SBGX261 hand finishes
The SBGX261 was my very first Grand Seiko. If I told you how much time I spent gazing (with a loupe and the naked eye) at the way this texture of the tops of the hands picks up and re-transmits light, sometimes creating little diffraction rainbows because of how fine the physical features are, you might not believe it.
Oh, who am I kidding? You'd believe it.
Dark-dialed Grand Seikos like this tend to have a hand top texture which picks up and reflects light from many angles and manages to look like it's glowing, without lume, even in surprisingly dim light (creating a contrast with the dark dial and making the watch improbably readable).
Light-dialed Grand Seikos on the other hand tend to be given hands with angled large polished surfaces; if one of them reflects a light source toward you it will glint like a cut gem, but at least one of those surfaces is likely not to be reflecting the primary light source in your direction – and so, because of how absurdly good the polished surfaces are, a facet not reflecting toward you will appear black (and will thus contrast with the light-colored dial behind it).
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