One of the best things about Baselworld is the rush of receiving the press releases and then eventually getting to see the replica watches in the metal. Press images often don’t do a watch justice and the 5212A Calatrava Weekly Calendar is a great example. It is known to all that steel watches are very popular right now, whether it’s the 5711, no-date Sub, or Pepsi GMT, people prefer the fake steel watches. Therefore, we are going to take a better look at this model in steel, which stands for a completely new complication in a new case with a completely new dial.
Jack covered the specs of the 5212A pretty well here, but to reiterate, this fake watch is a weekly calendar watch. Basically, this is a simple calendar movement that accounts for the day, month, and week according to the ISA 8610 standard. This says that the first official week of the year starts on the Monday of the week of January 4. From there, the date is indicated in the date window at three o’clock, the day is indicated by the shorthand with a flat red end, and what’s more, the week and month are indicated by a similar but longer hand around the outer edge of the dial. It is reminiscent of the traditional triple calendars of the past, but with a little different focus.
The movement is not totally new but is rather based on the classic caliber 324. It does, however, have some important technological advancements including improvements to the fourth wheel that drives the center seconds and the “kick-start” mechanism that helps push the center seconds forward after pulling out the crown. This is a seemingly minor adjustment that makes a difference in accuracy and the nuisances of a lagging second’s hand. It also just goes to show that Patek still takes watchmaking seriously even at the most minute level – but we already understood that.
The case measures 40mm in diameter and is 10.79mm thick, but what is really getting people talking is the fact that it’s steel. The replica Patek hasn’t made a steel Calatrava since the limited-edition Pilot’s Calatrava 5522A in 2017 and then before that in the 1970s with the references 96 and 570. This case is also special due to the two-step lugs which further throwback to the bygone era of vintage steel fake watches.
However, as for me, the most interesting part of this cheap replica watch is the unusual typography which looks to be handwritten, since it was actually handwritten. It is greatly unusual to use such a whimsical text for such a traditional company. The original plan for the dial was a more formalized font but Thierry Stern was encouraged by the way it looked in free-form so they went with it. I suppose it further solidifies this fake watch as a vintage throwback and makes the watch more youthful and interesting.
This replica watch fits very comfortably and cozy on the wrist. The case size of 40mm seems not too big and feels good overall. The calfskin strap, albeit a small detail, makes a big difference in comparison to the crocodile straps that Patek replicas usually come on. But ultimately, I find the complete lack of necessity the most charming thing about this watch.
Month: April 2019
The Replica New Noble Grand Seiko Collection
There’s one thing in common of Grand Seiko, which all skew slightly dressy, without a GS Dive watch nor even with a steel bracelet, the Elegance Collection is a group of them. The eight watches in the existing Elegance Collection include both hand-wound and automatic movements, of which at around 11.6mm thick for the hand-wound versions, while a more-typical-for-Grand-Seiko thirteen and change for the automatic styles(13.10mm for SBGR261, which is a date-and-time-only model, and slightly thicker for GMT and Spring Drive GMT models). Grand Seiko has just released additional four new timepieces to the Elegance Collection, all of them are also announce vehicles for the first hand-wound Grand Seiko movement in eight years, which of two top replica watches feature Japanese urushi lacquer dials, decorated with the technique known as maki-e. This is the caliber 9S63, which takes the basic plate architecture of the existing 9S64 and adds a running small second at 9:00, while at 3:00 indicated a power reserve as well.
As everyone knows, urushi lacquerware is a highly old and traditional decorative art, even by Japanese standards. The technique involves harvesting the sap of the Japanese lacquer tree (a species of poison oak; lacquer workers tend to develop some immunity to the irritating oils in the sap from prolonged exposure) which is aged and then applied in very thin layers to create a different kind of forms. Lacquer dries to a very hard, waterproof, and highly lustrous surface and it can be used to decorate a diversity of objects via using a very complex vocabulary of techniques. The specific technique used for the new Elegance urushi timepieces is called maki-e, a method in which gold or silver powder is used as an extra decorative element (fountain pens decorated with maki-e lacquer are highly demanded among writing instrument collectors).
There are two available models of the watches for introduction, one is the rose gold maki-e dial models, and the other is the “Mount Iwate” pattern-dial model in steel. Yet there will also be a gold model with a simple white dial, it’s the only model among the four which is not a limited edition. All four watches have the same dimensions at 39mm and 11.6mm thick.
More and more limited edition best replica watches are used both mechanical and Spring Drive movements, which is part of a larger move on the part of Grand Seiko to clearly distinguish itself as a truly luxurious product, from other versions of watchmaking at Seiko. Grand Seiko announced that it would function as a separate entity from Seiko in 2017, and from then on, several new models including special and limited editions for specific markets, have offered a great deal of chance for Grand Seiko enthusiasts to pick up, in comparison to a few years ago there are comparatively few selections available. 
Gold and steel models, with applied markers. The yellow gold model will become part of the permanent collection and is not a limited edition.
What the Grand Seiko fan only concern about is that, as the choices increase and the firm moves its image more and more upmarket, at some point Grand Seiko will lose its appeal as a company that offers an incomparable price-value proposition to some degree. Luckily, it seems not to be the case so far, and the fact that quartz Grand Seiko models are still available starting at $2,200 (and under $4,000 for mechanical automatics and Spring Drive watches) is a reassuring thing for Grand Seiko enthusiasts and prospective owners, that the core identity of Grand Seiko keeps the same.
While the gold rush and plain dial models are exploring the higher end of the Grand Seiko price bracket, the steel model is less than $8,000, the quality current for the latter is still something of a bargain too, such as the finish and quality of the case and hands, the hand-made make-e dial, and quality of the movement.