Seiko is a Japanese watch company. It was founded by Kintaro Hattori in 1881 when he opened a watch and jewelry shop in Tokyo. In 1892 Kintaro Hattori started to produce clock with the brand name 'Seikosha', what means 'exquisite', 'minute', or 'success'. The first watches that the company manufactured under the name Seiko, came on the market in 1924.
Seiko has been very innovative in watch making throughout its history. In 1969, the Astron, the first production quartz watch in the world, became available for the public. Seiko also produced the first quartz chronograph. In 1988 Seiko introduced quartz watches which are powered by accumulators that are charged by the movements of the wrist, like self winding watches. In 1997 it was followed by the improved 'Kinetic' quartz driven system.
One of the latest innovations is the 'Spring Drive' in 2005, a mechanical self winding watch where the spring not only drives the mechanical movement, but also a generator that powers a low power quartz driven feed back circuit that keeps the generator at a speed of 8 revolutions per second. Resulting in a very accurate display of time, comparable with conventional quartz watches.
Today, Seiko Holdings Corporation, not only produce watches, but also other goods, like jewelry, glasses, precision instruments, semiconductors etc.. Seiko watches are completely made in-house, this makes Seiko a so called 'manufacure'.
