GRAHAM SILVERSTONE RS GMT
ANGUS DAVIES REVIEWS THE GRAHAM SILVERSTONE RS GMT, A TIMEPIECE WHICH EVOKES CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF EXOTIC ITALIAN SUPERCARS.
This detailed review of the Graham Silverstone RS GMT includes live images, specification details and pricing.
My relationship with watches may appear to many ‘normal’ souls as rather peculiar. While some men of a similar age to myself may view watches purely as functional items, purchased merely to impart the time, my fascination for horology can only be described as ‘obsessive’.
Often when I hold a watch in my hands, appraising its form, it engenders passion and evokes a myriad of thoughts. And so it was with the REPLICA Graham Silverstone RS GMT. While there were many aspects to its composition which I admired, surprisingly it was the quilted tan coloured strap which I first noticed, resulting in childhood memories of Italian sports cars coming to the fore.
The creative talents of Bertone and Pininfarina conceived the Lamborghini Miura and Ferrari Dino, respectively. These cars may have been absent from the streets where I played as a child, but they took pride of place, albeit in A3 pictorial form, upon my woodchip wallpaper clad bedroom walls. Even today, these cars look splendid with sinuous contours cheating the air of resistance and featuring prominent lines that toy with light magnificently.
In this instance, my recollection of these two Italian thoroughbreds concerned the leather clad seats mounted within their luxurious cockpits. Each seat sported stitched horizontal sections of premium hide. My favourite colour was ‘sabbia’, a sand hue which continues to be a popular choice with buyers of supercars to this day. Indeed, while Graham describes its strap as ‘beige’, I would describe it as sabbia and the perfect complement to the rosso bodywork of any Italian racing machine.
Feeling an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, I eagerly embraced the otherwise contemporary form of this sporty timepiece and commenced a period of evaluation, appraising its specification and scrutinising its fitness to race.
The dial
Graham has employed a palette of four colours on this timepiece, namely black, red, white and ‘beige’. The chosen mix of colours works well, bestowing a harmonious composition.
The hour and minute hands are black and lined with beige luminescent treatment. The beige tone usurps the black in terms of prominence, but the hands continue to prove highly legible.
Similar to many sports cars which reveal their engine via a see-through cover, the dial of the Graham Silverstone RS GMT allows the wearer to see part of the engine via a black, smoked open-worked dial. As a self-confessed horological voyeur I adore the capacity to see parts of the movement industriously collaborating to communicate time.
The Graham Silverstone RS GMT features a bi-compax layout. A 30-minute chronograph register is positioned at 3 o’clock, while a small seconds display resides opposite. The hands on both subdials, as well as the large central chronograph seconds hand, are presented in a lustrous shade of red.
Located at 6 o’clock, a big date display imparts information in a clear, unequivocal tone, employing two date discs seen via the said smoked open-worked dial.
A GMT hand, presented in black with a prominent white luminescent tip outlined in red, proves useful for business travellers needing to know the prevailing hour at home.
Encircling the inner flange of the dial, a tachymeter scale, employing beige text, proves useful when calculating the speed of objects over a measured mile and, no doubt, will appeal to gentleman racers endeavouring to hone a perfect lap.
The case
The 46mm stainless steel case can only be described as a leviathan. Graham has long been associated with oversized watches and this model upholds that reputation. I found this timepiece accorded a very agreeable fit but concede I do possess behemoth arms. Sadly, this watch may prove too large if you sport slender wrists.
The case is predominantly satin brushed, save for the upper bevelled edges of the lugs and some areas of the caseback which are highly polished. The execution of the case is excellent with all surfaces proving pleasingly smooth.
Beneath the black ceramic bezel, marked with a 24 hour scale, sits a red aluminium ring. Its knurled texture, termed ‘Clou de Paris’, tempts fingers to touch, but its positioning prevents inquisitive fingers from mating with its form.
The cylindrical push piece at 2 o’clock features a smooth, arcing red trim on its vertical plane. The crown, engraved with the letters ‘RS’, nestles between two protectors, helping to maintain its showroom fresh condition.
At 4 o’clock, a rectangular shaped pushpiece is marked with the word, ‘Flyback’, attesting to an additional specification highlight of this model. This particular complication proves highly useful when timing consecutive timed intervals, allowing the wearer to stop, reset and start the chronograph with one push of the ‘Flyback’ pushpiece.
Wearers also have the opportunity to observe the self-winding movement via an exhibition caseback.
Returning to the quilted strap, its tan colour may not be to everyone’s taste, hence the maison offers a more conservative nero shade. The strap is affixed to a double folding clasp. The highly polished buckle is prone to annoying scratches and I personally would have preferred this item to have been satin-brushed. However, this is a minor criticism and did not mar my overall enjoyment of the Graham Silverstone RS GMT.
The movement
The self-winding Calibre G1721 features 28 jewels and has a power reserve of 48 hours. The balance has a frequency of 28,800 vph (4Hz) and is equipped with an Incabloc shock absorber.
The oscillating mass is open-worked and mounted on ceramic ball bearings, providing an incredibly smooth rotational action. The oscillating mass is satin-brushed and Côtes de Genève motif populates the bridges beneath. Blued screws feature on the movement and a sea of perlage on dial-side surface of the mainplate bestows a palpable quotient of fine horological breeding.
Closing remarks
This is a true ‘man’s watch’. It is unashamedly large and intended for racer’s wrists which know how to thread a car through a series of challenging apexes. I adore its impressive mix of talents.
The Graham Silverstone RS GMT is equipped with a fabulous array of features, including a big date display, GMT, flyback chronograph and tachymeter scale. It reveals much of the inner thought processes of the movement, courtesy of its open-worked dial and exhibition caseback.
The case construction is of a high standard and I like the sparing and judicious use of polished surfaces. The dial display proves both interesting and simple to interpret.
It is the plethora of small details which engender the most nods of appreciation from my direction. In particular, the red aluminium ring, positioned beneath the bezel, and the ‘Flyback’ pushpiece at 4 o’clock look superb.
But lastly, and rather unusually for a watch review, it was the serendipitous sight of the sabbia strap which transposed me to a glamorous era of motoring and underscored my liking for this timepiece.