Seiko Corporation

The founder of the Hattori watch empire, Kintarō Hattori, began his career by opening up his own timepiece shop in 1881. The first company originally called K. Hattori & Co. However, it was not until 1924 that his first brand Seiko watches came on the market.

Hattori started making his own timepieces in 1892 by building a small, experimental production facility. The next year he geared up and built a true factory in Honjo Yanagishima and named the organization Seiko.

The Hattori Tokei Ten (((Timepiece Store) became a full-fledged kabushiki kaisha in 1917. In 1937, the Hattori family established another company call Dai Ni Seiko and build new head office and factory in Kamedo area of Tokyo and taking over all of Seiko’s watch production responsibilities.

By 1938, Seiko was producing more than a million watches a year. In terms of production volume, Seiko overtook its Swiss rival as early as 1949, and its production was more than double Omega’s from 1953.

In 1959, Seiko launched the first self-winding watches, which became the top-end watch after the war, and went on to mass produce it; the production volume of self-winding watches manufactured by the company Suwa Seiko - one of the two watch companies of the Seiko group soared from 430,000 pieces in 1961 to nearly 4.3 million in 1970.

In 1969, Seiko would debut the first quartz movement watch that would change the way consumers viewed wristwatches. They were more accurate than a mechanical watch, and cheaper.
Seiko Corporation