Seiko

Kintarō Hattori opened a shop selling and repairing watches and clocks in central Tokyo in 1881. He established the Seikosha factory in 1892 to manufacture clocks. Seiko produced Japan's first wristwatch, the Laurel, in 1913. Grand Seiko launched in 1960 as the company's high-precision line. Seiko served as official timekeeper for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, developing a stopwatch capable of measuring 1/100th of a second. Japan's first diver's watch came in 1965 with 150m water resistance. In 1969, Seiko released the world's first automatic chronograph with a vertical clutch system and, on December 25th, the Quartz Astron - the world's first quartz wristwatch, with 100 times the accuracy of a standard mechanical watch. Seiko openly disclosed its quartz patents, allowing watchmakers worldwide access to the technology. Spring Drive technology was commercially released in 1999. Grand Seiko became an independent brand in 2017. The holding company was renamed Seiko Group Corporation in 2022.