SEIKO Watch Co Japan

SEIKO Watch Co in Brief

• Kintaro Hattori establishes K. Hattori & Co., Ltd. (present Hattori Seiko) in 1881. At first, retail, wholesale, and the repair of the import clock were the main. The amount of the clock import seemed to have counted 37,000 pieces during year in 1886. Seikosha is established as a clock manufacturing factory in March, 1892, the production of the multiplication clocks begins in July of the same year, pocket watch "Timekeeper" of the first domestic production is put on the market in 1895, and "Laurel" famous as the wristwatch of the first domestic production is put on the market in 1913. It is said that the move of this laurel is a copy of AS (A shield) the 55th Co. in Switzerland.
• It revives promptly, and the factory of Seikosha restarts the production of wristwatches in the Great Kanto Earthquake in September, 1923 in December, 1924 though it has burnt down almost. Seikosha separated, established the second Seikosha independently, and provided 1937 with the section of the wristwatch and the pocket watch in the demand increase of the wristwatch.
• Seikosha becomes munitions subcontract factory, and begins the factory evacuation in 1943 when the situation of a war was made a tension when the Pacific War starts in 1941.
• Only the Suwa factory remained in the locale in 1945 though each factory of the second Seikosha that evacuated it to Suwa, Sendai, Toyama, and Kiryu was going to consolidate in Kameido on the end of the war by a strong request of local, that is, "It wanted to develop precise industry and to aim at Switzerland in the Orient".
• Two clock producing companys named the second Seikosha (alias and Kameido) and the second Seikosha Suwa factories (It amalgamates with Yamato Kogyo that was the subcontract factory in local in 1959, and is Suwa Seikosha and becomes, is an alias, and is Suwa) will exist in Seiko, and thus, it studies hard mutually and "Aim at Seiko in the world. "
• First of all, the production of wristwatches has been restarted by Suwa in Kameido since 1948 since 1946. Afterwards, its own move with high not the copy of a Swiss clock but accuracy is developed, and it works hard at production.
• And, playground Seiko of the crown base is put on the market from Suwa in August, finally 1960. On the other hand, Kameido puts king Seiko of the Cronus base on the market in August, 1961.
  ･･･I hear It competed for each other that there was "Two clock manufacturing manufacturers" in the average of "One Seiko" ..rival.. seeing ･･･ that engineers of a top at that time, class were at all such Dorodoroed feelings, and were holding out single-mindedly however aiming at "It caught up with a Swiss high-level clock, and outstripped it" actually though seen. As a result, it might have seemed to be competing if it saw from by the side.
• It seems to have held out as "Catch up with Seiko, and outstrip it" hung to the slogan because it was a place where it was different around here from the citizen, and a citizen at that time was a second son of the industry.

(Extracted from Hokkaido Wrist Watch Museum website)