Watch Dandy

This year marks the second annual Dubai Watch Week, which is taking place from November 15-19 in, where else, Dubai. This is a really special event that brings together big modern brands, small independent watchmakers, auction houses, collectors, and journalists to explore the current state of horology, where it’s been, and where it’s going. We’re excited to be partnering with Dubai Watch Week this year to host a few special programs and we hope you’ll come out to join us.

As the years go by and truly fresh-to-market, highly-desirable, rare watches in original condition get harder and harder to find, we get more and more excited when we do find them. If you know vintage Rolex, you know how highly sought after Explorer dial Submariners really are – and here we have one that came within an inch of losing about 90% of its value, now being offered at auction by the original (extremely lucky) owner.

Reviewing the Grand Seiko SBGA029 was mostly a selfish endeavor, as I longed to spend some quality time test driving this diver. Its considerable dimensions are indeed way outside my comfort zone, yet I have somehow still been deeply attracted to this specific model ever since Jack first wrote about it a year ago. I was already familiar with the dressier Grand Seiko models and had high expectations based on Seiko’s track record with diving watches. After all, it must be fairly hard to compete with its cousin the Seiko SKX007, most likely the best price-for-quality diver you could ever dream of. For that reason, the SBGA029 goes a totally different direction, offering an interesting interpretation of a luxury diver, aiming at the Rolexes and Omegas of this world, while putting a unique twist on the category as well.