Legendary Design by a Legendary Designer! The Seiko SBJG001

While I was walking around in Osaka right after a delicious pizza from Critters Pizza, in an area near Americamurra, I stumbled upon this small thrift store, that for some odd reason caught my eye. Thrift shopping in Japan is unbelievable, the items are well selected and range from high end pieces to mass produced charity shirts. I mean just last year I saw someone wearing a “Free Kuwait” sweater that was used to promote the freedom of Kuwait during the Iraqi Invasion in 1991.

The shop was on the smaller end compared to most of the thrift shops I’ve come across and as per usual I darted immediately to the Jewelry/Watch display cases trying to find something special. Low and behold there it is, something special, and different. The Seiko SBJG001.

Now lets talk about why this watch is special, first of all it’s a rerelease from a line of watches Seiko used to make in the 80’s called the Speed Master, not to be confused with the Omega Speedmaster (one is two words, one is one word). Second of all it was a limited edition watch, and the watch on display was number 2334/3000. Finally the watch was designed by the world renowned Giugiaro.

If you don’t know who Giugiaro is well that’s simple, Giorgetto Giugiaro is one of the most renowned automotive designer. This man designed some of the most iconic cars, that have ever graced the world such the iconic BMW M1 with its cult following. The DMC DeLorean, yes the car from the Back to the Future franchise. The Volkswagen Golf Mk1, that most car guys will agree is the car that started the whole Hot-Hatch genre, which includes the Holy Grail of all Hot-Hatches the Lancia Delta which went on to win SIX World Rally Championships. He also designed motorcycles, cameras, a couple of firearms, and some Seiko Watches.

Back to the watch! The Seiko SBJG001 was a reissued in 2018. Powered by the A825 caliber quartz movement inside the watch case which measures just shy of 40mm. The watch comes in a stainless steel case and and an integrated steel bracelet. The watch itself is a digital watch but with a couple of twists, pun intended.

The whole dial of the watch is rotated at a 15 degrees, and for a reason. The watch was made for racing, both motorcycle racing and automotive racing. The 15 degrees is something that may seem odd, but when your hands are on the steering wheel, or the handlebars of a motorcycle you can easily read the time without letting go of control. An example of that is Ayrton Senna wearing the watch while racing before he signed his deal with Tag Heuer. The watch has a rotating bezel with two black tabs to help with going through all the different modes on the watch (Time, Alarm, Stopwatch, Timer, then speedtimers). The speedtimers, or tachymeters range from calculating the speed from distances as low as 0.2km up towards 100km. It will do the calculations for you on the spot telling you the speed done during the time frame and the distance selected, all in metric obviously. The case of the watch has three buttons, a start-stop and reset button for the timer and stopwatch function, and a light button.

The connection between this watch and the automotive world and all the quirky features made me pull the trigger on the watch instantly. I can’t be happier that I purchased this watch and see myself having it on my wrist more often than a lot of other watches in my collection.