As launches go, one must react with awe at Seiko’s introduction of its Grand Seiko family outside of Japan. This haute horlogerie division’s products had been sold exclusively in the home market for 50 years. In record time, Seiko has shown Grand Seiko models to match the best of Switzerland, just as the company proved its mettle back in the 1960s when it began accruing chronometry awards as a brave outsider.

Watch aficionados around the world had long known of these timepieces, the first appearing in 1960, but it was only in 2010 that Seiko decided to make Grand Seiko available outside of its home country.

Since that auspicious arrival, and in the interim having established itself as a worthy rival and alternative to more familiar Swiss luxury watch brands, the entire range is available from the company’s premium boutiques. What remains the best-kept secret of Grand Seiko, however, is the sport models.

As Grand Seiko always evoked images of elegant dress watches, and Seiko’s premium diving watches wore the Prospex name, the sport models were overshadowed if not quite ignored. Instead, they complement the more formal models in the Masterpiece, Evolution 9, Heritage, and Elegance collections. As Seiko is a true manufacture, making all of its movements, various models in the extended family are offered with quartz, mechanical, and Spring Drive calibres, the last being Seiko’s unique hybrid invention.

It is Spring Drive which has been chosen to power the latest arrivals in the Grand Seiko Sport range, the movement using mechanical technology to create the power for quartz regulation. This results in greatly enhanced accuracy, and eschews batteries, solar power or any other external source.

New for 2023 are SBGA481 Grand Seiko ‘Tokyo Lion’ (£9,600) and SBGE295 Grand Seiko ‘Hotaka Mountains’ (£5,750). The Tokyo Lion employs the Lion case shape launched in 2019, known for its angular appearance and the contrasts of Zaratsu polishing and hairline finishing. Seen earlier this year as a Chronograph GMT, Reference SBGA481 offers a time-and-date version, with the Spring Drive power reserve shown prominently between the 7 and 8 o’clock positions.

Reinforcing the sportiness of the Tokyo Lion is an engraved bezel with 0-60 minute graduations. The black bezel frames the textured ivory dial, said to be inspired by the flowing mane of the feline which provides the watch’s name, its bold hour markers recalling Seiko’s historical diving watches. Inside the titanium 44.5mm case, with 200m water resistance, is the Spring Drive Calibre 9R65 accurate to one second per day.

Grand Seiko ‘Hotaka Mountains’ adds to the time-and- date formula a second time zone, indicated by a third hand which indicates the destination time via an engraved bezel. Coloured green and silver, with 24-hour graduations, the contrasting hues represent day and night in the selected zone. Matching the colour of the bezel is a deep green textured dial, reminding the wearer that nature plays a strong part in the ethos of Grand Seiko. The colour evokes the Hotaka mountain range during summer.

Its GMT function’s local hour hand can be adjusted independently via the crown in one-hour increments, working in both directions free of other indications. Date is positioned at 4 o’clock, while the Spring Drive’s power reserve indicator is located between 8 and 9 o’clock. Like the Tokyo Lion, it is water-resistant to 200m, thanks to a stainless-steel case measuring 44mm in diameter. Inside is the Spring Drive calibre 9R66 GMT, accurate to one second per day, and providing a 72-hour power reserve.

In a market bursting with sport watches, the Grand Seikos provide a refreshing combination of provenance, technical innovation, and exclusivity. But that isn’t all that justifies the “Grand” appellation. Uniquely, they also offer the wearer a taste of Japanese culture and artistry. Thanks to a decision made more than a decade ago, one needn’t travel to Japan to acquire one.

Both watches will be available from Grand Seiko boutiques in July; grand-seiko.com