Shunbun SBGA413 (2019+)

The Shunbun is a modern Japanese automatic watch built around a case design from 1967. Grand Seiko introduced it in the United States in 2019 as part of a collection based on the seasons. This one represents the spring equinox, with a pale pink dial inspired by fallen cherry-blossom petals floating on water.

The dial gets most of the attention, but the case deserves some of it. Its ancestor, the 62GS, was Grand Seiko's first automatic watch. There is no separate bezel framing the glass. Instead, the crystal rises from the case, leaving the dial unusually open. The modern 40-millimeter version keeps that arrangement and the broad angled surfaces around it, in titanium rather than steel.

The texture is not a printed picture of blossoms. It breaks the pink surface into fine, irregular ridges beneath straight metal hour markers. Broad hands cross the pattern, and a metal frame surrounds the date.

Inside is the 9R65 Spring Drive movement. A mainspring supplies its power, while an electronic regulator controls the speed of the mechanism. The long seconds hand consequently moves in a continuous glide. The watch has a date, and the small gauge near eight o'clock shows how much of its roughly three-day reserve remains.