Grand Seiko Night Birch - Best Rolex Datejust Alternative? 

*hZ should be vibrations per hour in the video.

What a beautiful watch. I too own a Rolex and a GS, the Rolex is an icon design wise and a wise investment haha but the GS has far more detail and fine workmanship to it, especially in the dial. Mine has the older 9S85 hi-beat 36000bph movement and I often put it to my ear to listen to the busy sound of the hi-beat while imagining high speed locomotives.

Waiting for the Spring Drive version of this watch, like they did with the white birch. What an absolute stunner and awesome showcase on your end - much appreciated!

Stunning watch ,,grand seiko are getting more and more popular and the quality of the product is there for all to see ,its the first time I’ve seen this particular model but wow it’s beautiful great choice my friend

hey james great job with the watch and the video! hope to see more!

I like your review and lighting.

This watch cannot be hyped enough. True understated austere elegance. It must be seen in person to be appreciated.

Beautiful piece GS is really developing stunning pieces

Beautiful watch, great review

that finishing is insane

Wife and I stopped by the grand Seiko boutique in the design district of Miami a few weeks ago. Like you, we had a great time there. Tried on many watches, and almost went for the blue dialed skyflake, but wound up getting a Breitling super ocean heritage. At the Breitling boutique. Grant Seiko is definitely on my list for the next watch though.

You do exactly what I have done to my GS Lake Suwa, rubberb alligator like swimskin strap with stainless steel spring drive movemnt 😊

Excellent choice.

Rolex and GS are not really competitors, they both bring something different to the game and both are very good at what they do. I'm not a Rolex fan by any stretch of the imagination but they do make exceptional simple watches.

Been buying grand seiko for a while but haven’t pulled the trigger on getting the latest movements. Looks good. The rubber is the best! I use that on my IWC yacht club. Perfect straps

That looks so amazing on that strap buddy. Subscribed

Nice video!!! Congrats!!!

It's a beautiful piece and I love the sweep of the hi-beat. And oh, the dial.... One gripe I have with these newer GS's is the cut off hour. My older Grand Seiko still has the pointed, but less bulky hour hand. Out of curiosity, would you have preferred the older hour hand style on this model? Or is it worth getting used to the new one? Still something I struggle with concerning newer Grand Seiko's...

The dual mainsprings don't have anything to do with the frequency, they give the great power reserve plus more even torque distribution helps maintain accuracy as the power reserve gets low. The high beat is created through design, hairspring etc

Beautiful dial.

GS all day everyday!

Hi James, could you link where you purchased the strap from? Thanks!

Lovely watch and very nice review!!! Congrats n wear in good health ma friend!! Did u swap out the bracelet due to smaller wrists?

Wish it was smaller, then id buy it for sure.

Une grand Seiko, ça vole beaucoup plus haut que toutes les autres montres de marque suisse ! J’ai la chance d’avoir une SLGH003, et j’en suis tout simplement ravi c’est de loin la plus belle montre de haute horlogerie que j’ai eu entre mes mains.

Indeed beautiful. But I heard a lot of the newer high beat releases are having accuracy issues.

Can u share a link for the rubberB strap which looks like leather? Thanks for e review!

not sure what happened, the thumbnail photo in you tube somehow made the watch looked purple! but when i came in it is really just dark black

So it is a Hi-Beat 9SA5 36 000 Titanium. You should start by saying so. For a Seiko fan that's the essential. If you think 8000 dollars is reasonable, well , that's an opinion.

This is a beautifull watch...

What is the rotor made of?

Grand Seiko is the only brand I can think of where you can manually change the date forward as well as backward by turning the hands. It's a small detail that gets overlooked.

Link to strap? Any other strap recommendations?

Nice RubberB band, any link to buy for that particular band?

High beat should technically result in lower power reserve. The fact that they can achieve 80 hours of reserve on a high beat is completely unheard of at this price point.

the's beautiful! :)

a great watch because of the craftsmanship, the technology , the details and the great value for money. the watch is finished and assembled by humans and not by machines like rolex watches

All grand seikos are just like fingerprints and I love it. No two alike and just so beautiful. Might crash if I wear it while driving just staring at my wrist instead of the road

hi James , thanks for the nice video. One thing is missing in this video is the accuracy comparison to rolex time it from owner perspective (not reading spec). I used to think that GS make better quality watch than Rolex with half the price (hence the value for dollar) - this was before I own one GS. Then I went to buy 4 of them and soon learn the reality of GS. GS actually is overvalued as you really time the accuracy of this against rolex or omega or even some high end seiko, not to mention the horrible service period in case of repair. I think a good value watch should include all this, not only fancy dials and some marketing story. I love GS still especially the dials, I just hope they can improve more but this will not happen if all reviewers only paint beautiful aspect of the watch.

I don’t think it’s a good idea to change the dates at 9pm😮😮 10:21

that thing is beautifull. i want to have it. but i could tell the strap isn't reall leather from a mile away. even before you mention it. but it is a great fit with the dial. but i would go for something like that that is reall leather instead. this even made the watch look cheaper. reall leather takes a bit of time to break in. but once its there. it will look so good.

Just wish they were sized a bit smaller, these would be huge hits in the 36m size range

why the GS logo and grand seiko spelled out? seems over done

This shits all over a Datejust boss!

Way better than a date just. I hate the cyclops

What Rubber B strap is this?

Dial is very nice but diameter is too big for a dress watch in my opinion.

SUBBED!

Looks so much better on leather strap. Imo the bracelet is too big

Rolex = 8 ticks a second. Grand Seiko = 10 ticks a second. The dual impulse escapement is only a Grand Seiko as well. No one else has it as they invented it.

The higher the beat rate, the LESS efficient a movement is

Can i ask your wrist diameter?

Exquisite piece, although it looks huge on you, for my taste and with all due respect of course.

Never met a vegan alligator - I have the SLGA021 spring drive , but it is a chubby watch. The bracelet and the date change is a letdown. They are not even at Tudor level with the bracelet and they need to change the date without cocking the date for 5 min. like a 20$ timex. I think they need about 5-10 years more of refinement to get to Datejust level.

38-39mm would have been nicer

It’s a beautiful watch, clean and simple. I don’t see any correlation with a datejust. They are straight up hideous looking grandpa watches.

People buy Rolex to impress others, people buy GS to impress themselves

Rolex alternative? LOLLL 🤣 GS is another level bro

Unfortunately this is only really an alternative to the Datejust 41

People buy GS because they want GS. Enough with with this nonsense comparison.

#grandseikotherolexkiller

Why every great watch have to be a “Rolex alternative?”. It is a Cliché. Rolex is not the center of the world.

Really ?? hand built and assemble and hand polish by ONE MASTER SENSEI, versus robot assemble 1,2million soon 2.5 Mass product???! It’s like comparing MODEL T to Silver Shadow 😂

If you buy this watch as an ALTERNATIVE to a Rolex, it’s kind of sad and un respectful. Buy them for what they are.

Stop saying best Rolex alternative! GS is a great watch…

Funny you see a GS as a rolex alternative. GS is superior in every way. I guess you are in the horology hobby purely for image and not for the quality of the craftmanship. Rolex id 100% machine made as you might be aware of. GS is still mainly a hand craft..

Not a rolex alternative. It's a fucking seiko lmao, grand or not

sorry but i'm not paying £9k for a seiko, rather save a little more money and buy an actual rolex lmfao

Another Rolex Fanboy!!