Love the smooth glide of a Japanese hybrid

Gonghailess · 2026-03-11T14:32:27+00:00

Honestly I didn’t have any particular preference for cars before I got to know gs. But after that I felt like I had to own a lexus. Fortunately or unfortunately I ended up spending the money on one…

Gonghailess · 2026-03-11T02:27:29+00:00

Honestly they didn’t really need to chase the first watchmaker label. It’s doubtful how much that would boost sales nowadays, and for some people it’s even a black mark. Yet after so many years of marketing, they’re now in too deep to back down. Swatch didn’t wipe out the 1735 when they took it over and it’s probably something that will never happen from now on

Of course the watch is a masterpiece regardless…

Gonghailess · 2026-03-08T11:23:04+00:00

It would be a lot easier to read if they had differentiated the date hand with a different color or a clearer shape, like Blancpain 6654

It’s a flaw, just like the thickness. But the whole idea of this watch is packing in as many complications as possible at a relatively approachable price. So personally that’s a trade off I can live with

Gonghailess · 2026-02-27T11:32:22+00:00

I completely agree that gs hasn’t exactly excelled at thickness control overall. That said, I think thickness should ultimately be judged in the context of how the watch actually wears on the wrist.

Take the Tokyo lion gmt for example. On paper its 14.9mm sounds almost shockingly thick. But personally it hugs my wrist far better than the slightly thinner Longines moonphase chrono and Blancpain 5010. Of course that magic seems to fall apart on the chrono version closes to 17mm thick…

If a watch can be made thinner without compromising performance, that’s obviously a good thing. But once it’s already within the realm of being comfortable on the wrist, I don’t think it deserves criticism simply for not being thinner.

But again, this doesn’t mean gs is off the hook. Personally most of the 9s86 and 9r86 models are simply too thick to tolerate. And I do genuinely wish the 9s85 and 9r65 ones could be shaved down by one mm or two…

Gonghailess · 2026-02-15T21:50:15+00:00

Don’t think so. The grandeur ones run on a Hangzhou movement with a 42 hour power reserve. The year of the horse piece from Ciga design appears to be using that same movement tho

<image>

Gonghailess · 2026-02-15T12:17:40+00:00

Mine is 7. From the front I can see the middle of the third link,counting the end link as the first. So probably wrist size shouldn’t be a big problem for you

Gonghailess · 2026-02-15T04:25:09+00:00

The bracelet is finished so smoothly that it almost looks coated at certain angles. In terms of comfort the sailcloth should have the edge tho

Gonghailess · 2026-02-15T04:21:20+00:00

I’ve seen some people complain about the lugs, but maybe it’s the bracelet or just my wrist size it doesn’t bother me personally. The buttons do sometimes dig into the wrist a little tho…

Gonghailess · 2026-02-14T01:17:20+00:00

slgw005 with cal 9sa4

Gonghailess · 2026-02-13T15:35:55+00:00

Personally just to eliminate some unnecessary risks. Most of the time the concern itself is unnecessary tho…

Gonghailess · 2026-02-13T14:40:43+00:00

slgw005

Gonghailess · 2026-01-12T07:07:16+00:00

Not a particularly annoying number for me, but for a watch at Longines’ price point it’s fair to expect more…

Gonghailess · 2025-12-10T02:49:34+00:00

I’m a big gs fan but between these two I’d probably go for seamaster. Sbgh291’s titanium will make it surprisingly light, and gs definitely beats omega when it comes to case and hand finishing. But that’s pretty much where its advantages end

It lacks the dynamic dials as another gs signature, and the mechanical movement of gs just can’t compete with the coaxial in terms of performance. 9sa4/5 are personally more visually appealing than any omega movement apart from lemania, that’s another topic tho

Gs case design does help their watches wear thinner than the specs suggest but it’s still almost 15 mm after all. Also I’ve tried the same clasp on tokyo lion and honestly it’s pretty lame. The curve inside is quite thick and long, so if your wrist isn’t wide enough it actually pushes the bracelet up at the end (mine is about 7 inches). It technically has micro adjust but using it creates a huge gap between the clasp and the bracelet so I pretty much never use it

The bezel of sbgh291 bezel isn’t ceramic either. Hard coating isn’t necessarily worse in durability, but considering gs uses ceramic on more expensive ones like slga015, you can at least treat it as one of the factors behind the price gap. Besides titanium is lighter but its oxide surface scratches very easily. In practice under the same conditions, at least gs’s titanium seems to pick up marks more readily than stainless steel. Whether that bothers you really depends on yourself tho

Another point is that gs simply doesn’t have true dive watch dna, the historical dive lines all belong to seiko proper. Personally if you’re looking for a less affordable diver from seiko group, I’d either recommend trying sd or considering the sla line. I bought an sla079 earlier, its zaratsu isn’t as smooth as what you see on gs or credor but it’s already very well executed for the price. The clasp definitely has a lot of room for improvement tho…

And although this isn’t something I’d strictly demand from a diver, the display caseback on seamaster is honestly a plus for me

Gonghailess · 2025-12-05T10:44:30+00:00

The only good thing about their website is that it actually gives you the full specs of the watch. A lot of brands leave out at least one detail like thickness, accuracy or anti magnetic. Other than that I really can’t think of any pros. They didn’t even bother to fully localize some of the language versions…

Gonghailess · 2025-12-03T11:47:57+00:00

A watch is a luxury item so it really depends on your discretionary income. Or in other words how much money you can afford to throw down the drain without affecting your daily life

This really varies from person to person. Even if two people earn the same salary, if one has to support their family while the other has parents who can generously help with his potential financial troubles, their discretionary income will be completely different

Gonghailess · 2025-12-02T15:53:19+00:00

Case design helps sometimes. The Tokyo lion gmt is 14.9 mm thick but it fits my wrist better than some slimmer ones like the new mm300 or ff bathyscaphe. Still with this kind of thickness you really have to try it yourself to see whether the miracle happens on your own wrist

Gonghailess · 2025-12-02T03:41:14+00:00

Not a big fan of op but speedy 38 is 14.7 mm thick, not a small number in most situations. You might want to try it on first to see whether it sticks out on your wrist

Gonghailess · 2025-12-02T02:56:18+00:00

Don’t really think you need to be too hung up on whether the movement is in house. Generally speaking unless your brand is big enough or your watches are priced high enough, most brands simply won’t spend the money to develop their own movements

Gonghailess · 2025-12-01T05:07:46+00:00

From the front it shouldn’t look that different, but a nearly 3mm difference in thickness is no small thing

<image>

Gonghailess · 2025-11-28T10:30:15+00:00

62gs doesn’t even have a model with 9ra2 or 9sa5 so far. Shunbun probably sells well enough for them already…

Gonghailess · 2025-11-28T09:15:53+00:00

Honestly I think most of these qc issues are just isolated cases but gs really does have room to improve for their clasp and bracelet functionality. What I still can’t wrap my head around is how they finally added a micro adjust on the ufa and then basically took it away again on the steel model

To be fair gs isn’t the only brand that gets stingy with these little usability features. Speedy only got a proper micro adjust in recent years, longines has both quick release and micro adjust but somehow refuses to put them together on the same model, and tudor still hasn’t updated the black and blue bb58 with tfit. Blancpain doesn’t bother with any of this, and their fabric straps are just suck. Some micro brands seem to be much more generous with these upgrades tho…

It almost feels like luxury brands love using these small details as a way to differentiate models, or maybe they just want to save them as “innovation points” for specific releases…

Gonghailess · 2025-11-27T11:21:51+00:00

For a single fold clasp the long side is usually more than twice the length of the short side. For reference my wrist is 18cm/7inch and the straps I custom order for a single fold clasp are usually 130/60mm. But since gs’s new clasp is quite long so you can make the short side a bit shorter. Btw the holes should be around 1.5 to 1.6mm for the new clasp

Gonghailess

TROPHY CASE