Kintaro Hattori, who studied watchmaking on his own, opened a watch shop in the center of Tokyo. Hattori understood the prospects for the development of watchmaking in Japan much earlier than others, and in May 1892 he opened his own watch factory.
The first factory was named Seikosha, which means “house of precision”. Three years later, the first pocket watches of Japanese production were released, and in 1899, serial production of alarm clocks was launched. This state of affairs made the Hottori company a market leader in its segment.
In the early 90s, the Seikosha factory made the transition to full-cycle production, and in 1913 it presented the first Japanese wristwatch Laurel, consisting entirely of its own parts.
Seiko Rebirth
Tragic events in the fate of the Hottori business occurred in 1923. The Kanto earthquake, which destroyed almost all of Tokyo, entailed catastrophic consequences. The Seikosha factory and office were destroyed, and along with them, more than one and a half thousand customer watches that were being serviced were lost.
The first thing Kintaro Hottori did after recovering from the aftermath of the cataclysm was to make a public commitment to restore all the lost watches to the company’s customers free of charge. This beautiful gesture greatly enhanced the reputation of the brand and Hottori himself.
Just a year after the disaster, a watch was released based on the surviving prototype, on the dial of which the Seiko logo first appeared.
Continuity of generations
Kintaro Hottori died in 1934, handing over the management of the company to his son. However, technical progress at Seiko did not slow down. One of the priority areas of development was electronics, which was already receiving close attention in the 50s. Later, in 1969, the company experienced a real breakthrough – the world’s first quartz watch Seiko Quartz Astron.
Then followed no less high-profile developments: 1988 — Seiko Kinetic — the world’s first quartz movement with automatic generation; 2012 — Seiko Astron GPS Solar — the world’s first analog watch powered by solar energy with a GPS signal reception function.
Seiko 5 Sports
In 1963, the light brand presented the Seiko Sports 5 watch collection, personifying a universal and casual style. The five in the name of the line meant the mandatory presence of the following characteristics in each model: automatic winding, date and day of the week indication in a single window, water resistance, protected crown at the 4 o’clock position, wear-resistant bracelet.
Five years later, Seiko 5 Sports appeared with improved performance: water resistance of 10 Bar / 100 m, durable Hardlex glass, illuminated hands and markers on the dial. The collection has earned its popularity thanks to all these properties, as well as a variety of color solutions and an exceptional price-quality ratio.
The BRANDSHOP store offers a wide selection of watches from the Seiko Sports 5 collection, which will appeal to connoisseurs of functionality and attention to detail.
