The Gold Grand Seiko Spring Drive UFA SLGB006 Ice Forest at Dawn

Last year was a watershed moment for Grand Seiko with its announcement of the world’s “most accurate mainspring-driven movement”. Crafted in the Shinshu Watch Studio, the brand’s groundbreaking Calibre 9RB2 – with an annual deviation of only ±20 seconds – debuted in Evolution 9 cases. True to Japanese reverence for nature and Grand Seiko’s talent for creating incredibly textured dials, the new gold edition of the Spring Drive U.F.A. features an “Ice Forest at Dawn” dial inspired by the ice-covered larch trees of the Kirigamine Highlands in winter, just a stone’s throw from the Shinshu Watch Studio.

Acronyms at Grand Seiko contain important nuggets of information. The 44GS, for example, refers to the 1967 model that defined the brand’s seminal “Grammar of Design”. It is also the spiritual father of the Evolution 9 collection, which follows nine design directives, including a lower centre of gravity for a more comfortable and ergonomic fit, classic multi-faceted cases with high-end Zaratsu-polished and hairline finishings, a flat dial, diamond-cut indices and – this is a big “and” – the incorporation of Grand Seiko’s latest movements.

This brings us to the second key acronym that made headlines last year. U.F.A., which stands for Ultra Fine Accuracy, refers to its new-generation Calibre 9RB2, with its unprecedented ±20 seconds per year (±3 seconds per month) accuracy. A first for the Evolution 9 collection, the 37mm case is crafted in 18k yellow gold and finished in accordance with the collection’s design mandates. Fitted with a box-shaped sapphire crystal, a screwed caseback with a see-through sapphire, and a comfortable 100m water resistance, the case has a reasonable 11.4mm thickness, which translates to dress watch territory at Grand Seiko.

The pattern on the dial recreates the shimmering coat of ice that sparkles on the branches of larch trees in the nearby Kirigamine Highlands forests on the coldest days of the year. Suggesting the very early hours of the morning, the jet-black gradient dial reveals a subtle array of crisscrossing branches in the background, dusted with icy, sparkling particles.

In contrast, the golden three-dimensional faceted indices, with deep central grooves, are impossible to miss and ensure superb legibility. The thick, faceted golden hour hand with a blunt tip echoes the shape of the hour markers, while the slimmer, elongated, faceted minutes hand – with a bent tip matching that of the seconds hand – alights on the peripheral track. The golden-framed date window at 3 o’clock has a black background matching the dial and crisp white numerals. One observation: with such an extraordinarily accurate movement, wouldn’t it have made more sense to fit the dial with a precision 60-second/minute track?

Crafted at the Shinshu Watch Studio in Nagano since 2004, all 9R Spring Drive movements fuse mechanical mainsprings with quartz regulation. The unprecedented Ultra Fine Accuracy of Calibre 9RB2 is achieved through advancements in quartz oscillator technology and regulation. Each in-house crystal is aged for three months, then vacuum-sealed with a new low-power integrated circuit (IC). Since temperature compensation is a key factor, the frequency of each crystal oscillator is measured at multiple temperatures before assembly. In addition to its impeccable accuracy, the calibre delivers a robust 3-day power reserve.

This handsome dress watch is paired with a classic black alligator strap and a matching yellow gold triple-folding clasp with push-button release (it is not fitted with the Evolution 9 micro-adjustment system, though). The SLGB006 is a limited edition of 80 pieces. Available exclusively at Grand Seiko Boutiques from June 2026, it retails for EUR 44,700. More information at grand-seiko.com.