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The Art of Horology, Katana, & Seiko's Cutting Edge- Ananta.
Mechanical watches are a funny thing.Their functions and relevance, particularly in today's cellular device-based, digital life are diminishing yet their popularity has failed to wane or fade in recent years. They have transcended trends and endured. Having faced near extinction about forty years ago with the advent of quartz-digital technology; no other time-honed and evolved, spring-based marvel of engineering, built to do just one simple thing and one thing only, all the time, has survived the evolution of progress. The mechanical watch has endured.
To most everyone, watches are tools, a necessity of measuring everything from the everyday mundane to the once in a lifetime memorable. To some, watches are a curiosity, an accessory or a symbol of expression or achievement. To others, the wristwatch is much like a separate life that beats along to your life's drum. A good watch is a symbol of who you are, what you've done, where you've been and sometimes even who you want to be.
Fetishes. Women have shoes, handbags, diamonds and chocolate. Men have watches. Everything else is just an accessory.
When you think of a good, mechanical watch- most invariably think Rolex, Cartier, maybe if you know a thing or two about anything material- Patek Philippe, of course. But what do you think about when you hear Seiko?
Seiko (along with Casio) makes more watches and timing devices than any other company in the world. Some twenty million timing devices a month, about two million wristwatches a year but only a small fraction of those watches are mechanical or premium-branded watches and almost none of them are available outside of Japan.
For fifty years Seiko has made premium offerings in their Credor, Grand Seiko and King Seiko lines (among a few others too) but for the first time Seiko is officially offering North America, along with the rest of the world, a premium watch brand- Ananta. Inspired by the 800-some year-old Katana, the art of Japanese sword making, Ananta is inspired and defined by the centuries-old metallurgy and finishing techniques and is Seiko's bid into the high status, affluent world of premium wristwatches.
If you're a watch fan, and frequent the Internet, you've known about the Grand Seiko line. This Asia-only timepiece was honed to be a Rolex beater, and many a collector will argue which is better in timing, accuracy, fit, finish, appeal- and a hundred other ways- but a major flaw in the Grand Seiko's deck is perhaps its name- Seiko. For many a common folk concerned with brand exclusivity, Seiko doesn't necessarily scream "premium" but technically, it comes from the Japanese world for "accurate" (I'm not Japanese, but that's what they tell me). Compounding the fact that many Grand Seikos cost well over $10,000, they're a hard sell, particularly in a world where a comparable Rolex (the most recognized premium watch in the world) can be had, around the world for less. Most anyone doesn't know what the hell a Grand Seiko is.
In Asia, Seiko isn't regarded as the producer of inexpensive but reliable quartz timepieces, they're known for innovating the wristwatch industry. Their first successful quartz watch in 1969, the Astron, almost put Switzerland out of business; Seiko is redeeming themselves forty years on, offering the Ananta and as far as watches go, they're actively marketing one of the most brand conscious markets in the world- North America. Think of the Ananta like the Lexus of Seiko watches. Just as Lexus shook the premium car industry twenty years ago- the Rising Sun is rising again- and it means business with the Ananta.
Ananta comes in four basic models with two distinct movement (many enthusiasts call this the "engine") options- the totally in-house-produced Automatic and the innovative Spring Drive. Speaking of engines, it's known throughout the industry that to be a player in the watch game, you have to be an "in-house movement manufacturer," or often regarded as simply a manufacture, developing, designing and making literally all components of the watch itself, everything from the hairsprings to the mainsprings to the lubrications in-between the gears. Truth be known, most premium branded timepieces are not from a true manufacture. Seiko is among the world's few, true, in-house watch manufacturers- right up there with the best, most regarded and prestigious makers.
The Ananta Chronograph/12-Hour GMT and 24-hour, full two-time zone GMT models are available with the Spring Drive movement. The more traditional, mechanical automatics can be found in a Chronograph model too, the Double Retrograde- a fancy and dramatic display of both day and date, along with a power-reserve indicator and the Multi-hand Automatic, which is basically a day-date, power-reserve indicator watch as well, but a little less elaborate than the Retrograde.
Anantas are rather large at 46 millimeters in diameter and over thirteen millimeters thick, maybe too large for some tastes but many watches (yes, even Rolex) have gotten larger with today's fashions. The Ananta is a sporty, casual everyday watch that could be worn to the office but may look best while playing on the weekend. Its wrist presence is not unlike that of a Panerai- though, a little two large for my smaller wrists and build.
The Katana sword/Shogun theme is prevalent with the case-sides and lugs resembling the blades of a sword, with sharp, curved, multi-faceted and chamfered edges. Supposedly, the same techniques used to polish swords are applied to the metal on Ananta watches- and although that may be an exaggeration, the Ananta is a top-quality, top-finish watch. Even the dial hands are rumored to be as sharp as a real Katana blade, while the winding rotors are decorated much like the handles of the storied Japanese weapon.
All Ananta watches are available in multi-piece stainless steel cases with sapphire crystal and case-back displays and can be ordered with either silver or black dials; as well as a full-stainless steel bracelet or leather strap option with butterfly deployment. A 72-hour power-reserve is had with the Spring Drive, while the Automatic has a 45-hour main spring, and all feature an up/down indicator, perfect for the multi-watch wearer who owns and rotates many watches. Water resistance is a safe 10-bar, 330 feet, more than enough to qualify as "water proof" for all practical, everyday purposes, but I wouldn't go diving with them.
Overall, the Seiko Ananta line is dynamic and competitively priced. A basic automatic starts at $2,100, the Double Retrograde, just a tad more. The Spring-Drive GMT goes for around $4,300 and the Spring Drive Chronograph for some $6,400. Like most things Japanese, you get a lot of product for your money and it's accurate and reliable. The Spring Drive models are so accurate Seiko claims a gain/loss rate within a second a day. The COSC, the certified official chronometer standards in Switzerland call for a mean gain loss of +6/-4 seconds a day.
If you're in the market for a good watch that will last your lifetime and perhaps even the generation it gets passed-down to- the Seiko Ananta will easily do the trick. Their roughly 50% less expensive than their comparable Swiss counterparts, offer the same, if not better quality and performance all while offering the mystical allure of Katana, even if your knowledge of Japanese swords does involve John Belushi making sandwiches.
And if you're still hung-up on name-brand recognition, a Seiko has been worn in space, been to the surface of the moon, been to the ocean's floors, timed the Olympics, even featured in numerous 007 James Bond films- much like any Rolex or Omega has. Seiko's fault is perhaps not advertising or endorsing these accomplishments. And making too many cheap quartz watches.
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All watches are just jewlery now.
The pride of buying good quality stuff, or creating good quality stuff has been substituted by bold and brazen designs and colors of Chinese made run of the mill in this disposable society.
Still though, some of us appreciate quality, functionality and simplicity of style.
No matter how exquisite or ornate, a timepiece is first judged by its ability to accurately measure, and consistently so, the passage of time, and our place in the cosmos in an instant.
By time, we mean we establish a baseline pinned to this planet's distance from its nearest star and heat source, by its elliptical orbit about that star and its axial spin. It is the point of reference from where all the rest of the universe (according to our understanding) is referenced. If it has a defect greater than 1 in 20,000--it is a failure and its "drift" infects all time-sensitive data accumulation.
Our markets should model a time piece. They should be efficient, precise...a mechanism whereby stored capital is carefully allocated to its highest and best use. It should be like an older generation that bestows its legacy upon a progeny of this generation, and robustly builds a future sans great waste and duplicate effort.
Our markets are no longer any resemblance of this. They are deeply defective. All the sub-mechanisms and intricate cogs have left their orbits, subsided in their perfect rhythm, gone rogue and froward in their interconnected symbiosis.
The entire machine is coming unglued. It shows great expectation of forward earnings in the equities, it amazingly discounts all the defaults and bankruptcies necessary to clear the system AS IF THEY DID NOT EXIST. It registers ultra-low interest rates just as a sovereign is undergoing its greatest turpitude, is borrowing in quantum factors of past episodes of contraction while interest rates hum along without compensating investors for greater risk. It's foundational flywheel from which the operation derives its prime movement (our currency) is a daily changeable input.
The whole contraption has become a whimsical toy--a plaything of corrupted demi-gods which will lead astray all that put their devotion into it.
Having tryed steering out of a whirling maelstrom and scudding along without escape, we will now try ruddering into the vortex. Surely this will allow safe passage.
Years ago I had a Rolex Explorer 2. It kept good time, even in my oilfield job. After 15 years on my wrist I sold it to a Dallas watch seller (at a $600 profit over those 15 yrs). I then and went on to buy a Raymond Weil Tango ($500), which still is on my wrist. I am not now in the tough-guy oil business.
I love a good & accurate watch w/out the frills. My Raymond Weil is a battery powered watch (that is thin, a plus), but I hope to get a Rolex again in the future, despite my skinny wrists! If deflation goes on long enough I will again have a ROLEX!
46mm is cartoonishly large.The current big watch crazy is silly, an Escalade for the wrist..
I wear grand seikos up to 42mm. As I type this I am wearing a vintage seiko 6105 diver from 1970 which keeps time within 2 seconds daily, measuring 40mm.
I agree with you personally... I can't go over 40mm without having to be making an excuse for myself. Or the watch.
Thats where we are heading... This era will be of quality, not junk at Wallie Mart.
Yeah, 46mm is begging for attention, although there may be some brilliance in that play with today's aging baller is in need of a value option. I'm a whore for finding occassions to quote Nick Cage, this is about as appropriate as it gets:
Roger the Car Salesman: My name's Roger, Sir. May I be of some help?
Memphis: That's funny, my name's Roger... Two Rogers don't make a right.
[laughs]
Memphis: Roger, I have a problem...
Roger the Car Salesman: Yes?
Memphis: I've been in L.A. for three months now. I have money, I have taste. But I'm not on anybody's "A" list, and Saturday night is the loneliest night for the week for me.
Roger the Car Salesman: Well, a Ferrari would certainly change that.
Memphis: Perhaps, Mmmm. But, you know, this is the one. Yes, yes yes... I saw three of these parked outside the local Starbucks this morning, which tells me only one thing. There's too many self-Indulgent wieners in this city with too much bloody money! Now, if I was driving a 1967 275 GTB four-cam...
Roger the Car Salesman: You would not be a self-indulgent wiener, sir... You'd be a connoisseur.
Memphis: Precisely. Champagne would fall from the heavens. Doors would open. Velvet ropes would part.
My Omega 3750.00 needs company and I think I just found it.
Yes, nice quote from Gone In 60 Seconds... and as i hear it Nick is in BIG financial troubles, though i digress. Equiv to a 1967 275 might be a vintage Patek Calatrava in RG, manual wind, no date or other complications. New Ferrari cars are a dime a dozen on used lots and like driving an Xbox. The F40 was the last true driver's supercar from Ferrari IMHO.
Then again a $20,000 track car with an old 2L Ford Pinto engine (seriously) will easily beat the F40 and Enzo.
He said Horology.
I wonder how they determined 10:08 to be the "really cool" time to show.
90* facing up.
Besides, when you're important, you can afford to be 8 minutes late.
I think it offers the least obstruction to the various facial features
Right angles are traditional iconography for precision, not to mention Freemason symbology. Not saying, just saying...but yeah, I think you're correct.
http://whoyoucallingaskeptic.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/freemason.jpg
Heurology. Horology is the slow corruption of our elected representatives as they relieve us of our fortunes and liberties.
I always bring a watch with an illuminating backdial to a motion picture. Allows me to gauge the flow.
Foolish me. Won't need it this time. The viewing public's tastes have become so morbid that they sit only for lurid SNUFF films. Funny that. I thought snuff was used to sneeze and open the airways. No, apparently not. It's blowing out the candle, or the fire within the ram's horn, never to be rekindled. These theater-goers don't know that (being spectators) they will be called to be the prime actors of THE SNUFF.
The theater is rigged. Accelerants all around. All will be well until some flash point alights the entirety.
Snuff.
Huff away the light in the darkness. This is the end of all chapters, episodes, sequels. The illuminated, beautiful city upon the hill is consumed.
not a watch person but am interested in climate and politics (in addition to things economic)
to that end watch WH press sec Gibbs blame the current cold across the Northern Hemisphere on Global Warming
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zF07rEJHJY
I have owned some cool watches. Sinn has been the coolest so far. Tudor can be nice if you're in the States just because they aren't available. Grand Seiko is interesting, but it's still a Seiko....and if you're planning to flip it the resale value is catastrophic.
There is a gray market TUDOR dealer in Florida.
I bought a TUDOR ICONAUT and am very pleased with the purchase. ROLEX owns TUDOR and markets them to value buyers. But the quality and accuracy of ROLEX shines throughout the TUDOR line.
Duke of Norfolk...Catherine, or
http://www.boston.com/news/local/vermont/articles/2009/03/15/the_fall_of...
You metrosexuals are a trip. I expect your next report will be about Victoria Secrets new tighty-whities made exclusively for metrohomos. Nice.
Wow, such profound words from a man that has to sit to pee and cries every time he has an orgasm. Must have been hard trying to shake "Wide Stance" and "Stall Knocker" as nicknames after college.
One cannot expect a barbarian classless monkey like you to understand the ways of royalty.
Not to be a dick, but why was this story posted?
If a mission of zh is to wake people up to the new new in finance and global economics, then it may be distracting or disconcerting for newcomers to find an extended writeup about a watch of all things.
Now, if this is an ad to offset zh costs, then that seems more sensical, but it would leave me concerned that ad-based revenue isn't creeping into story selection and editing.
consistent with the ZH mission one of the features of the watch is its 'alarm'
Content is content, passion is passion. Not speaking for the ZH team, but I think it's consistent with the intent of fostering a core base of subject matter expertise (not to speak of the irony of criticising narrowness of focus through a narrowly-focused website). Be that as it may, I find it incredibly relevent since Travis' writings are much in lockstep with the cultural tastes and preferences of the homo sapiens quaestor.
relevant, even.
It's a cleverly veiled advertisement for your perplexed enjoyment. The Art of ZH Homology.
Lighten up Andy, we are into a lot of different things here. I think a good watch fits the ZH profile. You can also tell a lot about a person from the watch they wear.
O,K
Agreed, just got my Seiko SND255 39mm. No plastic or rubber watch bands for me. It's replacing a Fossil ch2365 which I cannot find a band for anywhere. Should have stuck with an old school co. I also wanted a watch that weighed more than the cash I paid for it.
Good piece. I'm glad I didn't stop reading after "When you think of a good, mechanical watch- most invariably think Rolex, Cartier".
The pinnacle of fine watch making at the moment IMO is Lange & Sohne
Known as Glasshutte to us peasants.
I think I agree with you there... But they're too good to mention!
IWC man, seiko?, Are you kidding me!
I use my cell phone.
My cell phone keeps perfect time, too.
Watches last longer than stupid smartphones
The only question that matters with a watch is... can you pawn it?
I mean seriously - why own a watch with no liquidity.
A status watch is a Rolex you bought at the bottom from a pawn shop.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven.
No timekeeper, no town square crier, nor herald will alert as the the instant or place, but BABYLON is fallen. It will come quiet, like a thief in the night when all are saying, "All is well, all is well."
And in the twinkling of an eye...
I got me one of these when USD/JPY was 122 and change.
http://www.ginza-tenshodo.com/watch/original/04/index.html
Won't find many of these in the US.
Its's a collar. I don't put em' on my dogs and I don't wear em'.
Totally agree!
Since we are discussing watches...I got an Issey Miyake for xmas:
http://2modern.com/Personal-Accessories/Watches/Issey-Miyake-Ovo-Watch-S...
I like the more progressive/modern look. Traditional watches bore me...especially the overpriced satus symbols.
Hey poop. I got a good watch too. Can't miss it.
http://img2.timeinc.net/people/i/2007/startracks/070806/flavor_flav.jpg
Yeeeeeaaaaah Booooooooy....
On an unrelated subject, Harry Reid is a world-classless putz... But hey, He is a Marxist so He will be excused by the MSM for his Sen Robert Byrd (former KKK) style racial blast...
yeah .. but can you get reservations at Dorsia ?
Come on ZH, this seems like an infomercial piece. What's next? Sports Car and Real Estate?
Yeah why not. Money to be made or lost on both.......sound familiar??
I can't go back to wearing a watch. It is too constraining!
My old Speedmaster and Heuer chrono are just collecting dust.
these are nice but i still love the classic cartier tank. it never goes out of style
http://www.timebooth.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/Cartier%20Tank.jpg
Time is a room; not a rope.
Come on, I'm a huge fan of watches but I can't quite get behind this writeup--it reads way too much like an ad... If you want to read about the art of horology, may I humbly suggest some reading on the equation of time... Basically, its the difference between mean time and solar time, a difference stemming from tilt of the earth's axis and eccentricity of the earth's orbit. Clocks sometimes show the EOT so you can know when to expect people who rely on sundials--peasants!--to arrive.
http://www.timezone.com/extras/200711101492
These wrist-strapped things are not real watches.
A real watch is well over 200 years old, preferably with a massive repousse outer case in solid 22K gold, and is accurate to something like +/- 15 minutes/day at most.
I mean, really now, who amongst the aristocracy needs to pass the time more accurately than that?
Unlike a few others I wasn't surprised to find this posting here. Perfectionism meeting art and tradition (or as an art unto itself) is under-appreciated in the US, unlike in Japan. Witness automobiles. Knives. Trains. Service. Whisky. Watches.
I had researched where to snag one of these Seiko's in my area several weeks ago after a recent trip to Japan. To those who find this ZH post out of line, recall the 2010 Porsche Pamamera posting from October.
Here is a bit more:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXNneAi9bDs
"Perfectionism"? LOL?
I don't know about you, but I live in a world of digital watches that lose a second every 26 years. You live in a world of cranks and gears that lose a second a day.
You can keep your definition of "perfectionism". ...because my definition eats your definition's lunch.
Yeah. Whatever. Keep telling yourself it has "utility value" of some kind. Bragging that it is accurate to a second a day means that once a year you'll find you're 6 minutes late.
Technology long ago surpassed the world of gears and springs.
This is jewelry. Period. And I think you'll look real purdy wearing it, boyz.
Yeah, nice and all, but how do I hook one of those up to the nitroglycerin in order to destroy the debt records?
I like watches, and have been looking for a while, to replace my Longines Conquest VHP.I am into thin cases, and by todays standards, small faces. I would like to get a mechanical watch, if they can make it thin enough, but really I'm not fussed. I want a second hand, steel strap, date and if I can, day. I want to be able to read it at night. Perpetual calendar and waterproof of course. I thought I'd found something in the Citizen BM8180-54B, but the strap is too flimsy and the case too tall - it doesn't have the quality of the Longines. Any suggestions?
you all should look at Invicta - a Rolex knockoff - nice looking, mechanically accurate, and you can get about 50 of their steel diving watches for one Submariner - which in normal use ought to leave a little investment capital for a rainy day....
Funnily enough, the battery went in my Seiko chrono yesterday. Great watch apart from the hardlex crystal face which is getting pretty scratched up. Then again I am pretty rough on watches. Best watch I've ever had though I can't compare it to the real high end ones as they're out of my price range.
I'm a Festina fan myself.
I heard the Grand Timex is nice too.
I love a fine mechanical watch. It should be an autowinding chronograph, of course, preferably with a lunar phase dial.
Although the Rolex is perhaps the most famous of these, I am quite partial to Patek Philippes.
There's a fantastic book that any watch lover or Horologist should read entitled 'The Search for Longitude' about John Harrison and H1, H2, H4 etc.
Excellent reading.
Patek Philippe was originally a Polish watch company, btw, and moved to Geneva early on. Technically, they could still be called a Polish watch company, and they do craft the finest timepieces the world has ever known.
-MobBarely