Posted by: martback

Seikos early history is, from a technical perspective, most easily divided into three periods; Early Years (1881 - 1924), New Beginnings (1924 - 1937) and the War Years (1937 - 1950).

The Early Years

The Seiko story does not begin in 1881 as Kintaro Hattori had already been in the clock business since 1877.  However, rather than having to change the title of this article, let’s jump to 1881 and the establishment of the K. Hattori company.

For the first ten years of the Hattori company, the business consisted of the import and resale of wall clocks.  In 1892, Hattori began manufacturing wall clocks under the Seikosha brand.  Expansion continued and in 1895, Seikosha’s first pocket watch, the Time Keeper, was introduced.  In that same year, another step crucial to the success of the company occurred with the opening of the Seiko shop in the Ginza district of Tokyo.

In 1899, Kintaro went abroad to study the manufacturing of pocket watches at the Waltham and Elgin factories in the United States.  Impressed with the manufacturing and automation processes in the American factories, he set about transforming the Seiko production into a modern watchmaking operation.

At the start of the Taisho Era in 1912 with a new Emperor on the throne, Japanese industry got a boost.  For Seiko, this was the signal to develop its first wristwatch, the Laurel, which was introduced in 1913.

Picture Credit: Museum of Japanese Watches Book

Today, these old Laurels are very popular with the Japanese collectors and fetch comparatively high prices.  The differences between the early Seiko wristwatches and pocket watches was primarily in the case and lug styling.  This Laurel pocket watch from 1913 illustrates this well.

The watch has an enamel dial in a coppper/gold alloy case.  The 7 jewel 26mm(12 ligne) movement is identical to that in the Laurel wristwatch and works fine, with an accuracy of a few minutes per day.  This example is a woman’s model (I suspect men’s versions were not produced) measuring 30mm in diameter.  When introduced, this watch retailed for JPY 21.50.

There was also a slightly less luxurious silver version that sold for JPY 16.75.  An interesting fact about this watch is that one watchmaker could produce three of these per day at a time when the whole Seiko production was believed to be 30 watches per day.  The watch has a double hinged case allowing one access to both the dial and the movement.

As you can see, the wristwatch is more or less identical to the pocket watch. The Laurel is easily recognizable by the red 12 o’clock numeral.

Picture Credit: Seiko Institute of Horology

New Beginnings

Seiko’s business continued to expand and in 1921, 321,762 watches were produced with a value of JPY 3,539,382.  In 1923, disaster struck in the form of the Great Kanto earthquake which destroyed most of Seiko’s production capabilities.  Although the factory survived the intial earthquake intact, it was the subsequent fires that ruined the facilities.  A regrouping was needed.

In December 1924, production was back up and running with an entirely new watch placed into production.  The watch, branded Seiko, utilized a 9 ligne, 10/15J movement which has been speculated as being a rebadged Swiss Moeris caliber.  This is the first time that Seiko is used on a Hattori product.  From this point forward, all Hattori wristwatches have been called Seiko, while the clocks continued under the Seikosha brand.

This is my early 1930’s Seikosha wall clock.  When produced, Seiko had just increased the power reserve from 7 to 14 days making it important for the 14 day feature to be stated on the dial.  These wall clocks seem to have been very common in Japanese homes.

Here are pictures of my 1924 Seiko watch.  As with all watches from this period, this is a small timepiece with a 28mm case diameter containing a 21mm movement.

Development of this new movement continued during the next few years with 8, 9 and 10 ligne sizes containing 7, 10 and 15 jewels.  You will usually find these movements marked SKS or Seikosha.  Prices for these would have ranged from JPY 8.50 for the cheapest 7 jewel model up to JPY 14.20 for the most expensive model.  Smaller calibers seem to have been more expensive than larger ones.  Another group of calibres was introduced in 1929, but the next big leap didn’t occur until 1937.

The War Years

Kintaro Hattori died in 1934, but the company’s expansion continued unbated with 2 million watches produced in 1937.  That same year, Daini Seikosha was formed and the division took over the watchmaking activities of Seiko.  In 1939, the new 10 ligne calibre was introduced.  Logically called calibre 10, the movement was essentially a refinement of the movements of the 1920’s.

During the war years, watch production took a back seat to military needs and the Seiko factories kept busy with the manufacture of timed fuses and military chronometers. In 1941, Seiko also introduced its first chronograph, fitted in a pocket watch housing. The 3 o´clock subdial is for seconds and at 12 o´clock there is a 30 minute minute subdial. Presumably this was developed solely for military purposes as production did not continue after the war.

The design of wristwatches during this period had a marked military influence with 24 hour bezels, double cases designed for shock protection and various military insignias printed on the dials.  Due to increased patriotism, Seiko also changed the Seiko logo to Kanji script for a short period during the war.This is my calibre 10 watch on a period strap.

This one has the double casing.  Some versions had an extra shock absorption spring between the inner and outer casing.

Picture Credit: Yahoo! Japan

As mentioned above, the Seiko two-pronged approach of two factories developing competing lines of watches was now established and the Kameido (later Daini) factory came out with the 10B calibre in 1948.  While the 10A was only produced in 7 and 10 jewel versions, the 10B was available with a high end 15 jewel version.

This is my 10A calibre from 1948.  The bund strap gives a bit more heft to a small watch which was fashionably sized in its time.  Although labeled Chronometer on the dial, the name was probably a marketing trick as this watch would never have been anywhere near chronometer standards.

Picture Credit - eBay Seller

Here is my 10B calibre from the late 1940’s.  Again, at 30mm it is appropriately sized for it’s production date.  It was not unusual for watches at this time to be lumed and this utilitarian military design was quite common.  This is also one of the first watches where you see the Seiko ”S” mark.

My final 10B calibre watch is this Special Seiko from 1949.  The strap is probably not original, but it is representative of the straps used in the late 1940’s.  I do know of any history regarding the “Special” designation but my guess is that the 15j watches were so named.  The luxury quality is further enhanced by the 14K gold plating on the bezel.

When Seiko reintroduced the Laurel series with the 4S24 calibre in the 1990’s, they must have taken their inspiration from the above watch.

I will end this part of Seiko history in 1949 as 1950 will bring us the introduction of the Super and a new chapter in the development of Seiko watches.

Sources: Much of the information in this article came from the Seiko company history “A Journey in Time”, the Nakahiros pages provided information on the 10, 10A and 10B calibres.  The Nakahiro pages are also recommended for additional pictures of the relevant watches and calibers.  Unless otherwise noted, all watches in the article are from my own collection.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 8th, 2009 at 6:55 am and is filed under Seiko. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.