There’s a lot of stock with the Seiko or Citizen brand on in the Japanese watch herd. Lately I’ve noticed some horological cowpokes confused by the markings on some of the critters on the range. For instance, is Seiko Spirit a sub-brand? If it’s not, what the heck kind of beast is it, anyway? What follows is a tall tale about brands and lines.

Let’s load our pistols and start shootin’. Seiko Spirit is not a sub-brand. It’s a product line. One of Seiko’s oldest in continuous production. The Seiko Spirit line.

Seiko Spirit SCVS013

In brand architecture, Seiko is an example of a master brand. The Seiko master brand is comprised of many product lines, including the Grand Seiko line, the Brightz line, and the Prospex line. Those are some available in Japan. The list of lines goes on. Seiko’s International Collection — Seiko watches available outside of Japan — includes the Sportura line, the Premier line, and the Seiko 5 line.

If a watch is featured in one of Seiko’s main catalogs it’s in a line, and is not a sub-brand. A watch in a Seiko line will usually have the word “Seiko” printed on the dial; a watch from a Seiko sub-brand won’t. Sub-brands have their own separate catalogs, and you have to look in the owners manual or on the warranty to find the master brand designation — in this case, the word “Seiko.”

Examples of Seiko sub-brands include Credor on the high end, and Alba, Pulsar, and Lorus on the low.

Photo: volodymyrt

Sub-brands are usually created to target customers in a different market segment than the master brand attracts. For example, The Gap created the Banana Republic sub-brand to target more affluent customers, and the Old Navy sub-brand to appeal to those with less cash. The Gap master brand is right in the middle.

Seiko did something similar. It created the Credor sub-brand, aimed at wealthy customers. Credor models occasionally have the word Seiko on the dial. That’s acceptable — with Credor, Seiko is branding up. But with Alba, Pulsar, and Lorus, I don’t think you’ll find an example with the master brand name Seiko written on the dial. That’s because one reason brands create sub-brands is to serve as a vehicle to sell cheaper, lower quality items that could damage the image of the master brand.

Citizen also has sub-brands. While watches like The Citizen, Exceed, and Promaster are Citizen watch lines, an example of a Citizen sub-brand is Q&Q. Just like you’ll never find the brand name “Seiko” on a Pulsar and Lorus, the word “Citizen” doesn’t appear on a Q&Q. But the cheap watches are made by Citizen. To see a Japanese sales ad for Q&Q watches, click here.

Photo: bidders.co.jp

Hope this little yarn untied the knot around questions about which watches are sub-brands, and which are in master brand lines. Worked in some cowboy lingo to boot!

Ben Foster in 3:10 to Yuma
Picture: Lionsgate

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This entry was posted on Monday, September 17th, 2007 at 9:09 pm and is filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.