Watches » Seiko

Seiko USA
Website: seikousa.com

The company started in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called “K. Hattori” in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. Eleven years later, in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the name Seikosha.

The first watches produced under the Seiko brand appeared 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.

Seiko is perhaps known best, though, for its wristwatches. They are known for their advanced technology and are one of the few wristwatch manufacturers that produce all of their watches and movements entirely in-house. Even minor items such as the oils used in lubricating the watches and the luminous compounds used on the hands and the dials are produced by the Seiko factories.

Seiko Kinetic watches account for a large proportion of wordl-wide sales nowadays and combine the self-energizing attributes of an automatic watch with quartz accuracy. There is no battery to change; the watch is entirely powered by its movement in everyday wear.

Various Seiko watches were worn by the cinematic James Bond 007 in four films starring Roger Moore from 1977–85. Also, a Seiko watch was worn by Sean Connery in the 1983 Bond film Never Say Never Again. A Seiko Chronograph is also worn by Jason Bourne in the book “The Bourne Identity” by Robert Ludlum.