Grand Seiko Four Seasons Summer SBGH271 Review

Grand Seiko is known for creating things with a purpose other than just telling the time. They make some of the most interesting dials out there & even if the make something simple like this watch. They still finish it at such a high level that it’s hard to even call it simple.

What we have here today is the Grand Seiko SBGH271. One of four of Grand Seikos Seasons USA exclusive releases. The watches are Inspired by the 4 seasons. Summer, Autumn, Winter & Spring. In this case we have the watch that is Inspired by the sunny summer times. A beautiful green dial inspired by the trees with gold accents that are inspired by the sun to fully capture the emotions of the summer times

The finishing on the dial deserves the spot light. Despite the gorgeous colors, the dial is finished to a level of perfection, You can even see the finishing is so high quality that the reflection of the hand is visible as it sweeps across the dial. It doesn’t stop there however, Grand Seiko finished their hands and indices extremely well that it catches the light even in the darkest of settings, which I have grown to appreciate. The polished and brushed gold hands and indices are amazing in the metal. Though the green dial turns darker in some settings to an almost black look, the luster of that gold never fades.

Let’s get the specifications of the watch out of the way. This watch is 40mm across with a 21mm strap size and a thickness of 12.9mm. However, as you can probably tell the watch is bezeless. Due to the fact, that actually makes the watch appear a lot smaller on the wrist in a good way. Quite frankly I can’t see any wrist size that can’t sport this. Now, unlike two models out of the four, this watch is made out of full stainless steel with the famous zratsu polishing finish. Also known as mirror like finishing. Zratsu polishing tends to spoil you when it comes to finishing, it’s like seeing in high definition for the first time. It’s absolutely ridiculous in a very good way.

The bracelet however isn’t my favorite. it is comfortable but with the level of detail and finishing in the watch itself, Makes this bracelet have a lot of room for improvement. I hope Grand Seikos focuses more on their bracelets in the future as that would make this watch unbeatable in the everday watch category againts an Aqua Terra or an Oyster Perpetual 39

Finally we have the 9s85 caliber which is actually a high beat movement & not a spring drive. Withing the collection we have 2 spring drive movements and 2 Hi beats. The Spring Drives are reserves for the Spring and Winter while the 9S85 is reserves for Summer and Autumn. The 9s85 is a high beat that beats at 36,000 vph and has a power reserve of 55 hours and an accurate of +5 and -3 seconds a day, which is not ground breaking but is decent for a hi beat caliber. If you want insane accuracy, I would definitely consider a spring drive instead.