Horological Meandering

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They've long been good, but now they're aiming higher still

I first visited Seiko's factories in the 1970s and I've been back a number of times since. In the 1970s, they were keen to show off their skills in making quartz movements and they were the only company in the world to have totally integrated quartz watch production, including making their own batteries and cutting their own quartz crystals. We tend to forget that Hattori & Co, which owns Seiko, is the second oldest watch company in the world still controlled by descendants of the founder (AP is the oldest). Seiko's mechanical watchmaking finally reached high standards in the 1960s when they achieved astounding success in chronometer competitions in Switzerland - but they sold so many inexpensive quartz watches then that we tend to associate the company with cheap watches and not for the good mechanical watches they made even then.

For some time now Seiko has made watches of very high quality in its Grand Seiko and Credor ranges, but as far as I know production capacity has always been so limited that it has only able to supply these to its domestic market and some other markets in the region. These superb products have never been available new in the West - and that is not likely to change in the near future. In the West, few people are aware that Seiko has won international jewellery design competitions and even has its own jewellers, jewellery designers, goldsmiths, diamond setters and engravers. Its haute horlogerie lines, as we might expect, are made by Seiko's master watchmakers – and every part is produced in-house. Even the unique Spring Drive movement is assembled by skilled watchmakers and so Seiko's need for watchmakers is greater than ever before. More watchmakers are always being trained, but Seiko has been reluctant to reveal that a year or so ago it turned to one of Switzerland's most revered independent watchmakers - who is spoken of very highly by Purists – to help train still more master watchmakers in its factories. I think he was there for three or six months. Any other company would have boasted about this collaboration, but in its modesty Seiko has declined offers to publicise it.

In more than 40 years of visits to watch factories in Europe I have seen some remarkable workshops and equipment and met many highly talented watchmakers, but I can't think of any with facilities that exceed those in Seiko's plants. In Japan, some of Seiko's finest watchmakers have celebrity status but I believe that product and movement development has always been a matter of teamwork – which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Outside of Japan I suspect that many of us rarely associate Seiko with high watchmaking because we rarely get an opportunity to see it. If I'm right, I think our attitude may also be because we associate the brand name too much with the high volume, inexpensive quartz products they sold for so many years and because limited production has meant that we never see new Grand Seiko or Credor products. How many watch companies do you know that not only make their own movements and cases, but also their own dials, hands and even the numerals and batons that go on the dial? I know that for several years it has been Seiko policy to drop its lower price items and to introduce more quality watches because it has realised that we are ready and willing to buy these higher grade watches.- but alas we still won't be given access to the coveted Grand Seiko and Credor lines in the West. I'm not sure that Seiko build quality has improved vastly in the last few years - it seems to me that it has been good for some time and we're just becoming more aware of it.

I'm not sure if that answers the question.

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