Spring Drive
A while ago, I posted this link to a review on the Seiko Spring Drive watch.
Today I was in Zoetermeer, a city near The Hague. There is no pride in telling this, because this city represents all that is evil. Trailer park trash without the trailer 
Anyway, the only valid reason to visit this city is to visit a jeweler called Van Koningsbruggen. They have an impressive collection of watchbrands available: Chopard, Chronoswiss, Glashütte Original, IWC, Maurice Lacroix, Montblanc, Longines, Omega and… Seiko. I noticed this glass box in the shop with two Seiko Spring Drive watches. I asked the sales lady to see one, and after I asked for some more details on the watch, she asked for her collegue to tell me more about it. The sales guy really did his best to try to explain the working of the watch, including the trainings slides he received and studied himself. I was impressed by the appearance and ofcourse the smart inner workings of the watch. And by the knowledge of the sales guy, you don’t see this very often anymore..
Although I was impressed, the price tag also impressed me. I wonder how big the target audience is for this watch in Europe and the US. The model on a leather strap had a price tag of 3200 Euro. The same jeweler is giving 30% off IWC watches currently (according to their website). I wonder who would prefer a 3200 Euro Seiko over a nice IWC (or other brand, at least I would buy another brand….), Omega, Chronoswiss or other watch from their collection for that kind of money. At the end of our conversation, I received a nice CD-ROM with all the Seiko Spring Drive information and the brochure.
Anyway, except for the review by Jack Freedman I linked to before, also check the following websites:
Official Seiko Spring Drive website
November 13th, 2005 at 13:52
It looks like Van Koningsbruggen stops selling IWC. 30% off at an official dealer means an absolute ban of the brand from Richemont… Did they tell you something about it?
November 13th, 2005 at 14:14
I didn’t ask about it, I only saw this ‘action’ when I was already back at home typing this post for my blog. Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me at all that they stop selling IWC. Ever been to Zoetermeer? They probably compensate this ‘loss’ by selling more and more Breitlings
RJ
January 4th, 2006 at 13:05
not my thing. The design is cheap and the movement is just reminding teh omega autoquartz which wasn’t a great selling product.
February 16th, 2007 at 11:34
The autoquartz is merely a quartz watch with a generator. This is a completely new idea and there has never been anything like it before. Seiko remain a leader in innovation while Omega still cannot make watches as well as they did in the sixties.
September 27th, 2007 at 14:29
Hallo. Ik heb in Den Bosch de Spring drive om mijn pols gehad. Ook ik was zeer erg te spreken over het ontwerp en de bijna betoverende traploze rondgang van de secondewijzer. Ik snap echter precies wat je bedoeld. Voor het geld van de Seiko (ik heb de GMT, zwart om mijn pols gedaan) kan je zeer mooie mechanische horloges kopen van de gerenomeerd Zwiterse bedrijven.
Jammer want ik ben erg te spreken over het ontwerp en de techniek.
groeten Mathieu
November 26th, 2007 at 12:43
For those who understand the history and physics of automatic movments in watches, the Seiko Spring Drive is definitely a revolution : an electronic ecape in an advanced mechancial movement!
As to the price tag, well, that’s in direct competition with the high-end Rolex’s. It looks like the marketing battle of Lexus vs Mercedes in the luxury car market!!
For technical details of the Spring Drive technology, see:
http://www.europastar.com/europastar/magazine/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003672139
May 18th, 2008 at 00:47
I have my spring drive gmt for six months now and it is very accurate, seems to run about a second fast every four to five weeks according to atomic time in fort collins co. Amazing it runs better than my rolex gmt master II and second glides more smooth than my vacheron and patek. For the money,not the look recognition this watch is superlative!