The story of Seiko began in 1881, when a 21 year old entrepreneur, Kintaro Hattori, opened a shop selling and repairing watches and clocks in central Tokyo. Just eleven years later, in 1892, he established the 'Seikosha' factory.
In Japanese, "Seiko" means "exquisite", "minute" or "success" and "sha" means house. It was here that Kintaro Hattori produced his first clocks and these marked the beginnings of a company that was to become one of the world's most important manufacturers of timepieces.
The list of "Japanese first" is endless: first wristwatch, first Railway pocket watch, first mechanical chronograph, first divers watch. In 1969 Seiko releases calibre 6139 – world’s first automatic chronograph with both column wheel and vertical clutch.
It was Seiko who would produce the world's first quartz watch: Seiko Quartz Astron was introduced in Tokyo on December 25, 1969. It delivered an unmatched performance. It was accurate to within 5 seconds per month, 100 times more accurate than any other watch, and it ran continuously for a year. The quartz revolution had begun! |
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