I have stated many times how I started my interest, and then collection. It is a common journey. From not being interested, to having a first watch, then the first mechanical, learning and discussing watches. Up to this point I have always bought watches I found in the wild.
I would go to an AD, or vintage market, or even just browse on the internet, and a random watch would catch my attention. Apart from my grail watch, I had never had a list of watches to be brought into the collection.
That was true until the very end of last year. We were preparing and organising our trip to Japan, and I was just trying to get myself familiar with the terminology, locales, and types of watches I would go look for during time in Tokyo and Kyoto.
Seiko and Grand Seiko are my favourite brands. Very affordable and varied for the former, and perfect precision and value of the latter, they have always been on my radar, since my very first mechanical watch. Whenever I am bored, I end up being lost in their websites. And during one of those instances, I have found my next watch.
At this point, I had already bought my Seiko Presage Fuyugeshiki, Seiko’s annual limited edition, and had that in the back of my mind. What would be Seiko’s new Presage for 2020? I was browsing Seiko’s British site, and then moved to the Japanese, just out of curiosity. And there it was.
The Seiko Presage Limited Edition for 2020, the Honeycomb. I have never wanted a watch so fast and so intensely.
The Presage line is one of the most important lines for my collection. Other than being really well made watches, they are also highly collectable, quite affordable for an entry level luxury item, and it very use to use and understand its mechanism. It is the perfect entry stage for a beginner collector, like myself.
The dial is the one of the nicest I have seen. It is at the same time so complex and full on, with a honey-caramel, hive pattern, and simple and to the point, a combination of colours that somehow merge together in a brilliant design. The open heart, a controversial addition, in my opinion, is a fine complement to the overall simple and technical approach of Seiko.
As every Presage line, the Honeycomb is also based on a drink made at the Star Bar in Ginza. Nothing out of the ordinary up to this point. However, the Honeycomb is made with a very special kind of honey. It comes from the Ginza Honey Bee Project, a development that works on creating and collecting honey from the top of Ginza’s district buildings.
The Ginza Honey Bee Project, also knwon as Gin-Pachi, is a project that aims to develop a better atmosphere in the middle of Tokyo, by developing and taking care of honeybees, one of the most important agents in the continuous survival of nature.
The project collaborates with many institutions and companies, and Seiko is only one of them.
I wanted to get that watch. But not just that, I wanted to make that an eventful day. And for that, I decided that we would go to the main Seiko boutique in Tokyo, Seiko Dream Square. A dream indeed. The Dream Square functions as both a museum, an art exhibit, and a boutique, showing all the new releases, past headliners, and history of the most extraordinary creations. It is a place for both Seiko fans and non-fans alike. Their history is so full, and their work towards craft is so profound, that whoever is not deeply in love with that mindset, needs to at least respect and acknowledge such intent.
Not much to be said about the watch per se. Nothing that goes out of what is expected. Clear design, flawless execution, simple and precise movement, open back case, in addition to the open heart, showing the inner workings of the mechanism, makes this a great watch, a great Seiko.
I have spent quite some time talking about the how and why I came to buy this watch, but not so much about its technicalities. Well, there it goes.
The case holding the movement and the dial is the regular high polished stainless steel that one can find in all Presage pieces. At 40.5mm, it sits quite flush in my own wrist, and the two leather bands are quite comfortable and easy to swap.
But honestly, technicalities are mainly that. They are technical features that makes the watch work. They are impressive in many ways, and sometimes, depending on the watch, they are the main feature. But for me, at this stage, the stories around the watch are much more important than what the watch can do. Even tough this watch does quite a lot, with little to none setbacks.
PS: and I had to bring some of the Ginza honey as well.
The Column Wheel 