1881

The story of SEIKO began in 1881, when a 22 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.

1895

Throughout the 1890's, the success of Seikosha's wall clock business increased, and Kintaro looked to broaden the range of his business. In 1895, he created a pocket watch, the Timekeeper. It was a vital step forward, without which the future of Seiko would have been very different as it paved the way for Japan's first ever wrist watch.

1913

In the beginning of the Taisho Era, pocket watches were still very popular and there were only a few wristwatches imported to Japan. Kintaro, however, was determined to be 'one step ahead' and embarked on the arduous task of creating Japan's first ever wristwatch. In 1913, he succeeded and the Laurel was produced. In the early days, the company was able to produce only 30 to 50 watches a day, but, for e first time, Kintaro had established a lead on the rest.

1929

1929. As its railway network expanded, Japan National Railways appointed SEIKO as its official supplier. Train drivers often made wooden cut-outs on their consoles where the approved pocket watch would sit in line of sight as they drove their trains.

1953

On August 28, 1953, Japan entered the age of commercial television and aired its first TV advertisement. At precisely 7 pm, immediately following the hourly signal, SEIKO became the very first TV advertiser. The station was Nihon TV, or NTV as it is now known, and the commercial promoted a SEIKO alarm clock.
In fact the brand was Seiko-sha, the company's original name. It means 'The house of precision'.

1960

In 1960, the first Grand Seiko model was produced. High in the mountains in Nagano prefecture in central Japan. A small team of Seiko's most experienced and skilled watchmakers were entrusted with the task of making the very best watch of which they were capable. Grand Seiko was to represent the pinnacle of SEIKO's excellence in mechanical watchmaking and to deliver more accuracy, legibility and durability than any other watch.

1964

The day the Tokyo Olympic games opened, SEIKO was ready with 1,278 timing devices, all purpose built for the task. The stopwatches created for athletics were tested by Mr. Paulen, later President of the IAAF. After and hour of testing, two stopwatches registered less than 1/10 second of difference. Thanks to a new heart-shaped cam on the balance, a new level of accuracy had been achieved. SEIKO had passed the test with flying colors.

1973

This fully-electronic watch used the world's first six-digit liquid-crystal display to indicate the time. Capable of continuously displaying the hour, minutes and seconds on a field-effect liquid crystal display, this groundbreaking digital watch attracted wide attention when it was first marketed in October 1973. The internally developed LCD was long-lived (50,000 hours) and had good contrast. A lamp provided enough illumination to make the numbers on the display easy to read even in the dark.

1975

In 1975 SEIKO launched the world's first digital quartz watch with a chronograph, the 0634. It could record time to 1/10 of a second and had a lap time function. It also incorporated an internal light, so that it could be seen clearly in the dark. It became a huge hit and created the market for high-function digital watches.