This Grand Seiko Diver Was Crowned Best Sports Watch At The Oscars Of Watchmaking

A titanium dive watch made in the mountains of Nagano has just been named the best sports watch of the year by the most Swiss institution in watchmaking. At the 26th Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève on Saturday night, Grand Seiko’s Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver took out the Sports Watch Prize, beating a shortlist that included IWC, Chopard, Hermès, H. Moser & Cie. and Laurent Ferrier.

For the uninitiated, the GPHG is what the industry calls the Oscars of watchmaking. More than 1,000 Academy members vote alongside an international jury, chaired this year by Revolution founder Wei Koh, and twenty prizes were handed out at the ceremony in Geneva.

It’s a big result for a watch that only arrived in April. Grand Seiko used its first official appearance at Watches & Wonders to finally fix the one thing people complained about with its Spring Drive divers, which had always run north of 43mm. As we wrote at the time, this was the dive watch everyone had been begging for.

The Ushio 300 comes in at 40.8mm across and 12.9mm thick, which makes it the smallest diver the brand has ever built. The case is Grand Seiko’s High-Intensity Titanium, roughly 30 percent lighter than steel, and it’s rated to 300 metres.

The real story is inside. The new Calibre 9RB1 carries the U.F.A. (Ultra Fine Accuracy) designation, meaning it’s good for plus or minus 20 seconds a year, or around three seconds a month, with a 72-hour power reserve shown on the dial. Grand Seiko claims that makes it the most accurate mainspring-driven dive watch in the world, and nobody else makes a Spring Drive to argue the point.

There are two versions. The blue SLGB023 is the wider release, while the green SLGB025 is kept for Grand Seiko boutiques and salons. Both carry the textured Ushio dial, named after the Japanese word for tide, and both sell for AU$17,700 (grand-seiko.com).

That price is the bit that makes this win so satisfying. The Ushio 300 was comfortably the cheapest watch on the Sports shortlist, up against a Chopard concept piece, a skeletonised Hermès and an IWC Big Pilot with a perpetual calendar, and it still walked away with the prize.

Grand Seiko isn’t new to this stage. It won the Petite Aiguille in 2014 with the Hi-Beat 36000 GMT, and the Chronometry Prize in 2022 with the Kodo Constant-force Tourbillon. Japan had a good night all round, too, with Tokyo independent Otsuka Lotec picking up this year’s Petite Aiguille for its No.8.

The biggest gong, the Aiguille d’Or, went to Rexhep Rexhepi for his Chronograph Flyback. The Kosovo-born, Geneva-based independent takes over from Breguet, whose Classique Souscription won it last year.

Audemars Piguet, Chopard and Ferdinand Berthoud each went home with two prizes. AP won Iconic Watch for its Royal Oak “Jumbo” RD#5 flying tourbillon chronograph and Calendar and Astronomy for the 150 Heritage, Chopard took Time Only and Jewellery, and Ferdinand Berthoud doubled up in Chronometry and Tourbillon.

Patek Philippe received the Special Jury Prize, not for a watch but for its Watch Art Grand Exhibition. Here’s the full 2026 prize list.

• Aiguille d’Or Grand Prix, Rexhep Rexhepi Chronograph Flyback
• Iconic Watch Prize, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak “Jumbo” Extra-thin Selfwinding Flying Tourbillon Chronograph RD#5 “150th Anniversary”
• Special Jury Prize, Patek Philippe Watch Art Grand Exhibition
• Audacity Prize, Konstantin Chaykin ThinKing Mystery
• Chronometry Prize, Ferdinand Berthoud Naissance d’une Montre 3
• Horological Revelation Prize, Dominique Renaud Pulse60 Titanium Black
• Mechanical Exception Watch Prize, Blancpain Grande Double Sonnerie
• Complication Watch Prize, Cleguer Inspiration One
• Chronograph Watch Prize, Parmigiani Fleurier Tonda PF Chronographe Mystérieux
• Tourbillon Watch Prize, Ferdinand Berthoud Chronomètre FB 2TV
• Sports Watch Prize, Grand Seiko Spring Drive U.F.A. Ushio 300 Diver
• Calendar and Astronomy Watch Prize, Audemars Piguet 150 Heritage
• Essential Watch Prize, Daniel Roth Extra Plat Rose Gold Skeleton
• Time Only Watch Prize, Chopard L.U.C 1860
• Jewellery Watch Prize, Chopard Mystery Nut
• Artistic Crafts Watch Prize, Louis Vuitton Tambour Taiko Arty Automata
• Gemset Watch Prize, Piaget Swinging Pebble
• Petite Aiguille Watch Prize, Otsuka Lotec No.8
• Challenge Watch Prize, SpaceOne x Baltic Seconde Majeure
• Mechanical Clock Prize, La Vallée Cosmo

If you’re in Geneva, all 84 nominated watches are on show at the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire until 15 November. The winners then head to London, where they’ll be displayed at the Watches of Switzerland boutique in Knightsbridge from 18 to 23 November. The full results are on the GPHG website.

For anyone who’s spent the last decade explaining to mates why a Grand Seiko is worth the money, Saturday night in Geneva just made that conversation a lot shorter.