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TweetEmailSeiko continues to build amazing watches on top of their innovative new SpringDrive system.One of the latest is the Seiko Marinemaster GMT. I almost postednothing but a picture of this watch because I think the mere sight of it says itall: it is big, beautiful, durable, and simultaneously both modern and classic.I have an old Seiko titanium Kinetic Scubamaster which is one of my favoritewatches in the world, and one of the things I really like about this family of watchesis the amount of functionality Seiko packs into them. The Marinemaster has a 24-hourhand for tracking time in a second time zone, but rather than putting the hours forthe second time zone on the bezel like most GMT watches do, the numbers are actuallyinside the bezel, around the perimeter of the dial. This leaves the bezel free foryour standard dive time functionality, which means you get a GMT and a diver allin one. Of course, this makes the watch slightly less flexible purely as a GMT watchsince the hours are typically marked on the bi-directional rotating bezelso that you can easily check times in other time zones (rotating the bezel clockwisetakes hours off the second time zone while rotating it counterclockwise adds hours),however if you don't need the additional GMT flexibility, it's nice having the diverfunctionality, instead.Features of the Seiko Marinemaster GMT:Spring Drivemovement accurate to about 15 seconds per month or better with a 72 hour powerreserve and automatic winding. 24-hour hand for GMT functionality. Date.Power reserve indicator.Bright titanium construction with a screw-down caseback.Titanium bracelet with a double locking clasp and diver extension. Sapphire crystal.Water resistant to 600 meters (almost 2,000 feet).45mm in diameter, 17mm thick. The bad news is that you can't waltz down to your local mall to pick one of thesebeauties up (unless you live in Japan). The good news is that you can still get themfor about $2,950 from some Japanese retailers who are willing to ship to the US.

TweetEmailIn 1969, Seiko introduced one of the most disruptive technologies in the history of watchmaking: the quartz movement. Quartz movements are more accurate than automatic or mechanical movements, generally less temperamental, and are far cheaper to produce. Since then, the Japanese watchmaker has continued to innovate and help the industry evolve with inventions like the kinetic watch, the kinetic auto relay, and now, the Spring Drive.To understand the significance of the Spring Drive, it probably helps to have a little background on more conventional watch movements.Mechanical WatchesMechanical watches contain a main spring, the tension from which drives the watch. The main spring is wound by hand (usually by twisting the crown), at which point it slowly unwinds at a regular rate over the course of a couple of days. Mechanical watches use devices call escapements which provide the friction necessary to cause the main spring to unwind at a rate consistent with units of time (otherwise the main spring would simply unwind all at once). Escapements are the most intricate, delicate, and expensive components of mechanical and automatic watches.Automatic WatchesAutomatic watches typically operate just like mechanical watches, except they use a small weight or rotor to automatically wind the main spring. The weight winds the main spring by pivoting around shaft as you move your arm during your everyday routine. Most automatic watches can also be wound like mechanical watches, though there is seldom a need to do so. Automatic watches are far more common today than mechanical watches (when was the last time you saw someone wind their watch?).Quartz WatchesQuartz watches operate entirely differently than automatic and mechanical watches. A quartz watch uses electricity from a battery to osculate a tiny quartz crystal at a very high and very predictable frequency. Those vibrations are counted and add up to seconds, minutes, hours, etc. Quartz watches are almost always more accurate than their automatic and mechanical counterparts, usually gaining or losing no more than 15 seconds per month, and in some cases, as few as 20 seconds per year. (It’s usually acceptable for automatic watches to gain as many as 6 seconds per day, or 3 minutes per month.)Seiko Kinetic WatchesKinetic watches are sort of a combination of automatic and quartz watches. They contain a weight like automatic watches which responds to arm movements, but rather than winding a main spring, the weight powers a tiny generator which stores power in a capacitor, or a rechargeable battery. That power is then used to power a standard quartz movement, thus giving you the accuracy of a quartz watch, but without a battery that needs to be replaced. It’s worth noting that kinetic watch capacitors do occasionally need to be replaced, but much less frequently than standard watch batteries. I have a Seiko Kinetic watch that is over 6 years old, and the capacitor still works beautifully.The Seiko Spring DriveThe Seiko Spring Drive actually contains a main spring like an automatic or mechanic watch, but it is made from a material which provides more elasticity than your typical main spring, providing a power reserve of 72 hours as opposed to the more common 40 hours. What is really unique about the Spring Drive, however, is that it does not use an escapement to regulate the unwinding of the main spring. Rather, it uses a “Tri-synchro regulator” which regulates the energy generated by the main spring, and uses that energy to power a crystal oscillator. In other words, the Spring Drive is an even tighter integration between automatic and quartz movements than even kinetic watches because the crystal is directly powered by the main spring rather than a rechargeable capacitor. The result is accuracy of about one second or less per day, and a completely smooth, sweeping hand movement.The Seiko Spring Drive should be available all over the world (including the US!) sometime after September of 2005. No information on pricing as of yet, but you can bet I’ll be reviewing one of these as soon as I can get my hands on one.By Christian Cantrell