Grand Seiko revives its first manual-winding 9S dial with the 600-piece SBGW325

Grand Seiko has unveiled the SBGW325, a limited edition that reintroduces the dial layout of the SBGW003, the brand's first manual-winding 9S model from 2001. The new watch keeps the same 37.3mm case and restrained proportions that made the original a quiet turning point for the maison.

The SBGW003 mattered mostly for what powered it: the calibre 9S54, Grand Seiko's first hand-wound in-house movement of its modern era. That movement became the base for the calibre 9S64 found in the brand's current lineup, which raised the power reserve from 50 to 72 hours.

Design-wise, the SBGW003 looked back at Grand Seiko's own 1960s collection rather than at any external reference. It was part of a run of watches, alongside the Elegance GMT SBGM221 and the Hand-Wound SBGW231, that reintroduced the brand's identity to a wider international audience.

That SBGW231, nicknamed the Japanese Calatrava by watch writers, is the model most collectors associate with this discreet, dressy side of Grand Seiko today. The SBGW003 came first and gave the case and dial proportions that both later watches, and now the SBGW325, still share.

What the SBGW325 changes and keeps

The case and proportions carry over unchanged from the SBGW003 lineage, shared with the current SBGW301 and SBGW305: 37.3mm across, 11.7mm thick, and a compact 44.3mm lug-to-lug. A box-shaped sapphire crystal protects the dial, and a caseback held by six screws exposes the movement.

Water resistance is rated only splash-resistant, a limitation Grand Seiko does not disguise and one worth flagging for anyone weighing this against a sportier alternative. It is a dress watch built for the wrist and the desk, not the pool, and priced accordingly against the brand's own catalog.

The dial is the real story here. Its base is now a deep navy, a color drawn from Japan's traditional indigo dyeing, replacing the tone of the original SBGW003 while keeping the boldly raised hour markers that defined it.

Where the SBGW003 used gold-toned Arabic numerals, the SBGW325 renders them in silver, paired with Dauphine hands. A touch of gold survives on the seconds hand and the applied Grand Seiko logo, the one deliberate callback to the earlier watch's palette.

Notably, the dial is not double-signed with the Seiko name. Grand Seiko has operated as its own standalone brand since splitting from Seiko in 2017, and the absence of the parent name underlines that independence on a watch built to honor the brand's own early history.

The movement and what comes with it

Inside is the calibre 9S64, the direct descendant of the SBGW003's original 9S54. It carries a three-day, 72-hour power reserve and an accuracy rating of +5 to -3 seconds a day, decorated on the back with stripes and a concave barrel cover.

The SBGW325 ships with two leather straps on quick-release spring bars: a hand-dyed blue crocodile strap for a tone-on-tone look, and a lighter grey cow leather strap for a more contrasted alternative on the same case.

Grand Seiko is limiting the run to 600 pieces, available from Grand Seiko boutiques starting October 2026. Pricing is set at 5,700 euros, or 5,800 dollars, positioning it among the brand's more accessible manual-winding pieces.

What the price buys against the field

Grand Seiko built its reputation on in-house movements, including Spring Drive, and on the Grammar of Design language that governs its cases and dials. We keep a running list of Grand Seiko watches with recommended retail pricing on our brand page, and it is worth checking where the SBGW325 lands.

We rank Grand Seiko among the attainable picks in our guide to the best luxury watch brands, alongside Tudor and NOMOS Glashutte, for delivering movement-making and design credentials without the price of the classic haute horlogerie names like Patek Philippe or Vacheron Constantin.

That positioning matters here: the SBGW325 is a manual-winding dress watch competing on heritage and finishing rather than complication count, a category we cover more broadly in our watches jewelry coverage alongside dive watches and Cartier Tank alternatives.

For collectors who already own an SBGW301 or SBGW305, the SBGW325 is less a departure than a companion piece, one built to make the connection to the 2001 original explicit through its dial rather than its case, which stays identical across the family.