Sometime last year, I somehow ended up falling down the HAQ rabbit hole. It’s inevitable, really, you just have to be in this hobby long enough. And at its bottom, the 8J56 movement was waiting for me.

Grand Seiko is surprisingly quiet about the quartz movements that don’t start with a 9F – there is no mention of the 8J on their website or in their official list of high-accuracy quartz movements – it’s like it never existed. Now, if we’re to believe the forum chatter on the subject, this is for good reason. The story goes that the 8J was the last movement they’ve made as best as they could with the knowledge and technology available at the time, cost be damned. Its successor, 9F, was inferior in almost every sense, so understandably, this could put Grand Seiko in an uncomfortable position. And so, they’ve decided to sweep the 8J under the rug and simply never mention it again.

So, what are the differences between the 8J and the 9F, I hear some of you say. Well, it has a battery life of 5 instead of 3 years, the same +/-10 seconds per year accuracy and an independently adjustable hour hand. You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s a feature meant for travelling through different time zones (as I initially did), but the story goes that the guys from Grand Seiko didn’t want you, the fumbling owner, to mess with time when switching to DST, the watch being as accurate as it is. I obviously have no idea how true that story is, but I just love the Japanese-ness of it. What the 8J lacks compared to the 9F is the split-second date change and a vacuum-sealed movement, which is a more than fair trade-off, considering this is а 20-year old movement.

And now, to the watch itself. As soon as I stumbled upon the Grand Seiko SBGF017 model, I instantly knew that was the quartz GS for me – 38mm in diameter, 200m WR and a screw-down crown, lumed hands and indices, a stunning textured dial and the aforementioned HAQ movement. The hunt was on.

The Japanese auction sites are a rabbit hole in their own right – I spent months scouring them, meticulously scrutinizing every SBGF model I came across. I went back and forth between the 017 and 021 (the white and black dial, respectively) for a while, but in the end, it was the condition that made the decision for me. I struck horological gold when a Grand Seiko SBGF017 from 2007 came up for auction from a personal collection of a private seller –mint condition, full set and a very reasonable price – and that was it, my very first GS was on its way to me.

And I have to say, it didn’t disappoint at all. It was everything I imagined a Grand Seiko would be – and more. Firstly, I think the size is just about perfect – and I’m gonna get into specifics here, since there is literally no information about the size of this one on the internet and this is supposed to be an informative review – 38mm diameter, 44 lug-to-lug (48, measuring from the male end-links) and only 9.5 mm thick, to a domed sapphire crystal. I don’t even mind the 19mm lug width, since the bracelet is exceptionally good.

The second thing that really surprised me about the Grand Seiko SBGF017 was the finishing – the polishing of the case, bracelet, hands and indices – makes the watch catch and reflect the light in the most wonderful ways, constantly shimmering on your wrist. The 8J56 is truly stunning – when I took it for a battery change, I witnessed firsthand the beauty of the movement. It has yet to gain or lose a second in the time I’ve owned it and the independently adjustable hour hand may be the most useful complication on a watch I own.

I think it’s pretty clear I really love this Grand Seiko SBGF017 and I think it’s a real shame there is no modern counterpart in Grand Seiko’s current catalog. But these little gems are still out there and I highly recommend you trying to get one while you still can. You most definitely won’t regret it.