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Seiko

The Japanese watch giant that beat Swiss mechanicals with quartz, and survived the fall it caused

Transformed — The watchmaker that invented the quartz revolution — then almost lost its own greatness to it.

Seiko began in 1881 when Kintaro Hattori opened a watch shop in Tokyo, and in 1892 started the Seikosha factory that made clocks. Over the following century it became one of the great names in horology, producing Japan's first wristwatch in 1913 and, in 1969, the world's first quartz watch — the Astron. That invention detonated the 'quartz crisis,' driving Swiss mechanical watchmaking to the brink of collapse while Seiko and other Japanese firms soared.

The irony is that Seiko later suffered from the very boom it created. Quartz became a cheap commodity, and by the 1990s and 2000s the market was flooded with inexpensive watches from Hong Kong and China, eroding the margins of the mechanical watch industry — including Seiko's. The company's answer was a return to craft: it refocused on truly high-end mechanical and hybrid movements, notably Grand Seiko, launched in 1960 and revitalised as a global luxury brand.

Seiko today is a holding company whose watch business — led by Grand Seiko and the Prospex dive line — is again respected among enthusiasts, alongside its electronic instruments, quartz movements and even parts for other brands. The company that ended the mechanical era also proved it could survive its own revolution, pivoting from cheap quartz to high-end craftsmanship.

Quick facts

Founded
1881, by Kintaro Hattori
First quartz watch
Seiko Astron (1969)
Luxury line
Grand Seiko (1960)
The fallout
Triggered the 'quartz crisis' in Switzerland
Today
Grand Seiko + Prospex + parts

Sources

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