A Brief History of Grand Seiko
Grand Seiko SBGR255 - featuring an in-house Seiko 9S65 / Credit: SeiyaJapan
General perception may dictate that Japanese movements are of lower quality than their Swiss counterparts, but they too have a tradition of high quality craftmanship. Japanese watchmakers, like many of their large conglomerates, have rich histories going back hundreds of years. Seiko, for example, is well known around the world, however, it has a lesser known subsidiary that has benefited greatly from a recent surge in popularity.
Grand Seiko, the high-end subsidiary of Seiko, can trace its origins back to Suwa Seikosha Co., a Seiko subsidiary born out of a joint venture by Daini Seikosha Co. and Daiwa Koygo in 1943. Daini had been Seiko’s watch manufacturing subsidiary since 1937, when it split from Kintarō Hattori’s original Seikosha clock manufacturing division (Daini Seikosha literally means “Second Seikosha”). Suwa Seikosha was created when the Suwa plant merged with Daiwa Koygo in 1959, with the aim of promoting competition with Daini and driving technological innovation for the group. It was then determined that to be globally successful Seiko would have to carry a high-end watch collection. So, in 1960, Suwa Seikosha was chosen by its parent company to produce the first Grand Seiko (since most Seiko men’s watches were already produced in their facility).
And thus, the first Grand Seiko was born. In addition to being Grand Seiko’s first timepiece, the Caliber 3180 was also the first chronometer grade watch manufactured in Japan. The 3180 was manual wind, had a beat rate of 18,000 bph, a power reserve of 45 hours, and notably featured a lion logo on its caseback. It was a simple dress watch, with three hands and no date, of which 36,000 pieces were produced.
Grand Seiko has become a staple of Japanese watchmaking history; its timepieces continue to be the center of technological innovation at Seiko, and the brand enjoys a very enthusiastic following, particularly in the West.