Credor GBBY998 – Seiko’s 2 mm thick movement!
Credor is a high-end sub-brand of Seiko, which includes one of their most expensive an unique watches ever, the Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie repeater, priced at JPY15,000,000 (Fifteen Million Japanese Yen). That’s roughly $170,000 – certainly not in the range of recent vintage Patek Phillipe auctions, but still well in the stratosphere for me (and most of you readers I am sure!).
This brand is focused on the design, actually no the art of the watch, not just the finishing of the mechanism, in a much more Japanese manner than we normally associate with Seiko, and are typically not seen in North America. Originally just another sub-brand, in the past few years they have been branded on their own without reference to the Seiko name, and have focused much more on design.
Credor have recently released 2 new Limited Edition models as part of their “Node” line of hand-winding mechanical watches, the GBBY998 and GBBY999.
Image from TimeZone Industry News
The two versions are white and yellow gold respectively, with a cloisonne dial, front and back sapphire crystals and a very interestingly decorated movement, in a style you’ll probably not see on a Swiss watch! The price? If you need to ask, JPY3,675,000 and JPY3,780,000 (or approximately $40,000 each). They are true limited editions, with a total production quantity of 15 each.
Image from TimeZone Industry News
The creation of each dial involves 8 colors of glaze and 6 or more firings, and includes both wired (using hand applied gold wire) and wireless cloisonne. The two designs are called (as well as I can translate) “cherry in full bloom and water” and “colorful autumn leaves and water”. The true colors are hard to capture in a photograph, here’s another one of the GBBY9999 in different lighting to give you an idea – it’s a poor picture but it shows the pink of the cherry blossoms better than the above one does.
Image attributed to WatchDoor.com
From a technical perspective, what’s interesting is a movement – caliber 6896. It’s actually not super-accurate, at +25 to -15 seconds per day. 37 hours power reserve is just normal stuff. What is special, is that the movement is slightly under 2 mm thick. Specially, 1.98 mm. That’s right, less than a twelfth of an inch! I don’t know how it’s done, but that’s a beautiful use of technology.
These are truly high-end watches celebrating Japanese art and craftsmanship. They may not be for everyone, but if you have that sort of money to spend and are looking for an enamel/cloisonne dialed watch, I can think of lots of Swiss purchases that would net you a lot less for your cash, either in terms or art or technology, than these.
