Whether you’re just beginning your watch-buying journey or a seasoned collector, there’s a very good chance that you know—and respect—Seiko. The Tokyo-based brand makes watches and clocks in thousands of styles, colors, complications, and sizes, all at prices that have proven affordable to millions around the world. From soldiers to students to office workers, athletes to doctors to journalists, people love Seiko for its potent mix of affordability, utility, and variety.
One of the most vertically integrated companies in the watch world, Seiko Group Corporation is a behemoth of a corporation, with more than 11,000 employees across its various business divisions and output estimated in the millions of watches per year. With the ability to manufacture its own mechanical, quartz, and solar movements—not to mention its own cases, dials, and other components—Seiko effectively controls most of its own supply chain in addition to its design and R&D processes. Much like Rolex in this regard, it’s notable for the coherence displayed in its collection through the decades: take a look at a recent Seiko 5 Sports, for example, and you can easily discern the influence of the original Seiko 5 from the 1960s.
That same idea of continuity plays out with the brand’s core dive watches, and, of course, its reissues. Unlike numerous other brands, however, Seiko isn’t a purist endeavor with respect to technology. In addition to conventional mechanical movements of both the automatic and hand-wound variety, it also makes extensive use of quartz and solar-powered movements, and even pioneered GPS-controlled movements that automatically update the local time as one travels.
Aesthetically speaking, Seiko isn’t afraid to experiment with oddball case shapes, fresh complications, and bold colorways—though, to be fair, one could make the argument that the brand’s catalog might benefit from more focus. From the elegant lines of the vintage-inspired King Seiko collection to the overbuilt quality of the Prospex line; from the affordable good looks of the Presage to the futuristic Astron; from the colorful field watches of the Seiko 5 Sports collection to the envelope-pushing contours of the Power Design pieces; and from the angular design of the Coutura line to the elegant dress watches of the Diamond series, Seiko’s vast assortment of timepieces has every type of buyer covered. And for those who outgrow even this tremendous assemblage of horology?
Seiko’s story begins in 1881, when 21-year-old Kintaro Hattori opened a shop in Tokyo’s Ginza district that sold and repaired watches and clocks. Eleven years later, Hattori established his own factory, Seikosha, beginning with wall clocks and eventually moving into pocket watches. In 1895, the company produced its first pocket watch, the Timekeeper, setting the stage for an even more ambitious project: a domestically produced Japanese wristwatch.
That watch, the Laurel, debuted in 1913, becoming Japan’s first wristwatch. A decade later, disaster nearly wiped out Hattori’s growing enterprise: The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed both the Seikosha factory and Hattori’s store. He rebuilt almost immediately, even replacing roughly 1,500 customer watches and clocks destroyed in the resulting fires. (A genuine glob of these—completely melted together—is on display in Seiko’s museum in Ginza.) In 1924, the company introduced its first watch bearing the Seiko name.
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