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Seiko founder Kintaro Hattori San
Seiko is one of the oldest watch makers in Asia. It all started in 1881 when Kintaro Hattori San founded
K. Hattori & Co. in Tokyo as a Western watch and clock reseller and repairer. Hattori San has gained significant knowledge in watch and clock mechanisms from repairing and handling the precision instruments in his shop, after 9 years, he opened the Seikosha factory producing the first Japan-made watches and clocks. Japan has fought several important wars during the Meiji period (1868-1912), and during the Russia-Japanese war, Seikosha factory was required to make ammunition for the Japan Royal Army as an effort for the war. The need for efficiency and high production capacity during war time has led the Seikosha factory into developing machine assembly process and mass production management, which Hattori San introduced and refined into the manufacture of timepieces in Seikosha factory after the war.
Daini & Suwa
Fast forward to 1930s, Seiko watches were becoming very popular in Japan. Then K. Hattori Co. Ltd. built the Daini Seikosha factory in Tokyo in 1937 to increase production capacity of Seiko branded watches and clocks.
In 1942, Daiwa Kogyo ltd. was established in Suwa, Nagano, to supply precision watch parts for Seikosha. To stay close to supplies and reduce transportation costs, Seikosha built another watchmaking factory just beside Daiwa Kogyo Ltd.. The Seiko Suwa production plant produced Seiko brand watches together with Daiwa Kogyo Ltd..
The beginning of the arm race
After World War II, Japan's economy becomes more open to the international market. More and more products from foreign manufacturers entered the Japanese market, and vice versa. Seiko at that time was looking to expand to the western markets. However, Japanese products were low in quality and designs were dull and boring, so they were not largely accepted by the westerners.
Genzo Hattori San, 2nd CEO of Seiko Co. Ltd.
Genzo Hattori San took over Hattori Seiko Co. Ltd. after his father, Kintaro Hattori San, died in 1934. Genzo saw the barriers that were stopping Seiko from expanding in the western markets. Seiko needed a drastic change in product design and quality improvement. His solution was to encourage a healthy competitive environment within the company, in hopes of speeding up the research and development processes and promote improvements in the overall management of the company. Genzo Hattori San took a very brave step - to run the two factories under separate entities. So in about 1953-55, the two factories, Daini Seikosha factory and Suwa Seikosha factory, started to run by its own entity and its own management team. The two factories were not allowed to exchange information, share parts or designs, or even exchange employees. The only thing they were in common was that they still share the Seiko brand. For easy differentiation, the two factories were assigned a logo to be printed on their products. Products from the Daini Seikosha factory would have the "Thunder" logo, and those from Suwa Seikosha factory would have the "whirlpool" logo.
Changes that were promoted in the competition
Believe it or not, being one of the best selling watch brands in Japan during the 1940-1950s, The designs in Seiko watches were not exciting at all. Design changes were only made in the dials, and the case was kept pretty much the same round shape with lugs that are never changed. So in 1956, Suwa Seikosha factory formed a design team from employees within the plant, focusing in dial and case development and design. Two years later in 1958, Daini Seikosha factory found its design team as well, formed by recruiting fresh university graduates.
Seeing the two plants was competing fiercely with new designs, Genzo Hattori was concerned that Seiko would lose focus as a watch maker without making advancement in watch mechanic innovation. So in 1960s, Genzo Hattori assigned Taro Tanaka as the Head of Design for Seiko, overseeing the Seiko designs for both factories. While the two factories can focus in developing new mechanics to improve the quality of the Seiko movements.
As Tanaka took office as the Head of Design for Seiko, he developed a series of rules for Seiko design, which he called "the Grammar of Design." They are...
1. All surfaces and angles from the case, dial, hands and indices had to be flat and geometrically perfect to best reflect light.
2. Bezels were to be simple two-dimensional faceted curves.
3. No visual distortion was to be tolerated from any angle and all cases should be mirror finished.
4. All cases must be unique for each reference with no generic round case designs.
After Taro Tanaka ran the office as the Head of Design for Seiko, the two factories moved their battlegrounds to the mechanical movements. Genzo Hattori's quest was to make watches that are comparable to the Swiss counterparts. So in 1964m Genzo ordered the two factories to join the competition in the Neuchatel Astronomical Observatory. The tests in this observatory were much stricter than ordinary chronometer tests. The average daily deviation had to be within +/- 0.75 seconds, and thermal variation within +/-0.20 seconds per day, in a test duration of 45 days. The results were disastrous for Seiko, where Suwa Seiko was placed 144th, and Daini Seiko 153rd. The engineers in Seiko were not prepared to give up, they trailed and error to improve their movements, and after 3 years in 1967, the two factories entered the competition again. They improvements were surprising, with Daini Seiko's movements placing 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th, and Suwa Seiko's placing at 12th. Seiko entered the competition again in the next year, but only notice that the Neuchatel Astronomical Observatory competition was suspended. Later Seiko found that Suwa's movement had taken 2nd place in the suspended competition. In the same year, Seiko submitted mechanical and quartz watches to the Geneva Observatory Trial. Seiko's mechanical watches was placed at 4th, while Seiko's Quartz watches won the 1st place in the Trial.
Seiko used their knowledge gained from the trials to create a new internal grading standard within the Grand Seiko series: Standard, Special, and VFA (Very Fine Adjusted).
Standard: adjusted to -3/+6 seconds per day (equal to COSC standard)
Special: adjusted to -3/+3 seconds per day
VFA: These timepieces were built by superior watchmakers in the Seiko factory who have access to the best Seiko components. the VFA timepieces were adjusted to -2/+2 seconds per day, or a mean monthly variation over 2 years of 60 seconds.
In 1967, Grand Seiko created the 44GS, which was the most accurate manually wound watch in the world with a 18,000bph movement. It was also the watch that solidified the style of Grand Seiko thanks to Taro Tanaka's "Grammar of Design."
During the 100+ years of Seiko's history, the company have overcome a lot of ups and downs. But no matter how difficult the situations are, one thing stands firm for Seiko - the strive for improvement. In the Kintaro era, he strived to master the watch and clock making skills, equipped the Seikosha factory with the latest machineries to produce better quality products and faster pace. And later in the Genzo era, he promoted internal competition to facilitate improvements in the overall quality of Seiko products. The Seiko watches that we love and wear today are the spirit and passion that Seiko have strived for in its 100+ years of watch making history.
Information Source:
https://www.watchtime.com/featured/what-is-the-cosc-certification-questions-things-you-need-to-know/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COSC
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronometer_watch
https://www.timepiecechronicle.com/features/2017/8/17/in-depth-the-history-of-grand-and-king-seiko
https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/seiko_history/founder/founder/007/
https://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/seiko_history/milestone/milestone_04/
Image Source:
https://journal.hautehorlogerie.org/en/advantage-seiko/
https://www.plus9time.com/blog/2017/3/30/japan-winter-2017-trip