZ003, with a restrained display of the “Snowflake” dial and the brand new 9R02 calibre developed by the Micro Artist Studio of the brand’s Shiojiri manufacture is available.

The 9R02 features two mainsprings set in parallel within a single barrel and offers the “Torque Return System”, which dives into excess power produced by the mainsprings when they are fully wound and unused by the system, and recycles it to give the entire movement a longer power reserve to 84 hours. That’s a sizeable amount of energy. But beyond that, the impressive performance of the Spring Drive itself, with a second’s worth of precision a day or less, makes it a thoroughly impressive timekeeper. The system’s design, which features an electronic brake that ensures the gear train runs according to schedule, makes it a truly unique creation in watchmaking.

Grand Seiko Elegance Reference SBGZ003

With an extended power reserve, the watch remains a slim dress piece, a simply and profoundly elegant three-hander housed in a Zaratsu polished case and gently curved lugs that are designed to appear flat while hugging your wrists perfectly. We’d debated between nominating this or the SBGK005 Elegance in blue with the Iwate dial, but the simplicity of this watch won our vote, and the public’s as well, clearly.

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