The New Standard for Japanese Luxury Dive Watches Grand Seiko Ushio 300

So if you've ever spent a brief amount of time looking at watches online, which, who am I kidding, you're here, so of course you have, you will have come across the brand, Grand Seiko. Now the brand has rightfully developed one of the most passionate followings of any name in the industry through their unbelievable demonstration of the craft in every detail. Despite this, if you've ever been in the comment section on social posts about the brand, the two common points of feedback were, can we get some micro-adjustment on the bracelets? And when can we have a more wearable dive watch that isn't north of 43 millimeters in diameter? Last year, we saw the former of the two questions answered with the release of the SLGB003, featuring high-intensity titanium construction with on-the-fly functionality within the clasp. But there was another aspect of that introduction that hinted at more possibilities in the future with the introduction of the UFA platform, the 9RB2, enabling a spring drive to fit within a case of 37 millimeters. At the time of the release of that model, my mind quickly jumped to thinking that a smaller spring drive dive watch is now likely possible. And just a year later, we have it with the release of two UFA divers known as the blue SLGB023 and the green SLGB025, also being known as the Ushio 300s. The term Ushio in Japan is a reference to tide, which speaks to the dial's texturized pattern first being introduced in 2022 with the SLGA015 black dial, and subsequently a year later with the SLGA023 in blue. These watches had beautiful yet understated dials showing off a mild reflective sheen, and in addition, those ridges of that wave motif in the backdrop, and housed the upgraded 9RA series caliber, which called upon two barrels for an extended power reserve of 120 hours or five days on a full wind. Given the larger movement space needed for two barrels and hitting the proper water resistance rating, the watches were not insignificant in size, with a diameter of 43.8 millimeters and a lug-to-lug of 51.5 millimeters and a thickness measuring 13.8 millimeters, which sized out many collectors of the brand. The Ushio 43 series did have micro-adjustment in the clasp, however, it required tools as well. This brings us to today, where the Ushio 300s incorporate the common requests, a smaller case on all measurements, micro-adjustment on the fly in the clasp, and even adding value to something nobody was asking for, a more accurate movement with the addition of the 9RB series of calibers. And guys, before we dive into this video, if you want to come and attend our Grand Seiko event in June in Cleveland, Ohio, we'll have details down below in the description where you can request more information about the event. This is a limited capacity event. We have some room left, so I wanted to make it available to the public just a bit. There is a lot of demand for these. We've done these now for three straight years. Last year, we had around 600 people join us for the event and have limited capacity left for this year. Now, this is an all-day event, and we have programming being led by myself, Joe Kirk. Also have some representatives from Grand Seiko HQ, so a movement designer, Haraya-san, who was crucial in the development of Spring Drive's evolution during the 21st century and also in UFA's development, along with a design showcase led by Yoshida-san, who will be given a sense of the design process of the brand entirely. Beyond that, we'll have some cool activations on site. We'll have a Japanese calligrapher where you can walk off with some cool Japanese calligraphy. We have food and drink, including a Japanese whiskey tasting as well that will take place, and also an exclusive look at our boutique down the street. This is the first time that we're doing a large-scale event like this right down the road from our boutique. Beyond all that, we're also going to be showcasing some new Grand Seiko watches, including these Ushio 300s that will also be available for sale. So this will be one of the first places you can actually try these on in the entire country, and we have select allocation for the event. So if you want to be able to be one of the first in the country to have one of these, that is going to be the place to do it. And we'll have many of the best sellers. And in addition to that, some exclusive Crador models that you really can't see anywhere else in the United States. And if you are interested, link will be in the description where you can express your interest in this event. This is a limited capacity event as well, as I mentioned. After you express your interest, one of my team members will be in touch if we have room for your attendance, but we always have to make these limited given the venue that we are housing this in. And we can't just have everybody come. I hope you guys understand that. But if you are interested, I would definitely recommend jumping on this now, because this one will fill up just like the prior years have as well. But hope to see you there. So as mentioned, the real breakthrough for a spring drive dive watch and how this was all possible at this size is a result of the caliber 9RB series, which saves multiple millimeters on the diameter of the movement compared to the 9RA series, and is significantly thinner than the 9R65. Now this leads to the tidiest set of dimensions ever for a Grand Seiko diver with a 40.8 millimeter case diameter, a 12.9 millimeter case height, and a 48.5 millimeter lug to lug. Now, in spite of the newly tailored case, the Ushio actually improves in the water resistance department compared to pieces like the SLGA023, delivering 300 meters of water resistance instead of two. The faceted case contours follow the modern Evolution 9 design language with the curved angled lugs featuring mostly hairline brushing, with the flared bevel showing Grand Seiko's masterful Zaratsu polishing. The case sides sweep elegantly towards a partial guarded screw-down crown, offering fantastic grip and sign with the GS logo in relief. The Ushio is constructed of Grand Seiko's brilliant high-intensity titanium, which weighs around 30% less than steel. The overall effect comes across as lightweight, yet shining with a brilliance that is miles away from more tool-like renditions of titanium. The sapphire crystal gets an anti-reflective coating, offering an unobstructed view of the dazzling dial, and the 120-click bezel's dive-scale insert gets a lume pipette 12 and is constructed of color-matched ceramic for added scratch resistance. The bezel has been re-engineered for a lower profile, and the teeth have also been refined for better grip. And in totality, this watch wears rather true to its size, and one of the hidden details of its ability to not wear larger is the dial-to-bezel ratio, with the bezel making up more of the total share, making the dial, and therefore the watch, appear smaller. So last year, with the release of the SLGB-003, we finally saw Grand Seiko showcase its on-the-fly micro-adjustment. However, the Ushio 300s, we get even more bells and whistles appropriate for the dive watch genre. What remains from the on-the-fly concept is the micro-adjustment system in the clasp, which gets three clicks of micro-adjustment, around six millimeters in total, with two millimeters for each stop. To employ the diver's extension, open up the clasp and depress the extension button to add length in order to wear the watch over a wetsuit. Now, in total, there's around 24 millimeters possible of adjustment. 18 of those are gonna be coming from the diver's extension. And as one final element of the clasp, when the clasp exposes the red indicator, this means that the clasp is not locked. However, with a simple switch of the button, you can then cover this linear indication to lock the clasp in its secured position. And with the drilled lugs, strap swapping with the 21-millimeter lugs is gonna be made easier to do so in case you want to swap. That said, I would probably keep the bracelet paired to this package as it's very complete in its presentation. The Ushio 300 has two colorways available with this release. You have the SLGB023 in blue and the SLGB025 in green. Now, the dial is an evolution of the previously released Ushio pattern dials, getting a beautiful gradation effect. The deep blue variant calls to mind the deeper waters of the sea, while the green suggests the shallows closer to the shore. Now, both colors offer dramatic shifts with changes in lighting conditions, with the green variant especially being dynamic as the darker green transforms to an almost silver hue closer to the center as a result of utilizing Grand Seiko's optical multi-layer coding technique, enabling a wide reflective phenomenon with changing intensities of color in the dial. This was showcased in the SBGC275 protograph from a couple of years ago, with its red, orange, pink dial depending on the lighting condition. Against these remarkable backdrops, let's take a closer look at the dial elements, which start with a color-matched angled chapter ring with a minute track printed in white for easy legibility. The sloping minute track allows extra room for Grand Seiko's jewel-like applied hour indices, always a highlight of any GS dial. The beveled and polished hour markers take a rectangular form rather than circular of other divers from the brand in the past, being upsized at the cardinal points and capped off with a double trapezoid at 12. And as always, Grand Seiko makes good use of its proprietary Lumibrite material here, shining exceptionally. Moving further inboard, you'll find the applied GS logo under 12 with the printed wordmark just below that, while Spring Drive UFA and the 300 meter depth rating are called out in three lines text above six. The dial does away with a date complication to allow indices extra breathing room and the front-facing power reserve indicator rests between seven and eight. The brushed titanium hands are broad and highly legible, redesigned from those on the original Ushio diver for optimum visibility and aided by the glow from the Lumibrite infill. The minute hand takes a wide arrow stance with the second hand featuring a loom lollipop counterweight sweeping along only as Spring Drive power movements can. No one was asking Grand Seiko for a more accurate Spring Drive movement, so when they unveiled the 9RB2 caliber last year, safe to say it was a complete mic drop. The Spring Drive caliber 9RB1 is a new version of UFA, built for this goal of achieving a smaller, thinner dive watch developed at Grand Seiko's Shinshu watch studio Nagano. A great care was taken to ensure the 9RB1 was not only thinner to allow for a trim case height, but more resistant to shock to maintain its tool-like watch ability. For instance, the single barrel and magic lever winding system are offset from the center of the movement, reducing its vertical stacked height. The gear train also is going to get a shift with its layout being flatter as opposed to stacked and the power reserve has been moved to the dial side of the movement. It's an intentional choice, one that allowed the new Ushio to retain a closed case back for greater structural integrity and for helping to secure a trimmer case height. A one-piece center bridge reduces thickness, lowering the overall center of gravity and a redesigned rotor also improved impact resistance as does the lack of a fragile pallet fork and escape at wheel in the Spring Drive movement. All of these factors add up to the smallest professional Spring Drive diver that Grand Seiko has ever produced. And as for the UFA technology itself, the movement is more accurate over the span of an entire month than a Swiss chronometer is in a day or plus or minus 20 seconds per year. A recent Spring Drive innovation first introduced in 2025, UFA stands for Ultra Fine Accuracy. And according to Grand Seiko, the UFA represents the most accurate watch ever made powered by a mainspring. I'll save you the explanation on how Spring Drive works for this video as I have many different videos discussing that and an entire video that goes into great lengths and detail about how it actually works. But if I had to sum it up simply, it provides the benefits of mechanical power calibers with its lack of reliance on an external battery, being powered by your emotion with the oscillating weight and gets the benefit of quartz oscillation with its higher frequency and therefore improved accuracy with temperature compensation also being added to the package and will also counteract friction by way of electromagnetic energy regulated by the glide wheels rotation, all while not even having to touch the component. And the 9RB1 UFA caliber, the movements regulation system is entirely vacuum sealed for stability and protection against external forces like humidity, static, electricity and temperature fluctuations. But the brand goes to even greater lengths to ensure accuracy under changing conditions. After a three month aging process, each individual quartz oscillator is measured at several temperatures after the movement is cased. And those measurements are used to program the thermo compensation data into the low pressured IC inside the regulation system. A sensor inside the IC measures temperatures of 540 times a day using the data collected to compensate for any variance to the oscillator's performance. Additionally, the quartz oscillator itself can actually be adjusted if needed by means of a regulation switch within the movement. So this caliber as compared to the 9RA series has a single barrel and will not hit the five day reserve instead a not so shabby three days. However, with accuracy standards that reach all time levels along with a smaller package, it's far from what I would call an insurmountable trade off. So to close out this video, we should probably discuss some of the more specific questions of blue or green, as well as who are these watches generally for? Now starting with the latter of these two questions, let's not bury the lead. These are premium offerings from Grand Seiko. For those wanting a Grand Seiko diver in spring drive, the double edged sword of the breakthrough of UFA is that yes, it's phenomenal in its accuracy and ability to enable Grand Seiko to shrink down the presence of their watches, but it comes with the result of UFA being a top shelf offering, which will leave to a higher price. With this being the case, the watch is unlikely to be someone's first luxury watch, instead being positioned alongside the first class of divers of the industry. Think of the Rolex Submariner, the Basuta Rigonale CQ and the 50 Fathoms, with the latter sitting firmly in more of that high horology genre. With this all considered, the Grand Seiko Ushio is quite isolated from its peers that appeal to different ideals. Ushio 300 sits at the intersection of premium dive watch offerings, having elite Japanese craftsmanship and unparalleled accuracy standards that leaves every competitor in the dust in that regard. This all comes while hitting the new core elements collectors were looking for. You have micro adjustment in the clasp on the fly, more wearable dimensions, et cetera. Now, when it comes to the question of what dial is better, as always, it's going to be subjective. I'll just recall back to when this watch was revealed to me. I was sitting down with Joe Curve, you probably saw it in the video, and my eyes immediately went to the green, as it was unlike anything Grand Seiko has done to this point in the diving category, especially with the optical multi-layer coating with its dramatic effect. Now, the blue on the other hand is the more cerebral choice of the two when it comes to day-to-day wearability and versatility, and still looks fantastic with that Ushio tied pattern. That all considered, if you have several Grand Seikos or have another Grand Seiko and are looking for something that's a bit more memorable, not only from the brand, but also can separate from the broad landscape of dive watches, I can understand why the green might be where your eyes go first, despite it might not having the same versatility as the blue one. In either case, with the Ushio 300s, Grand Seiko has finally been able to develop an answer to those looking for what the pinnacle of Japanese dive watches can be, and did so by keeping in mind the common ass among their fanatic fan base, a fan base that I proudly claim to be a part of. But all right guys, that is our video here today, looking at the new Ushio 300s. I know we've talked about these with Joe. This allowed me to go a little bit deeper into some of the details and also some of my opinions on blue and green, or also their positioning in the Grand Seiko lineup. If you've done some research on these, love to hear your take down below. If you have been one of the rare people that actually see these in person, and I know that is not a lot of people out there because these are not going to be available until around late June. Leave a comment down below though, if you have had a sense of trying these on or have just done a lot of research and I know what you're thinking about them. If you enjoyed the video, please give this one a thumbs up, subscribe, hit the bell icon. I really would appreciate you guys subscribing. The majority of people that watch this channel are not subscribed. If you have thought maybe you've been subscribed and watched a lot of the videos and are not subscribed, really would appreciate that because that does help us a lot in our videos being seen by more people. In addition, definitely check out teddybalancer.com, full authorized dealer for over 35 brands. Every purchase from our website comes with quick and fast fulfillment, dedicated customer support, a full factory warranty for all the products that we offer. In addition, if you want to attend that Grand Seiko event, link will be in the description down below. I hope to see you there. Guys, thank you again so much for watching. Be well. I'll see you all very soon.