Casio sets the standard with the new Mid-Size MRG.
Designed and manufactured only in Casio’s high end Yamagata Factoryunder the theme “Simplicity & Intelligence this new MRG’s Basic black coloring is done in the image of the shaded gradations of black ink wash paintings. The Dial Casio states is Simplistic and Minimal, but there is noting simple about the pure elegance for such a tough watch.
(Casio Yamagata Factory)
Featuring a smaller and slimmer case design, this Bluetooth connected MRGB1000B-1A boasts a resilient yet lightweight titanium case and band with a diamond-like carbon coating, as well as a non-reflective sapphire crystal. The Mid-Size is also fitted with G-SHOCK MR-G Connected App for smartphone users to easily set world time and monitor the watch’s key functions, such as self-adjustment, solar charging, and access a 5-year digital warranty. No other brand of Smartwatch offers this type of service.
Only a small handful of authorized retailers will see this limited piece, and AZ Fine Time is extremely proud to offer this model at the Mid-sized price tag of $2600.00. Call 1-800-486-3996 to order or click here to find out more about MRG, and Casio At AZ Fine Time.
It’s that time of year and the largest watch and jewelry trade show is only two weeks away! Follow AZ Fine Time to see all the NEW PRODUCTS fromSeiko and Grand Seiko, Citizen, Casio, JeanRichard, Eberhard & Co., Hamilton, Mido, B.R.M, Ralf Tech, Maurice De Mauriac and more! We have plenty of surprises and meetings with new manufacturers and look forward to sharing them!
Please feel free to follow us on our journey as we attend the world’s largest watch convention and show off all the new releases and new brands!
On December 5th, Arizona Fine Time hosted its 5th annual Grand Seiko Roadshow, which needless to say, was another tremendous success! This year was very special indeed as we welcomed Mr. Ikukiyo Komatsu who has been with Seiko for 32 years, worked on Spring Drive for over 10 years, and is one of few talented craftsmen who can assemble the complex 9R86 Spring Drive Chronograph GMT caliber and make it look easy!
It’s that time of year and watch collectors favorite holiday is just around the corner, the Basel World Fair 2014! Starting on March 27th, watch brands from all over the world will gather in Basel, Switzerland to exhibit their new and exciting timepieces. AZ Fine Time is gearing up and ready to start our journey to Switzerland two weeks from today, and we’re very excited to bring you hands on views of the new timepieces live from Basel. We have appointments scheduled with all of the brands we currently carry as well as several others.
While we are in Basel, we will be publishing livepictures, video and all the info on the new products from all of our manufactures. To get everything from Basel, follow us on the following sites…
For the next couple of weeks, we will be posting about new releases launched by our brands pre-Basel. There are some very cool items on the horizon and we look forward to sharing them. Many of the new timepieces will actually be launched at Basel, so be sure to follow us on one or all of the above mentioned sites to get the hands on experience of Basel World. We are striving to make our readers feel as if they were there and have made some major upgrades to our equipment to do so. Here are some of the brands you will see in our blog during the fair…
SEIKO
CITIZEN
CASIO
JEANRICHARD
GLYCINE
EBERHARD & CO.
MIDO
LUMINOX
SZANTO
and many, many more. We’ll also be posting on a wide variety of potential new lines and will be looking for your feedback on the brands. Stay tuned for more!
Ahhh, the wonders of the Grand Seiko Spring Drive. We have here the 9R65 caliber, produced at Shinshu watch studio in Japan. This movement, and its variants, are truly special in many ways. Not only the worlds most accurate movement driven by a mainspring, but completely in-house manufactured and assembled by hand at Shinshu in Suwa, a part of the Nagano prefecture. The Japanese alps surrounding the studio are expressed in the top plate of the movement, which is one of many subtle attributes to Grand Seiko that collectors admire. Last Friday, Dec 13th 2013, Arizona Fine Time was fortunate enough to share the tremendous skill it takes to build a Grand Seiko Spring Drive movement during our 4th annual Grand Seiko Roadshow featuring Master Watchmaker Junya Kamijo!
Mr. Kamijo assembled the 9R86 Spring Drive Chronograph movement here in our retail store, which consists of 416 parts and 50 jewels. Customers watched in amazement as Mr. Kamijo built the 9R86 right in front of their eyes, making it appear easy. As one of only 3 watchmakers actually assembling the chronograph GMT movement, you could imagine his qualifications are far above standard.
The party was a tremendous success with customers visiting from all over the country just to see the “behind the scenes” magic that is Grand Seiko. We couldn’t have asked for a better turn out and sincerely appreciate everyone who attended the event.
Customers who made purchases during the event received autographs from Mr. Kamijo. I have to say… He gave out a lot of autographs that evening!
Another great aspect of the night was the presentation table, where you get to see Grand Seiko’s parts, literally under a microscope. Here’s a shot of the integrated circuit that is used to translate the frequency of the quartz oscillator to the electro-magnetic brake, which regulates the glide wheel, providing the supreme accuracy and smooth gliding motion of Spring Drive. A lot of technology in a tiny little piece.
And a slightly less close up of the IC.
The quartz oscillator itself.
Below is theglassy metal core of the coil which is 18 layers of 25 micron thick amorphous. The coil wound around the core is perfectly aligned wound around the coil block an amazing 25,00o times. This along with the difficult to manufacture amorphous core is what makes Spring Drive so efficient when it comes to electrical energy.
The 9R65’s mainspring is made of an in-house developed alloy called Spring 510, giving it an impressive 72 hour power reserve off of only one barrel.
The shots below are of the 9R65 caliber, from many different angles, giving you a slightly better idea on placement of parts as well as quality of finish.
A close up shot of the 9F62 high accuracy quartz movement. This rarely seen movement boasts a +/- 10 second a year accuracy rating due to thermo-compensation of the quartz crystal (which it checks and corrects 540 times a day), 50 year service life internally due to its “super sealed cabin”, increased toque to drive heavy metal hands and still maintain a 3 year battery life due to its twin pulse motor, has a backlash auto-adjust to ensure the hand stops exactly on the marker with no vibration, and even a “pacing switch” to manually adjust accuracy. This movement is also made at Shinshu.
Next we get into the insides of the 9S mechanical movements made at Shizuku-Ishi Watch Studio in Morioka Japan. First is the 9S65 Mechanical Automatic with a rate of 28,800 bph.
The mainspring utilized is the same Spring 510 alloy used in Spring Drive. This ultra resilient alloy also allows for a 72 hour power reserve on the 9S65.
The hairspring used is also labeled as Spron, but the 610 instead of 510. The alloy is so durable, we actually saw it stretched to its limits at last years Roadshow and it recoiled perfectly flat, where as other hairsprings become completely uncoiled and deformed.
Here is the 9S85 Hi-Beat caliber. This 36,000 bph movement brings the highest accuracy in a purely mechanical watch, while still maintaing its durability.
The hairspring on this model is the same Spring 610 utilized in the 9S65, but swings much faster.
The escapement system all by its lonesome. Truly incredible technology has allowed for the immaculate construction of the pallet fork and escapement wheel. The use of MEMS (Micro Electrical Mechanical Systems) allows the manufacturing of parts that are 10 times the durability of traditionally machined parts.
The mainspring used is the Spron 530 alloy. This material provides a 55 hour power reserve on the higher torque, higher frequency movement.
Below you will see the case assembly for the SBGH001 9S85 Hi-Beat. The mirror finished polish is thanks to the very few craftsmen who spend an abundance of time polishing by hand.
The bezel is also finished in the katana blade hand polishing technique called “Zaratsu”.
Seiko also manufactures the sapphire crystal in-house. A good majority of this ultra clear, distortion free crystal is thanks to Seiko’s optics division Seiko Optical Products Co. LTD.
The case back of the SBGH001 (as well as many others) use sapphire crystal with a very subtle hologram of the Grand Seiko lion logo.
The hands of Grand Seiko’s are also polished by hand and brought to the mirror Zaratsu finish. The 5 facet diamond cut hands provide greater legibility at night, catching the slightest bit of light, and making it glimmer like a diamond.
a close up of the dial of the SBGH0o1, which uses the same multi-faceted, Zaratsu finish technique to add to legibility on the indexes. The dial process itself is incredibly elaborate, with 12 steps to complete its unique silvery radial sunburst finish.
Towards the end of the night, Seiko gathered a group of people in the room and Regional Vice President Rick Rowlands started to make a speech. Much to my surprise, the boys from Seiko awarded me with the new Seiko Astron GPS Kintaro Hattori Limited Edition for “outstanding support”. The watch was presented to me by Mr. Shunji Tanaka, who from what I understand is in charge of global sale of Astron. All I can say is that I am still surprised, incredibly honored, and truly grateful! From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU SEIKO for this wonderful gift!
The picture below is with Mr. Tanaka, Mr. Yosh Kawada (President of Seiko USA), myself, and Mitchel Hirsh (owner of AZ Fine Time). If you can’t tell, I’m incredibly excited with that huge goofy grin on my face!
We’d sincerely like to thank all of Seiko for putting on such an amazing event. A very special thank you to all the great guys from Seiko who attended the event (from left to right) Mr. Keith “Don Kiki” Oda, Mr. Rick Rowlands, Mr. Yosh Kawada, Mr. Junya Kamijo, Mr. Shunji Tanaka, Mr. Shu Yoshino, and Mr. Kinya Iwami. All of your hard work is truly appreciated!
We’d also like to thank our friends Jessica from TimeZone.com and Paul Hubbard from ABlogtoWatch.com for attending the event. Always a pleasure!
Most importantly… I would sincerely like to thank all of our customers who attended the event, participated in the event online, and who have supported us over the years… Your support and friendship means the world to us!!!
Staying “ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE REST”!!
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
Please check out our video below of Junya Kamijo working on the 9R86 movement…
A friendly reminder that December 13th from 3-7pm, Arizona Fine Time will be hosting our 4th annual Grand Seiko Roadshow! For those who have not attended, or seen in the past, Seiko USA brings out one of their master watchmakers from Japan, to actually assemble a Grand Seiko movement here in our retail store. This year is very special indeed, as Seiko is bringing back one of their top Spring Drive watchmakers, Mr. Junya Kamijo!
Mr. Kamijo was the 1st Grand Seiko watchmaker to visit us for our Roadshow in 2010. Thanks to the watch he wore on his wrist, the Snowflake SBGA011, everyone discovered the inspiration of this timepiece and it has now become the most popular Grand Seiko model in the collection. Mr. Kamijo will be autographing watch boxes for those who purchase a Grand Seiko during the event. If you cannot attend, but wish to make a purchase and get the autographed box, please call us to make arrangements. We are very proud and excited to have him back and show off his tremendous skill at AZFT once more!
On top of the amazing event we will be hosting for Grand Seiko, we will also be doing demonstrations on the latest and greatest technology from Seiko, known as the Astron GPS Solar. We will have great presentations, interactive displays, and even be raffling off about 40 free Seiko XNY watches to people who “Test Drive” the Seiko Astron GPS. We will also be presenting a group of very limited release models, that are typically not sold within the US market. Another great treat for all in attendance!
Another very special guest who has visited our store many times before as Senior VP of Seiko USA, is coming back in his new role as President of Seiko USA, Mr. Yosh Kawada. We’ll be looking forward to his visit along with many others from Seiko USA and Japan!
For the event, we will have complimentary food and drink, complimentary cigars by Diamond Crown, and some other great bonuses. We hope you join us, our other guests, and Seiko enthusiasts from all over the world. One thing we know for sure, this will be a night to remember for watch collectors!
If you plan on visiting our store in Scottsdale, please feel free to contact us for discounted rates at nearby hotels, suggestions for dining, and any other possible thing we can help with. Please call 1-800-486-3996 for information.
We will also have live feed of the event, videos, pictures and much more to keep those who couldn’t make it entertained with all the Seiko goodness.
On Thursday Nov. 14th, AZ Fine Time hosted our official launch party for JEANRICHARD watches and their new limited edition, the Neroscope chronograph. The night was a success with a great turn out, tremendous interest in the brand and even a good handful of promotional items gifted throughout the night. Of course, it wouldn’t have been a great event if we didn’t sell a few JeanRichards, but we had that covered too. The launch party coincided with a Davidoff cigar event featuring their Zino Platinum. They brought a mobile cigar lounge for our customers to enjoy, and this certainly added to the luxury experience of the evening.
The new Neroscope limited edition was the highlight of the evening, but all JeanRichard pieces were displayed prominently. The feedback was tremendous from our customer base, some of which were familiar with the brand, and some who were just introduced. National Sales Director, Paul Erhardt, was in store conversing with customers about the mechanics, quality, and philosophy behind JeanRichard.
The cigar side of our event featured, as I mentioned, Zino Platinum by Davidoff which included a great promotional pack for customers to try all the different Zino products at an excellent value, but also their incredible mobile lounge you can see above with TV’s, humidors, cigars and some very comfortable seating.
Overall this event proved to be a great time and I think all who attended would be in total agreement. We would like to thank JeanRichard, Paul Erhardt and everyone who attended for such an awesome time!
