Lifestyle »

Watch this space

Published: 20/05/2008 - Filed under: Archive » 2008 » June 2008 » Lifestyle » Features » Features » Lifestyle » Features » Lifestyle » Watches »

Print
Send

Mark Caswell delves into the history of Japan’s most famous watch brand, and looks at the technology behind the timepiece of the future.

Think luxury watchmaking and you’ll be hard pushed to see past Swiss names like Patek Philippe, Rolex, Breguet and Chopard. But in recent years, the Japanese Seiko brand has attempted to redress this balance with an innovative high-end timepiece which combines the best of mechanical and quartz technology.

The company has come a long way from its humble beginnings at the end of the 19th century, when founder Kintaro Hattori, aka Japan’s “King of Timepieces”, set up a secondhand sales and repair shop in the Ginza district of Tokyo. Indeed the bustling shopping area remains the symbolic heart of the company, with the elegant Wako building and clocktower (rebuilt following the earthquake of 1923 and still owned by the Seiko Corporation) standing proud amid the city’s neon lights and skyscrapers.

The Seiko brand – the name variously translates as “exquisite”, “minute” and “success” – first appeared on a wristwatch in 1924. But it was on Christmas Day 1969 that the firm achieved worldwide fame, when it became the first to successfully market a quartz wristwatch – the Astron – pipping Swiss manufacturers by a matter of months. Just 100 pieces were released, with a price tag of around JPY450,000, the equivalent of buying a Toyota Corolla at the time.

The quartz technology improved time-keeping accuracy from a few seconds per day to the same per year, and with it the market for mechanical wristwatches almost disappeared overnight. Of course, the popularity of fine mechanical timepieces has since recovered and Swiss pieces continue to be the pinnacle for many collectors.

But Seiko is challenging this supremacy with the release of its Spring Drive Chronograph, a luxury timepiece which, in the company’s words, “retains the best of mechanical and quartz technology and dispenses with the weakest component of each”. Spring Drive eliminates the need for a mechanical escapement (used to drive a traditional mechanical watch) by using a hand-wound mainspring which powers a rotor whose electrical output causes a quartz crystal to emit a signal. (When fully wound, the watch runs for 48 hours.)

The result is a watch which runs with the accuracy of a quartz timepiece, but with a second hand which sweeps smoothly around the dial, something which is usually only possible with a mechanical watch.

Seiko has released 300 of the Spring Drive Chronograph timepieces, priced at around £4,200. And later this year the Spring Drive will boldly go where no watch has gone before, when video-game designer Richard Garriott becomes the first private individual to conduct a spacewalk, wearing a specially designed Spring Drive Spacewalk timepiece. Seiko says it will release 100 Spacewalk timepieces in December (minus the three Garriott will take on his trip) – the price tag has yet to be confirmed, but it’s likely to be considerably less than a trip in to outer space.

The Spring Drive

Movement: 416 parts,  50 jewels
Case and band: high-intensity titanium
Glass: sapphire crystal
Case back: see-through sapphire crystal
Water resistance: 10 Bar
Power reserve: 72 hours
Price: £4,200

FIND OUT MORE

Those interested in delving further into Seiko’s history can visit the Seiko Institute of Horology on the outskirts of Tokyo. Established in 1981 to celebrate the firm’s 100th anniversary, the museum features exhibitions including “The Origins of Timekeeping” and “The Seiko Story”. Instructor Satoru Nagai has been with  Seiko for over 40 years, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of the company’s history. Entrance is by free, but by appointment only – visit seiko.co.jp/en.

MOMENTS IN TIME

The Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk

Designed to be light, strong and easy to read, the Spacewalk features ultra-bright dials, oversized buttons, and a case made of high-intensity titanium – 40 per cent lighter than stainless steel. The watch has a tri- synchro regulator that uses and generates mechanical, electrical and electromagnetic power, and is less affected by temperature variations.

The Astron

The Seiko 35 SQ Astron was released on Christmas Day 1969 and featured the first wristwatch quartz oscillator, with a frequency of 8,192 cycles a second.

Digital revolution

In 1973 Seiko launched the world’s first digital quartz watch with a Field Effect Mode (FEM) liquid crystal display, the material now used in all LCD watches.

The Sportura

As sponsors of the Honda Racing F1 team, Seiko designed the Sportura chronograph, with a stainless steel and aluminium casing and carbon-fibre dials.