19 September 2009

A Brief History and Introduction Of Seiko Watches

By John P Stevens

When it comes to fashion and luxury, people generally consider only women to care about these things. The truth is that men also have some wearable fashion and luxury items. Wristwatches are considered as men's jewellery and thus there are hundreds of prestigious companies manufacturing wristwatches, which are stylish and precious in terms of money value.

Men now use wristwatches as a fashion statement more than a necessity. Some companies have started designing them with gold and silver and others embellish them with diamonds and other expensive jewels to make them more appealing. Seiko stands out as one of the best out of all the manufacturers of wristwatches.

The company was started by a local clockmaker, Kintaro Hattori, in Tokyo. In the beginning, it was named K. Hattori and was later changed to Seiko Corporation, Tokyo. The initial idea was that of a clock and jewellery shop. By 1892, the production of clocks was started by a new name Seikosha which became Seiko in 1938.

In 1918, it was first named K. Hattori & Co. and this was later changed to Hattori Seiko & Co. in 1983. By 1990, the company was working by the name of Seiko Corporations and it had formed separate companies, like Seiko Watch Corporation. It transformed into a holding corporation in 2001, and in 2007 was changed into Seiko Holdings Corporation. Even though it makes a lot of different clocks and watches, the company is more known for its wristwatches.

The first watch was manufactured under the name Seiko in 1924. Seiko also holds the prestige of manufacturing the world's first quartz watch under the name Astron. This clearly demonstrates the status of Seiko watches in the wristwatches industry. These watches were more expensive than a normal priced car initially, but that was due to their entirely new technology, and because they set a mark that is being followed to date.

Seiko and Orient watches joined hands to setup a factory in 1985, and this project produces more than a million watches every year. These watches are regarded as very consistent and free of error. This is the reason why Seiko watches are the official time keepers for majority of the big sports events, including the Olympic Games, which also comes as another milestone achieved for the company.

Seiko has a range of wristwatches, of which, Seiko 5, Grand Seiko, King Seiko and Credor, are famous all over the world. Any collector would love to have them included in his collection because of the big brand name and outstanding features. Collectors specially compete for the Seiko mechanical watches. When we talk about the classic range, old age definitely adds to the price tag.

Price variation for Seiko watches goes from $50 to $100,000, which indicates their true class and huge brand name. The newly added Seiko Kinetic watches target the modern times for most of their sales. These watches bring together the self-energising factors of automatic watches with the high reliability of quartz technology in time keeping.

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