Seiko


Seiko Holdings Corporation, commonly known as Seiko, is a Japanese holding company that has subsidiaries which manufactures and sells watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelries, and optical products.

History and development

The company was founded in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called "K. Hattori" in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. 11 years later in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the name Seikosha, meaning roughly, "House of Exquisite Workmanship". According to Seiko's official company history, titled A Journey In Time: The Remarkable Story of Seiko, Seiko is a Japanese word meaning "exquisite" or "success".
In order to avoid an ill omen believed to be associated with the word "GLORY" in Japanese, Seikosha changed its trade mark to "SEIKO" in 1924. In 1969, Seiko introduced the Astron, the world's first production quartz watch; when it was introduced, it cost the same as a medium-sized car. Seiko later went on to introduce the first quartz chronograph.
In the late 1980s, Seiko produced the first automatic quartz that combined the self-energizing attributes of an automatic watch with quartz accuracy. The watch is entirely powered by its movement in everyday wear. In 1991, to increase popularity, these watches were relaunched under the name Seiko Kinetic.
In 1985, Orient and Seiko established a joint factory.
The company was incorporated in 1917 and was renamed Hattori Seiko Co., Ltd. in 1983 and Seiko Corporation in 1990. After reconstructing and creating its operating subsidiaries, it became a holding company in 2001 and was renamed Seiko Holdings Corporation as of July 1, 2007.
Seiko is perhaps best known for its wristwatches, all of which were at one time produced entirely in house. This includes not only major items such as microgears, motors, hands, crystal oscillators, batteries, sensors, and LCDs, but also minor items such as the oils used in lubricating the watches and the luminous compounds used on the hands and the dials. Seiko watches were originally produced by two different subsidiaries. One was Daini Seikosha Co.,, and the other was Suwa Seikosha Co.. Having two companies both producing the same brand of watch enabled Seiko to improve technology through competition and hedge risk. It also reduced risk of production problems, since one company can increase production in the case of decreased production in the other parties.
Currently watch movements are made in Shizukuishi, Iwate, Ninohe, Iwate, Shiojiri, Nagano and their subsidiaries in China, Malaysia and Singapore. The fully integrated in-house production system is still practiced for luxury watches in Japan.

Seiko in the United States

Seiko Corporation of America is responsible for the distribution of Seiko watches and clocks, as well as Pulsar and Lorus brand watches, in the United States. The models available in the United States are normally a smaller subset of the full line produced in Japan. Seiko Corporation of America has its headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey. In the United States, Seiko watches are sold primarily by fine jewelers and department stores as well as 19 company stores located in various cities.

Marketing

On Friday, January 10, 2014 on the eve of the Australian Open in Melbourne, Shinji Hattori, President of Seiko Watch Corporation, presented to Novak Djokovic a Seiko 5 limited edition worth $1700. It was launched worldwide with a million units, symbolizing Seiko's partnership with the world's no.1 professional tennis player.

Seiko Group

Seiko Holdings is one of the three core companies of the Seiko Group. The Seiko Group consists of Seiko Holdings Corporation, Seiko Instruments Inc., and Seiko Epson Corporation. Although they have some common shareholders, including the key members of the Hattori family, the three companies in the Seiko Group are not affiliated. They are managed and operated completely independently. Seiko Watch, an operating subsidiary of Seiko Holdings, markets Seiko watches, while SII and Epson manufacture their movements.
On January 26, 2009, Seiko Holdings and Seiko Instruments announced that the two companies would be merged on October 1, 2009, through a share swap. Seiko Instruments became a wholly owned subsidiary of Seiko Holdings as of October 1, 2009.

Subsidiaries

Seiko produces watches with quartz, kinetic, solar, and mechanical movements of varying prices, ranging from around ¥4,000 to ¥50,000,000. To separate the customer groups, Seiko has created many different brands in Japan and the international market including Lorus, Pulsar and Alba.
Seiko has several lines such as the Seiko 5, luxury "Credor", "Prospex", "Presage", "Velatura" and the "Grand Seiko" series.

Seiko 5

The Seiko 5 is not a single watch, rather a standard that many Seiko model series of mechanical watches meet since the introduction of the moniker in the 1960s.
The standard gets its name from incorporating five key attributes:
  1. Automatic winding
  2. Day/date displayed in a single window
  3. Water resistance
  4. A display caseback
  5. Durable steel case and bracelet
Seiko has made many different models of "5" standard watch, including large, small, divers, steel/leather/synthetic strap, transparent or sterile case-back and many other variations.
NASA Flight Director Gene Kranz wore a Seiko 5 model 6119-8460 during the height of his career. It was on his wrist when the Apollo 11 crew touched down on the lunar surface, when the Apollo 13 explosion occurred, and throughout the remainder of his career at NASA.

Seiko Presage

The Seiko Presage series is an all-mechanical collection, a step up from its entry level mechanical watches. It has slightly more elaborate designs and complex movements, such as urushi-lacquer dials, and self-winding movements with power reserve indicators. The Presage line watches are usually priced between US$200 to US$3,000.
Seiko entered a cooperation with the traditional cloisonné maker Ando Cloisonné Company from Nagoya to produce the dial for the limited edition in 2018.

Seiko SARB

The Seiko SARB is their mid-range mechanical line of watches. They use the Seiko 6R15 movement.
Some of the examples of the SARB line are SARB033, SARB035, SARB017, SARB065, etc... as well as some of the rarer SARB013, SARB015, SARB031, SARB072.

Grand Seiko

Birth of Grand Seiko

Prior to 1960, to challenge the status of Swiss watches and change the perception of Japanese watches, Daini Seikosha and Suwa began the discussion of a product line that can match the quality of Swiss watches under the suggestion of the parent company. At the time, Suwa Seikosha Co. was in charge of manufacturing men's watches, so it was decided that Suwa would be producing the first Grand Seiko.
The first Grand Seiko was released in 1960, it was based on Seiko's previous high-end watch, CROWN. This Grand Seiko has a 25-jewel, manual-winding, 3180 caliber, and only 36,000 units were produced. This was also the first chronometer-grade watch manufactured in Japan, and it was based on Seiko's own chronometer standard.

Design style

The design language of the Grand Seiko was set in 1967, with the creation of Grand Seiko 44GS. The 44GS set the ground for all future Grand Seiko with nine elements. These elements help improve the legibility of the watch under different situations, and create a sharp, crisp visual impression:
  1. Double width index at 12 o'clock
  2. Multi-faceted rectangular markers
  3. Highly polished bezel
  4. Highly polished planes and two-dimensional surface
  5. Half recessed crown
  6. Flat dial
  7. Multi-faceted hour and minute hands
  8. Curved side line
  9. Reverse slanted bezel wall and case side
  10. Dress style with simple but beautiful design
  11. Zaratsu polishing

    Other

Seiko produces electronic devices as well. During the 1980s, the company produced a notable range of digital synthesizers, such as the DS-250, for use in electronic music. Today the music division produces metronomes and tuning devices.

Movements

Mechanical movement

In 1968, Seiko introduced three ten beat calibers, the automatic caliber 61GS, the manual winding 45GS and 19GS for women's watch. The 61GS was Japan's first automatic ten beat watch, and it was the most accurate mechanical watch due to the high beat calibers. The calibers are considered high beat because normal mechanical movements beat six to eight times per second, and higher beat makes the watch more resistant to shock, thus achieving the high accuracy.
In 2009, Seiko released the new ten beat caliber 9S85, which is a completely new design from the previous high beat caliber. The new caliber also met the Grand Seiko Standard, a chronometer certification that the company claims to be more strict than the Chronometer Certificate in Switzerland.
List of Seiko mechanical movements
CaliberVibrations
JewelsAccuracy
Power reserve
Features
4R3521,60024+45～-35403 hands, time display and date display
4R3621,60024+45～-35403 hands, time display and day and date display
6R1521,60023+25～-15503 hands, time display and date display
6R2028,80029+25～-15456 hands, time display, day and date display, power reserve indicator
6R2128,80029+25～-15456 hands, time display, day and date display, power reserve indicator
6R2428,80031+25～-15456 hands, time display, day and date display, power reserve indicator
6R2728,80029+25～-15455 hands, time display, date display, power reserve indicator
6R3521,60024+25～-15703 hands, time display and date display
7S2621,60021+40～-20413 hands, time display and date display
7S3621,60023+40～-20413 hands, time display and date display
8R2828,80034+25～-15456 hands, time display, stopwatch display and date display
8L3528,80026+15～-10503 hands, time display and date display
8L5536,00037+15～-10553 hands, time display and date display

Quartz movement

On December 25, 1969, Seiko released the world's first quartz watch, the Seiko Quartz ASTRON, which marked the beginning of the quartz revolution. The watch uses a crystal oscillator for accuracy, where the crystal generates steady vibration when voltage is applied to it. During the ten years of development at Suwa Seikosha, Seiko managed to create many parts which enabled the viable application of quartz in wristwatches. For example, Seiko cut the crystal oscillator into the shape of a tuning-fork, and developed an integrated circuit and step motor to operate with the signals from the crystal oscillator.
Although creating the parts that enabled quartz watches, Seiko did not monopolize the patent rights for the unique pieces, but decided to open them.
In 1973, Seiko announced the world's first LCD quartz watch with six-digit digital display.
In 1975, Seiko launched the world's first multi-function digital watch, the 0634.
In 1978, Seiko released the Twin Quartz watch to address the impact of temperature on the frequency of the quartz crystal oscillator, which put a limitation on the accuracy of quartz watches. Seiko put a second crystal in the watch that is linked with a processor that detects the change in temperature and signals the main oscillator to compensate. The result was a huge improvement in the watch's accuracy from 5 seconds per month to 5 seconds per year.
In 1988, Seiko combined automatic and electric watches, creating the Seiko Kinetic, a movement that is powered by the movements of the user, converting the energy to electricity for the quartz movement.

Grand Seiko 9F quartz movement

The 9F quartz movement is used in Grand Seiko quartz watches.
The Grand Seiko's 9F quartz movement is assembled entirely by hand by two expert craftsmen.
Features include:
The Spring Drive was announced in 1997. It was developed by Yoshikazu Akahane and his team and inspired by Yoshikazu's vision: "a watch wound by a mainspring and with one-second-a-day accuracy, a precision that only the finest electronic watches could deliver". This movement achieved high accuracy with one second per day, long power reserve with its special developed alloy, fast winding with the "Magic Lever" design and glide-motion movement with the watch hands.
The movement uses a mainspring as a source of energy and transmits it through a gear train, just like a traditional mechanical watch, but instead of an escapement and balance wheel, Seiko used the newly developed "Tri-synchro regulator", which acts like a quartz movement. The Tri-synchro regulator has three main functions: controlling the mechanical energy of the mainspring, generate electricity for the low consumption quartz crystal oscillator and generate a magnetic force to regulate the glide wheel. By replacing the traditional escapement with a magnetic brake, the Spring Drive operates with lower noise and presents a glide motion hand that shows the continuous flow of time. The Spring Drive movement was also used as the basis for the first-ever watch designed to be worn by an astronaut during a space walk, the aptly named Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk.

Official timekeeper

Seiko has been the official timekeeper of many major sporting events:

Olympic Games

Currently, Seiko has an agreement with the International Association of Athletics Federations to act as the timekeeper for the latest editions of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. The agreement started in 1985 and is set to continue until at least 2029.
Seiko developed a digital watch styled after Venom Snake's timepiece in under its Wired brand. It was launched on September 2, 2015 with the Metal Gear installment. It was limited to 2,500 pieces world wide and was sold out via pre-orders within 5 minutes of launch. The box of the watch was designed by Metal Gear Solid artist Yoji Shinkawa. Seiko is also named as the official timekeeper of the Gran Turismo racing game series, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was also the sponsor of FC Barcelona from 2011 to 2014.
Seiko was the official timekeeper of the North American Soccer League during the 2014 season.
Seiko used to sponsor Honda F1. The Honda team driver Jenson Button was the brand ambassador of Seiko. The company name only appeared on the team's clothing, Burton's helmet and on the pitstop lollipops. The sponsorship lasted until the 2008 season when Honda pulled out of F1 racing.

Historic Seiko watches