One of the first things that you may be thinking is “wow, cool Explorer II homage”. I’d say you’re not totally wrong either because that’s how I made my way to the SBGN003. I was looking hard at 5 digit Explorer II’s, but still had a hard time committing to that much spend on a watch, especially with a 9 month old baby in the house and the pandemic still being very much a thing. I remember seeing the Grand Seiko SBGN003 pop up in my Instagram feed and started to do my deep dive. There was a lot to like about the watch, and being that I already had another GS with a 9F movement in my collection, I more or less knew what to expect. Once it hit the Watch Recon alerts page, I knew it would end up in my collection. If you’re able to set a Watch Recon alert without buying the watch, you are a stronger person than I. 

When the watch showed up on a hot August afternoon, it just immediately clicked. The finishing on the 39mm steel case was perfect. It fit my 6.75” wrist like a glove and quickly rose to the top of my most-worn watches. Let’s take a closer look at this highly accurate, easy to wear GMT from Grand Seiko and how it’s held up over my tenure with the watch. 

Case

For a sports watch, 39mm is the goldilocks case size for me. It’s big enough to remain legible and have a solid presence on my wrist, but not so big that it gets in the way. The case measures in at 39mm wide, 12.1mm thick, and 46mm lug-to-lug. While the dimensions make a lot of sense on paper, they translate into metal even better. Grand Seiko gets some flak for their case sizes, but that’s mostly on their mechanical movement watches. I think a lot of this discourse I’ve seen over the years is from people who may not have had the chance to actually try on a Grand Seiko. They do such a great job of shaping the cases so they hug your wrist. When viewed from the side, you can see that the mid case slopes down towards your wrist the closer you get to the lugs. When compared to something like the Tudor Black Bay 58, you can really see how much more curvature the GS has in its case. While they’re both 39mm sports watches, I believe the SBGN003 has the edge in terms of comfort. 

It’s not just the curvature that the case has that makes it so cool, but the way it’s finished as well. There’s a mix of brushed and zaratsu polished finishes on the watch. Grand Seiko’s zaratsu polishing is a process that achieves an extremely high polish that maintains a razor sharp line between the hairline brushed and zaratsu polished surfaces. You can see this in action on the case of the SBGN003 on the top of the lugs. Instead of a really small polished chamfer, they’ve taken it up a notch and polished a wide swath of the lugs that carries through the crown guards and onto the other side of the watch. It’s just the right amount of polish to give the watch a little shine without going overboard. The fixed 24-hour GMT bezel is brushed and engraved with numerical hour markings every two hours. They’re filled with a black enamel to enhance legibility. While the zaratsu has its fair share of scratches and dings from heavy use over the years, it still shines in a way unlike the other watches in my collection. 

Dial + Hands

Razor sharp and precise are the two terms that come to mind. When you take a closer look at the dial, you just keep noticing subtle details that will make you wonder how they’re even possible to achieve. From afar, the gloss black dial is relatively simple, but it’s done so well. The Grand Seiko logo is printed at 12 in silver, and is balanced out by “GMT” in orange just above 6 o’clock. The dial has printed hash marks for each minute, with an expertly crafted applied index at every hour. Up at 12, you’ll find the boldest of the indices, while a framed date display with dial-matching date wheel resides at three, and two slightly more pronounced indices at 6 and 9. Each applied index is a work of art. The faceted edges are polished to a high shine, while the top has an extremely finely grooved surface. Towards the outer edge of each index is a small inlay of Lumibrite lume that helps you tell the time when the lights go out. 

The hour and minute hand look like they could legitimately cut you if handled. More faceted edges with high polish and precise finishing. The top surface of the main hands are brushed, which provides a nice contrast to the polished hands that result in a really easy to read dial. The GMT hand is relatively simple in comparison, but the orange really pops against the inky black dial. 

One of the things that won me over about this watch is the finishing on the dial and hands. They’re really remarkable. I also love how the sapphire crystal protects the dial while the rest of the case and bracelet gets a bit more banged up from wear. I’ve been wearing this watch since the Summer of 2021 and it’s picked up a fair share of scratches and knocks. The juxtaposition of the worn case and pristine dial really do it for me, and definitely contribute to me wanting to keep the watch in my collection. 

Movement

I feel like quartz doesn’t really get a fair shot. Of course it’s cool that there’s a little mechanical machine on your wrist, but the way that Grand Seiko approaches quartz deserves a second look if you’ve written it off. First, just look at the movement itself. It’s finished like a mechanical movement and built by hand. This is NOT the quartz movement you’d find in something way way cheaper. Metal plates, machined screws, and a sealed construction make for a durable, built-to-last movement. Inside the SBGN003 is the 9F86 which sports a GMT function and quick-set hour hand. Its claimed accuracy is +/- 10 seconds per year, which I’ve found to be spot-on in the nearly four years I’ve owned the watch. It’s oddly satisfying to pop up time.gov and see that your watch is still within a second of the atomic clock despite setting it several months ago. Some other cool things about the 9F is that the date changes instantaneously. There’s no in-between, it just snaps into place. Something Seiko calls the “Backlash Auto-Adjust Mechanism” ensures that the seconds hand lands exactly on each seconds marker, again a small detail that adds refinement that you just don’t see on lesser quartz movements. 

The 9F86 is a “true” GMT with a jumping main hour hand. Unscrew the crown to the first position and you can jump the hour hand forwards or backwards to accommodate for your new time zone. On a “true” GMT (which honestly I think is a little offensive to all the caller GMTs out there), the 24-hour hand stays set to your home time zone while the main hand set changes according to the local time. You can also use the jumping hour to correct the date when moving between 28, 30, and 31 day-long months as to not disturb the time. One of the things that I love about the watch is the accuracy, and the fact that you can adjust it to various time zones or correct the date without stopping the seconds hand is so cool. 

One of the craziest things that sold me on the 9F movements is that Grand Seiko grows their own quartz crystals in their own machinery to ensure that they are as high quality as possible. Each crystal is then aged in a controlled temperature and humidity environment and subjected to a controlled high voltage to ensure stability and performance. Each crystal is then paired with an integrated circuit that is tuned to each individual crystal, ensuring that each movement is tuned to its own specific crystal. It honestly sounds like something more at home in a sci-fi novel, but it’s going on inside the movement on my wrist. 

Straps + Wearability

The SBGN003 ships on a stainless steel bracelet that’s 19mm wide at the lugs. The bracelet is straight through to the clasp with no taper. It’s fine and comfortable, but I really don’t have too much to say about it. One thing that might bug someone is the total lack of micro adjustment on a Grand Seiko clasp. While the clasp is very low profile, it has no way to make incremental changes. You’re left to use the included half link and hope that you can find a fit you can live with. Luckily, the combination of links I have on there fits quite well, but results may vary. Over the years, I’ve thrown it on a nato from time to time, but it usually ends up back on the bracelet pretty quickly. I did have a very rare double spring bar blowout with the watch on a nato, and I think that kind of soured me on the whole experience. Pro tip: do not lift a stroller, a kid, and a bag full of stuff while on a Disney shuttle bus with a too tight nato on your wrist in the Florida heat. 

While the case shape and size are great, the weight is spot-on, and really just everything about this watch works for me, one of the things that makes it wearable is the accuracy and convenience of the movement. As my life as a Dad to two young kids has become busier and more complicated, I can really appreciate a great looking watch that’s comfortable on my wrist with an extremely accurate movement that needs nothing other than the occasional date change. 

Conclusion

Despite dropping the wrong reference number in the Worn & Wound Team’s Most Worn Watches of the Year 2024 video (boy, I really hope somebody paid for that blunder), the SBGN003 remains one of the most worn watches in my collection. While I’d love to say that I’ve used the GMT function while jet setting across the globe, I think the watch only made it out of Eastern Time once. The style of the case, comfort on the bracelet, and the fact that it’s always set to the right time makes me reach for it more often than not.

While I still have a serious soft spot for my Speedmaster, there are some days where it’s just easier to throw on the SBGN003. I’m not a big mover of watches, but I’ve gotten the bug to do some consolidation recently, and this one simply isn’t up for consideration, it’s in the collection for the long haul. Oh, and just for kicks I decided to load up time.gov to see how the watch was doing. I last set it on November 3rd 2024 for daylight savings time and the watch is currently running 2 seconds fast. Not too shabby. Grand Seiko