Episode 49 - Why Is Grand Seiko So Dope? 

There is much to appreciate about these podcasts but I really wish Matt would be more focused with his questioning and let them actually finish a thought. There is no need for so much interruption.

you really need a better camera for the watches, it doesn't do them justice at all

Saw this pop up on my break. Home from work now. Time to watch and listen...

Two years ago I had never heard about Grand Seiko. Now I own two, the 20th Anniversary Hi-Beat SBGH267 and the Hi-Beat GMT SBGJ227 known as the Peacock. Hoping to get a spring drive some time in the future.

Had the pleasure of meeting Joe the other day at a local AD event for GS. What an awesome guy in person and extremely knowledgeable with watches in general.

I currently have a Seiko SARB033 and will eventually have a Grand Seiko spring drive in my collection. Great Episode!

Loved meeting Joe and the rest of the GS team at WatchTime LA. Will definitely be joining the brand if/when they make a sub-40mm spring drive snowflake with the new smaller no-power-reserve-on-dial movement!

This is the best watch show on RU-vid! Love your enthusiasm and passion. Keep the topics coming!

im an 80's kid. Quartz watches are the natural habitat for me :) I do have a manual wind and automatics but quartz are my thing. i have a longines vhp now (+/- 5sec a year) and hopefully will get a 9F preety soon. Love the episode Matt, good job!

"Double fisting" is definitely not the term you're looking for. LOL

Matt Farah has ruined this great opportunity by talking and interrupting way too much.

Such a good episode. It further cemented my thoughts on GS being the next great watchmakers.

Awesome episode. Love all my GSs.

Never heard about Credor before, very cool! Grand Seiko makes some great fonts for their dates.

Another great watch and listen podcast! Grand Seiko make some of the prettiest watches right now. Glad you did a whole show on them. Just out of curiosity, which Iwai whisky were you talking about? I’ve never had a Japanese whisky and I want to grab a bottle.

I love my Grand Seiko Spring Drive!!

That first distressed platinum $70k GS is lit.

Great presentation at Little Treasury Jewelers, Joe!

That was awesome. Just found this channel. Had no idea GS got that expensive or complicated better than Rolex IMO.

We really need more from you guys now👍🏻

Great stuff Joe. Hope to see you soon 👍

I met Joe at the Grand Seiko boutique at Little Treasury Jewelers in Maryland last night (May 9). The man and the GS collection are very impressive.

Joe is a great guy. Glad to see him on the show!

That bit about someone from Seiko going to the MGM Grand Casino, seeing the Lion and thinking "THATS IT!!" would not surprise me in the least bit.

Loved this episode! Thanks again @thesmokingtire

Great vdo. May I ask what ref. is your GMT chorno?

Ah, looking forward to watching this episode!

Great show...I own three GS and they are great!

So it looks like that skeletonized Credor had the 6898 movement, which is pretty cool because the 68 series goes all the way back to 1969 from Daini, briefly interrupted from 1978 to 1991.

How do I purchase the bracelet with that quick release system?

Holy shit it's Matt Farah from the smoking tire.... LMAO at first I was like this dude is very familiar from looks, attitude, and the way he talks. Turns out it is the damn guy. Nice to know you into watches too! Dope video 👌

the steel one at 55min looks like a grand seiko cocktail time! thats awesome.

Would love to see a history of Hamilton, Mido, or even Oris on your channel!

I started listening to the podcast, but had to check out the video just to confirm that it was in fact not Johnny Depp talking.

I am really enjoying your videos.

Matt Hope to see you on Rogan again. Loved you talkin whatches and ect with Joe. This is an amazing episode about Grand Seiko

Great show! Grand Seiko is definitely on my radar...that blue snowflake is ice hot.

My top 1 favorite watch channel on RU-vid. Different, but much better than “talking watches” from HODINKEE.

I've been collecting watches for 20 years. Everything from Rolex, AP, Patek etc. I can whole heartedly say that Grand Seiko's finishing is on par, if not better than many watches from the holy trinity, especially when you consider the price point. I am watching this while wearing my 1971 King Seiko manual wind Hi-Beat(3600 BPH). 50 years on and very few watchmakers are able to develop a hi-beat movement for large scale production and make it reliable. The new Hi-beat from GS with the dual barrel setup and new escapement is amazing. GS still uses the same principals to build its current Hi-beat movements as they did 50 years ago while developing hi-beat movements to compete in the Swiss chronometer observatory trials.

Hay Joe Kirk are you going to make another visit somewhere? I live in the Kansas city Missouri area and I've bought 3 Grand Seiko from our dealer here (Mariettos) and would love for you to come by and show us more stuff.

Currently a owner of 2 Spring Drive pieces, SBGA375 & SBGA413, and looking forward to buying a Hi-Beat GMT

Great brand. Would have been nice though for a brief on their history with King Seiko vs Grand Seiko and then how they beat the Swiss at their own game. Although I guess it wasnt "History of Grand Seiko" though. Looking forward to the history of VC episode!

Just curious, are there going to be more episodes?

We miss Cameron. Despite nice podcast, hoping to own a Grand Seiko someday. Lets see a Zodiac show in the future please.

37:15 Absolutely beautiful! Credor!

Make Rolex look like a cheap piece of tin.

SBGK005? Looks like a release today. Looks amazing!

great ep

Hello, Questions: 1. When will both Seiko and Grand Seiko put an end to model inflation and stop confusing customers by releasing fewer models? 2. Do they plan to offer fine-tuning and quick-change options on their watch bracelets and bands? 3. Will they stop releasing different products in different parts of the world? 4. Are they considering a day-date or triple calendar model for both Hi-Beat and Spring Drive watches? Thanks

"Sun passing through the trees" is called in Japanese "Komorebi" also translated as "tree filtered sunlight". He's not kidding when he talks about Japanese loving their nature and scenery

Just pulled the trigger on a GS Spring Drive GMT ... so ahead of the game compared to any Swiss movement!

Speaking of dials Matt did not mention the peacock dial which is the most baller dial IMO.

I love how pumped Matt Farah gets, a lot more entertaining than a lot of these guys talking about watches

Nagano Prefecture is the Mecca of watch making in Japan. Shiojiri, Suwa (Seiko) and Miyota (Citizen). I worked for Citizen in Japan.

Matt needs to up his watch cam game.

Longines-Weems also used the 24 bezel long before Rolex Exp ii

You need to make a review on the LX line to :)

I currently own a Swiss Military quartz watch that has an accuracy of 36 seconds/year and paid $50 dollars for it.

All I know is that if I were Crown & Caliber or Beeline, and I was sponsoring this podcast, I would be right pissed by the lack of episodes. Less than one a month so far.

I met Joe at a GS9 event. He coo

When’s the next podcast?

More GS please.

Interesting topic. This show is sponsored by Crown and Calibre but C&C doesn’t buy or sell Grand Seiko at all.

The dial on the Lion is so much better in the flesh..

I'm gonna get a Grand Seiko as my first luxury watch. There's no fakes out there and its almost impossible to make fakes for their unique movement.

1:09:18 The gold version looks _much_ better. Not even a contest.

Any new content missing it

Well now I really want to work at grand seiko. Looking into Wostep certification but and hopefully that's good for them haha

GS new management in America means everything limited edition and everything getting priced a tier too high

Dude let's get a blue and yellow grandseiko quartz

Put a white sheet under the watches and the camera will adjust and not blow out the dials

Why is he not doing Instagram? Haha, Mr just got married is going to find out

That Konnichiwa B*tches gets a like and a comment on it’s own, even before watching the show 😂👍 Good to see a new episode up, I was having Watch&Listen withdrawal.

Prices on Crown and Caliber are not pre-owned prices for pre-owned watches. It is retail and above for pre-owned. Advertisement and promotion are Ok but it has to contain at least some truth in it.

why no Cameron?

No Cameron! Still a good show I’m sure!

Let's check this watch out, fades to iPhone 2 camera...

So, who doesn't just sit and watch clouds float overhead, good for the Japanese designers.

Joe is da man! Proud of my homie

There is one thing that Seiko and practically everyone else does wrong with the Snowflake: they use the standard "professional studio" lighting for it. This is great when taking photos of Hollywood models but Snowflake does imitate snow in one interesting way: it has those _sparkles_ scattered here and there, just like real snow in the sun. This effect is FAPP completely killed by the "professional studio" lights (softboxes, umbrellas, etc.), the result is that Snowflake looks _much_ better in person than any video shows it. The cure for it is the following: use a very _concentrated_ light source, either a lamp with the filament as small as possible or use a convex mirror to reflect the light off first. You noticed those _super-sharp_ shadows one sees sometimes in parking lots when light is reflected off a windshield? This is the illuminant you are after. It goes against all the rules of "correct" people photography but here we want to mimic the Sun in the sky illuminating snow - it's not a Softbox in the sky! I'm rather surprised Seiko themselves don't do it in their promotional videos, with their incredible attention to detail and all. The result is a very nice but somewhat dull watch surface, like snow on an overcast day. This is not what the watch actually looks like. OK, done pontificating.

Guys get over it, in the end it's just a watch!!!

I'm mad about the fact that this video is sponsored by Crown and Caliber, but they don't carry Grand Seiko, cuz they aren't Swiss

If i buy a grand seiko quartz for £1750. How much value will it lose?

What happened to this show??? Are they done?

Hey Matt, I think you should work on interrupting less your guest! Great videos otherwise

Are y’all done with this podcast?

"konichiwa bitches" weird flex but ok

Seiko needs to put a spring drive in a turtle case

Points off for lack of Cameron, I would have loved to hear him explain some of the finer details of Grand Seiko's pieces. I'd love a Snowflake but that power reserve CUT IN to that beautifully finished dial kind of kills the aesthetic. RE: suits and Addidas shelltoes - Matt's sense of style is atrocious. Vehemently disagree. Also, he repeatedly cuts off the guest, usually to say a piece he's said a dozen times on other episodes.

Grand seiko (spring drive) is the only premium watch that I have (I've got a gaggle of other watches that cost a tenth as much). The only problem I have is that I got mine (SBGA149 in titanium) and it's very comfortable, but it runs about a minute fast each day. I'm really quite disappointed in that, as my choices are to send it somewhere and get it fixed or just live with it. The forum commentary that I found said that sending it to japan fixes it, but in some cases, the watch will run fast in the future, anyway. I wouldn't buy it again, but it's aesthetically so nice that I still wear it and just set it back to the correct time every few days.

Grand Seiko = Grand Toyota.

please do a Parnis episode.

"most fire dials...".... WHAT?!...

I humbly submit my name to be on the podcast. Let's entertain and educate bitches!

Nope, I really wanted to listen to this but after about 15 minutes I just had to go because of the interruptions

I hope he has nothing to do with the horrible service center in Mahwah

Bro! You made grand seiko look like shiiiiiit. They have the best dials in the biz.

GS is the Honda of watches

Wonder if this episode is sponsored

GS drifting from their principles..