Grand Seiko finally made a diver I'd take to work
By Tom Hargreaves, Falmouth, Cornwall · · Grand Seiko
I've said rude things about Grand Seiko dive watches. Lovely to look at, but 43.8 mm across and heavy enough to anchor a dinghy. The new ones fix most of that, so I owe them a fair hearing.
The Ushio 300 comes in blue (SLGB023) and green (SLGB025). Ushio is Japanese for tide. The case is high-intensity titanium, 40.8 mm across and 12.9 mm thick, which is three whole millimetres narrower than the divers they replace. Water resistance is 300 m. The bezel is unidirectional with 120 clicks and a ceramic insert.
The bit I actually care about is the bracelet. It's titanium, it has a 6 mm tool-free micro-adjust, and it has an 18 mm dive extension. That's a real extension. Over a 5 mm wetsuit you need that, and an astonishing number of expensive divers still don't have one. So well done.
Inside is the 9RB1, a Spring Drive from Grand Seiko's U.F.A. family, rated at plus or minus 20 seconds a year, with 72 hours of reserve. Whatever you think about the price, that's a properly accurate watch, the kind you set in January and forget about.
Now the moaning.
There's a power reserve indicator between seven and eight o'clock. On a dress watch, fine. On a diver, it's one more thing on a dial that should be about the hands and the markers and nothing else. The markers have also gone from round to faceted rectangles, and the hands are big and blocky. Both are well lumed, and big hands are easy to read in murky water off Pendennis Point, so I'll grudgingly take them. But the dial isn't as clean as a working diver's should be.
And the price. Around $12,400. That's a lot of money for something I'd strap on to teach a pool session full of nervous accountants. I know it's Grand Seiko. I know about the finishing. I still wince.
What would I do with one? Honestly, I'd wear it diving, which I can't say for most watches at this price. The old one I'd have left at home.
Tom Hargreaves is a pen name of The Watch Quest editorial team. Opinions are based on the published specs, the brand's own information and the watch's reputation, not a long-term test.