Inspired by the bravery of those who went before
Fujieda was in charge of the design of the new hairspring for Caliber 9S65 and based his ideas around his past experience with this and other Grand Seiko mechanical movements, notably Calibers 9S85 and 9S86.
“Around 2009, when we developed Caliber 9S85, we started wanting to go further, to innovate,” Fujieda says. “The design ideology of constantly striving to develop technology and mechanisms ahead of their time had stayed with us from the Daini Seikosha days and we were always on the look-out to discover the building blocks needed to create a new mechanical movement that would capture the essence of Grand Seiko.”
Fujieda's inspiration came from looking back at the drawings for Caliber 4520, the 10-beat movement in the manual winding 45GS that had been created in 1968. “Caliber 4520 had a gear train that was different from most designs of movements at that period,”
Fujieda says. He saw that, even then, his predecessors had not simply emulated previous designs when creating Grand Seiko mechanical watches but had taken the risk of innovation, a realization that encouraged him to develop a pioneering spirit in his own design philosophy. “Looking at those drawings gave me confidence in what I was feeling; it was the push I needed to translate my thoughts into concrete actions.”
Fujieda and the other members of the Movement Design Division set out to discover how they could make real, practical advances in the basic qualities of a mechanical watch. They conducted a preliminary but deep investigation as their first step toward that end. From 2009 to 2011, they focused their attention primarily on the underlying technology of the movement. Over the same period, Fujieda embarked on his own course of independent study and analysis of every aspect of mechanical watches, from the design and structure of their movements to their exterior and more. “I went beyond studying the functional design elements and devoted extra attention to the finer points of the movement, including its appearance,” Fujieda says. In 2015, the team was ready to proceed with a development project that encompassed the movement, the exterior components and the watch as a complete whole. It was an all-embracing, “from the ground up” development process.
“We took plenty of time to develop a solid understanding of the underlying elements. That was the key to our achievement of the absolute ideals we sought.” Fujieda’s determination to make a completely new movement, coupled with his team’s unflagging efforts in support of his vision, resulted in the creation of Caliber 9SA5, a Grand Seiko movement that is entirely worthy of the 60th anniversary and one that opens a new chapter in the Grand Seiko story.
