Grand Seiko Evolution 9 Automatic Men's 40.80mm Watch SLGB023

Like every Grand Seiko watch, the Ushio 300 strikes a perfect balance between function and beauty. Its legibility, durability, and wearing comfort have been thoroughly considered and painstakingly engineered to ensure uncompromising performance in any environment. Commensurate attention has been given to every aspect of the watch’s physical appearance.

The prominent indexes of the Evolution 9 Style are meticulously crafted with multiple facets. Both the hour and minute hands strike a sharply defined and powerful form, ensuring outstanding legibility at a glance.

The watch showcases a blue variation of the “Ushio” dial, a design theme that has been part of the Grand Seiko diver’s watch since 2022. The term ushio, which means “tide” in Japanese, evokes the waters that surround the Japanese archipelago, a timeless source of inspiration in Japan’s culture and art. Combined with a gradient design, the vivid dial colour emphasises the “Ushio” pattern while ensuring the excellent legibility for which Grand Seiko divers are renowned. The blue dial reflects the vast expanse of the sea through a gradient that captures light streaming into the deep ocean.

Thanks to the movement’s compact design, this model features a case diameter of just 40.8 mm, the smallest of any Grand Seiko diver’s watch, ensuring a comfortable fit for a wide range of wrist sizes. Both the case and bracelet are crafted from High-Intensity Titanium, a material approximately 30% lighter than stainless steel and distinguished by its bright, lustrous appearance.

The bracelet includes a locking extension clasp with micro-adjustment. In addition to a three-step micro-adjustment that allows for up to 6 mm of fine-tuning, the extension feature, designed to be used with a diving suit, enables an additional 18 mm, for providing a total of 24 mm of adjustment.

The 9RB1 movement is hand-assembled by the highly skilled craftspeople of the Shinshu Watch Studio, located in a Seiko Epson facility in the city of Shiojiri in Nagano Prefecture. While the Calibre 9RB1 shares the same attributes as the Calibre 9RB2, its power reserve indicator is located on the dial side.