Feature: Rolex vs Grand Seiko – GMTs
Let’s play a little game. Let’s pretend you’ve never heard of Rolex. You’ve come from some faraway country that’s been kept isolated for decades, but now the floodgates have been opened, your little business has boomed, and now you find yourself jet-setting the world and in need of a GMT watch. Well, I say need—you’ve heard about them and they sound kind of neat. There’s two you’ve got your eye on, a Grand Seiko and a Rolex—but which is best?
Aside from the unique set of circumstances that lead our fictional situation to a choice between the world’s best-known watchmaker and a niche, Japanese name that only restarted its global campaign in 2010, it’s a position that more of us might face than the odds suggest.
But here we’re approaching it from a different, more naïve angle, one of someone who doesn’t understand the might of Rolex and the underdog story of Grand Seiko. There’s no brand allegiance, badge snobbery or investment talk here; our hypothetical is dictated by one thing and one thing only: which watch, the Rolex or the Grand Seiko, is best.
We’ll start with the Rolex, because the Rolex is, with a half-moon of bright blue, the one that catches the eye most. There’s no denying it; side by side with the more sombre Grand Seiko and the blue half of the one-piece black and blue ceramic bezel is positively radioactive. Whether you want to be seen is a whole matter in and of itself. For us, for the watch, does the bright blue make it better, easier to use? Arguably yes; having a clear delineation between day and night can make the GMT function easier to read at a glance.
But the Grand Seiko’s bezel has a trick up its sleeve yet, which only becomes apparent with the arrival of night. Every number, every dot and even the triangle are depicted with luminous paint, all shielded by a ring of clear sapphire to keep it unharmed. The dual tone, one-piece ceramic bezel on the Rolex may be a breakthrough, but that doesn’t stop the recessed numbers, coated in platinum, trapping dirt or getting scratched.
If legibility is a concern with the bezel, it’s surely a must for the dial. Rolex is well-known for its clean, clear dials, its assortment of hands and markers often copied by other watchmakers. Even the shopping list of features on the dial—not the longest on a modern Rolex by any stretch—doesn’t feel too intrusive to the usability of the watch. Perhaps the most invasive addition is the magnifying window over the date, which obscures around five minutes of dial time that simply could have been avoided by fitting the watch with a slightly larger date window instead.
The Grand Seiko’s date window, however, clearly demonstrates that correct proportions do away with the need for magnification—but that doesn’t mean the Grand Seiko’s dial is a zen garden in comparison to the Rolex, thanks to one little detail: the power reserve. For an automatic watch, this is fairly unimportant, particularly when worn—yet there it is anyway. It’s connected to the calibre 9R66, perhaps the part of the watch most different to the Rolex’s calibre 3285. Whilst the Rolex is straight up mechanical, the Grand Seiko has some quartz interference, a current generated by the energy of the mainspring resonating through the crystal and replacing the traditional escapement.
Whilst that results in a perfectly smooth sweep versus the Rolex’s eight beats per second, this stark differentiator doesn’t otherwise cause the movements to become polarised. They both have three days of power reserve; both allow independent adjustment of the hour hand—this means the main dial can be set as local and the bezel as home—and both have hacking seconds for more accurate time-setting. Where they vary is in the details; the Rolex gets an instantly changing date, whilst the Grand Seiko’s two seconds per day accuracy doubles down on Rolex’s four. The Rolex also has a trick escapement featuring nickel phosphorus to combat magnetic interference—although the Grand Seiko has no mechanical escapement for magnetism to interfere with at all.
It’s a neck-and-neck heat between the two watches. It could go either way at this point. Is there anything that can split the tie?
It’s virtually impossible to decide between these two watches on specification alone. They operate so similarly as to be indistinguishable, and what differences there are could simply be a matter of preference one way or the other. Smooth sweep versus stuttering seconds; quartz accuracy versus mechanical complexity; sporty chunkiness versus flexible wearability.
Actually wearing the watches is largely the biggest differentiator between the two. The Grand Seiko is several millimetres thicker and wider, with more deeply curved lugs to compensate. The bracelets are both sturdy, with the GMT-Master’s having been recently switched out for the Jubilee over the previous Oyster. The clasps, however, are where the two really part ways. The Grand Seiko’s is fine, but basic; the Rolex’s could have been engineered by Isambard Kingdom Brunel himself.
The experience is expanded in the details. For our green buyer, what’s presented with the Rolex is a watch with a gloss black dial, dressed with white gold hands and markers, surrounded by print that’s crisp and legible. The polished case sides and bracelet centre links add a bit of glamour, too, competing with the shine of the ceramic bezel to catch the eye first. It’s well executed, but it’s simple. It suits the watch, not overbearing or overindulgent; but it does leave room for the Grand Seiko to try and steal the show.
We’ll start with the second hand by way of example. On the Rolex, it has an almost flat profile, stamped from a sheet of a metal and polished for a pleasant and eye-catching finish. This is the way most manufacturers approach the task, and so is the way of fixing it in place, with an interference-fit hole in the centre. To the naked eye, it’s almost invisible, but nevertheless it’s a detail Grand Seiko has chosen to improve upon.
Rather than the single stage of the Rolex second hand, the Grand Seiko’s comprises of two, the main shaft and the cap. This tidies up the join between the second hand and the movement, making it invisible. But that’s just the beginning. These pieces are stamped just like the Rolex’s, but in finishing they’ve been given a more three-dimensional profile. The shaft is rounded, sharpened at the tip, yet flattening as it gets closer to the counterweight. The cap is flattened on top yet decorated with a bevel to reduce its profile.
The same is true of the markers; where simple borders for the luminous paint suffice with the Rolex, the Grand Seiko’s markers are monolithic, great structures rising from the dial, ringed with polishing and topped with a ridged pattern that catches the light from all angles. It’s a level of care and finesse that is practically invisible, set against a dial of rich, matte black, yet it exists anyway, giving anyone who thinks to look an unexpected surprise. There could and probably will be many people who would never even notice.
As for our hypothetical, should you find yourself with an inkling to examine each watch to the degree that’s required to see these differences, it could be the decider. Or, if the size and simplicity of the Rolex deliver before such a consideration is even made, the Grand Seiko could be out of the running before it’s even had a chance to demonstrate its party trick. The point is that these two watches are so closely matched, split by such tiny differences, that really the pretence of not knowing the disparity in impact and influence these two brands have is to ignore their biggest distinctions entirely. That the Rolex costs an extra £2,250 over the Grand Seiko is less likely to be a decider than the fact the Rolex wears that coronet. That is to say, is it even possible to be truly impartial?
If you find yourself in the enviable position of debating ownership between these two watches, there’s only one thing you need to consider. If this experiment has shown us anything, it’s that brand, badge and history are as important, if not more, than the sum of a watch’s parts—and that’s fine. It’s okay to acknowledge that a watch means more to you than just its specification, or vice-versa. You may see the Grand Seiko and long to be a part of a brand that has outperformed and out-innovated its Swiss counterparts for over half a century, or you may see the Rolex and find your heart warmed by the prospect of wearing a brand that carries so much cachet. After all, there’s so much more to being human than logic.
Looking for a Rolex watch? Click here to shop now
Looking for a Grand Seiko watch? Click here to shop now
