Seiko "The Japanese King of Timepieces"

Seiko has been a prominent watch brand for years and you could claim that almost everyone has heard of them. From the average consumer to the most seasoned watch collector, if you ask them about Seiko they most likely have an answer. As a watch enthusiast and an owner of a Seiko SKX007 I recently came across a vintage Seiko which got me thinking about their history and how did they became such a prominent watch brand. Of course, as everyone knows Seiko is a Japanese based watch company, but they started way before wrist watches. Seiko was founded by a man named Kintarō Hattori who after years of apprenticeships started a clock shop called "K. Hattori in Tokyo which would later be known as Seiko. He took his ambitions even further to become a manufacturer in order to achieve this he hired an engineer named Tsuruhiko Yoshikawa, and in 1892 set up the Seikosha Factory. K. Hattori shop. As it continued to grow and he had to open another shop with it's own clock tower, this was known as the "Hattori Clock Tower" and it still remains in its original location.

As Seikosha began to grow, Kintaro has the vision to develop a lasting timepiece business and in 1895 Seikosha made its first pocket watch. In 1910 the business really took off with the help of new improvements in technology which brought new machinery which in turn increase production and allowed the pocket watch business to finally take off and make a profit. Due to the first World War, it caused Seikosha to be able to compete with western manufacturers and successfully export to China. Because of this Seikosha got the nickname as the "Japanese King of Timepieces".

During this time Kintaro made the switch from Pocket watches to wristwatches and in 1913 Seikosha developed the first Japanese wristwatch. After the devastating Great Kanto Earthquake struck Japan and destroyed the Seikosha factory, Kintaro started to rebuild the company and In December renamed it to Seiko printing it on the dials of the new wristwatches and still selling things under the old Seikosha name as well. And in 1929 a Seikosha pocket watch was chosen as Japan National Railway's official "railway watch".

A few years later during World War 2 Seiko was ordered by the Japanese government like many companies to provide products for the war effort and because of that their sales plummeted from 2 million to a little under 20,000. But in 1953 after the war, they proudly produced about 2.4 million watches.

By the end of the 50's Seiko had started to market to the United States as well as other countries, In 1964 a new president came into the company and pushed marketing reach even more. That year they were the official timekeepers of the Olympic Games which was held in Tokyo. Which helped spread the arm of their marketing reach. Following the Olympics, Seiko made an extended marketing effort to compete with Swiss brands in the Asian markets, with lower prices it helped Seiko to become very successful.

In 1969 Seiko invented the first quartz consumer watch, and claimed that "Someday, all watches will be made this way " causing what we call now as the "quartz crisis". The popularity of Seiko quartz watches helped them expand worldwide. Opening subsidiaries in the USA in 1970, in the UK in 1971, in Brazil in 1974, and in Australia in 1977.

With Seiko's sister brand Grand Seiko offering an alternative to premium Swiss watches with a innovative Japanese watch movements, Seiko is a company that will always be a major play in the watch world. And I know I wouldn't be the only one to say, I wouldn't be where I was today without Seiko.