Seiko history

Public Company Incorporated: 1881 as K. Hattori & Co., Ltd.

In 1884 the adoption of the worldwide 24 time-zone system, with its reference meridian at Greenwich near London, produced a standardization of time that further increased that demand.

Throughout the 1890's, the success of Seikosha's wall clock business increased, and Kintaro looked to broaden the range of his business.

The name Seiko was derived from Seikosha, the first factory opened in 1892 by Hattori.

In 1895, he created a pocket watch, the Timekeeper.

In 1910 improvements in technology brought new machinery which helped increase production and allow the pocket watch business to turn a profit for the first time.

As the market expanded, the company began exporting clocks to China, and by 1912 China received 70 percent of Japan’s total export of timepieces.

In 1913, Hattori opened its first overseas branch, in Shanghai.

In 1917, K. Hattori & Co., Ltd. became a public company.

Just after the Earthquake, the company had created a new watch and it went on sale in December 1924.

In 1927, Kintaro Hattori, at age 69, was honored as the imperial nominee to the House of Peers.

At this time some products were still sold under “Seiko” and some under “Seikosha” – further success came about in 1929 when a Seikosha pocketwatch was chosen as Japan National Railway’s official “railway watch”.

Using the micro-engineering expertise acquired in its clock and watch production, the Seikosha plant began producing camera shutters in 1930.

In 1936 K. Hattori & Co., Ltd. marketed a total of 2.06 million clocks and watches, the highest figure since the opening of the Seikosha plant; Japan’s total watch and clock production came to 3.54 million.