How Seiko Changed the Standard for What a Watch Could Be

On Christmas Day 1969, a wristwatch went on sale in Tokyo called the Seiko Quartz Astron 35SQ. It was the first quartz wristwatch sold to the public, and it was accurate to within five seconds a month. In an industry that had competed on the precision of mechanical movements, it offered a different approach: a quartz crystal and an electronic circuit (IEEE Milestone, Electronic Quartz Wristwatch, 1969).

Nine years earlier, Seiko had released the first Grand Seiko, a mechanical watch built around precision and finish (Seiko Museum Ginza, 1950s–1960s).

Put those two watches side by side and something interesting about Seiko appears. It is a watchmaker that developed two abilities at once: making fine machines better, and trying a completely different kind of machine.

When you give someone a watch, knowing that background can make your reasons more concrete. For someone who loves old designs. For someone whose best days are spent in the sea. This page follows the history, and along the way introduces two current watches that connect to it.

This is a selective history focused on technology and everyday use, not a complete account of the company. Much of it relies on Seiko’s own museum and corporate records, and where a story comes from Seiko’s own telling, this page says so.

It began with a shop that sold and repaired watches

The starting point was 1881, when Kintaro Hattori opened a shop in Tokyo that sold and repaired watches and clocks.

In 1892 he brought in the engineer Tsuruhiko Yoshikawa and founded Seikosha to manufacture wall clocks. In 1895 the company began making its first pocket watch, the Timekeeper (Seiko Group, Chronology; Seiko Design 140).

Moving from wall clocks to pocket watches meant learning to make a mechanism much smaller. That led, in 1913, to the Laurel, the first wristwatch made in Japan. The Seiko Museum describes the Laurel project as a push forward in design, precision machining and the development of machine tools. Making one new product built the skills to make the next (Seiko Museum Ginza, Laurel).

Three dates are worth keeping separate: the shop was founded in 1881, Japan’s first wristwatch appeared in 1913, and the first wristwatch with “SEIKO” on its dial came in 1924 (Seiko Group, Chronology).

For a father who loves old things and Japanese craft: Presage SART011

The Timekeeper of 1895 still connects to watches you can choose today. The Presage SART011 is a lacquer-dial wristwatch that Seiko describes as an homage to that early pocket watch. It has a black urushi lacquer dial, raised gold Roman numerals and a black leather strap (Seiko online store, SART011).

Picture a father who looks after old furniture or fountain pens, and who likes hearing how things were made. For his retirement or a milestone birthday, this is one to consider. For how it compares with a solar, self-setting Oceanus, see a Japanese watch for Dad’s retirement.

The reason isn’t only the dial. It comes with a story you can tell when you hand it over: “The design is based on the first pocket watch Seiko ever made.” That may add something to every glance at those Roman numerals.

Seiko’s specifications. Stainless steel case, 40.2mm wide, 48.0mm long and 12.1mm thick (1.58 × 1.89 × 0.48 in); dual-curved sapphire crystal; leather strap, fits wrists up to 195mm (7.7 in); 85g (3.0 oz). Calibre 6R5H, automatic with hand-winding, running about 72 hours when fully wound. It also has a 24-hour hand, which is not a separate time-zone function. 10-bar water resistance (Seiko, SART011 specifications).

Know before you buy. It is a mechanical watch, so it needs winding and setting if it’s left off. Seiko gives its accuracy as +25 to −15 seconds a day. Because the lacquer is applied by hand, Seiko notes that colour can vary slightly between pieces and small dimples typical of urushi may be visible. It suits someone who enjoys signs of handwork.

The same watch also appears in the guide to a watch for Dad’s 60th birthday.

After the fire, what to do about the watches in for repair

In September 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake struck. Seikosha’s factory and offices burned, and about 1,500 watches that customers had left for repair were lost.

According to the Seiko Museum’s account, Hattori placed newspaper advertisements and repaid customers who came forward with new watches of a similar standard. The museum’s page shows an image of that advertisement (Seiko Museum Ginza, Kintaro Hattori story, part 5).

With the shop and the factory gone, he chose to honour what customers had entrusted to him. It’s a reminder of the relationship between the people who make watches and the people who wear them.

A watch is a tool you start using the day you get it, and one that may need repair along the way. That’s why who stands behind a watch after it’s bought matters as much as how well it’s made.

The year after, in 1924, the first wristwatch bearing the SEIKO name went on sale. The brand’s beginning coincides with that period of starting again (Seiko Group, Chronology).

The mechanical work that led to Grand Seiko

After the war, a turning point was the Marvel of 1956. Through its own designs and improved production methods, Seiko steadily raised the accuracy of its mechanical watches.

That line of work produced the Crown in 1959 and the first Grand Seiko in 1960: a lineage built on precise parts, careful assembly and fine adjustment, aimed at ever more accurate watches (Seiko Museum Ginza, 1950s–1960s).

The push for precision reached international competitions too. At the 1967 Neuchâtel Observatory competition, in the mechanical wristwatch category, Daini Seikosha and Suwa Seikosha took second and third place in the company rankings (Seiko, Heritage).

Those were results for watches entered in a competition. They don’t mean every watch in the shops performed the same way, or that Seiko had overtaken every Swiss watch.

The other pursuit was appearance and legibility. The 44GS of 1967 organised how flat surfaces, mirror polish and multi-faceted hands and markers catch light and shadow, and became the reference for Grand Seiko design (Grand Seiko, The Grand Seiko Style).

Accurate time, and a watch that looks good when you glance at it. Both were being refined as part of what made a watch valuable.

A Seiko for everyday, around the world

While developing its top models, Seiko was also improving watches for daily life.

The Sportsmatic 5 of 1963 was a practical watch that brought together automatic winding, water resistance and a combined day-and-date display. It wound itself with the wearer’s movement and showed what you needed at a glance (Seiko Museum Ginza, Sportsmatic 5).

In 1964, Seiko served as official timer for the Tokyo Olympics. The museum’s account says this raised Seiko’s international profile and helped expand overseas sales of the Seiko 5 (Seiko Museum Ginza, 1950s–1960s).

The Olympics were an advertising stage, but also a place where the technology had real work to do. For long-distance events, the reference clock was a portable quartz timepiece, the Crystal Chronometer (Seiko Museum Ginza, Quartz Crystal Chronometer).

Looking at Seiko in this period, mechanical and electronic timekeeping were advancing side by side. Self-winding Seiko 5s were spreading onto people’s wrists, while quartz precision was being used to time the races. Decades later, the same everyday idea shaped LUKIA, a women’s collection Seiko launched in Japan in 1995; see Seiko LUKIA explained.

The 1969 Astron wasn’t a cheap watch

A quartz watch uses the steady vibration of a quartz crystal as its reference for time. Seiko didn’t invent the principle; quartz clocks existed long before, as large instruments (IEEE Milestone, 1969).

The hard part was fitting it on a wrist. The crystal, the electronic circuit, a motor to move the hands and a battery all had to shrink, run on very little power, and survive being carried around.

That work led to the Astron 35SQ, released on December 25, 1969. It had an 18-karat gold case and a launch price of ¥450,000 (Seiko, Quartz Astron 50th anniversary story). This was not a watch anyone could casually buy.

That may be surprising, given what quartz watches mean today. The technology that later made accuracy affordable started out expensive.

In the same period, Switzerland’s CEH was also researching quartz wristwatches and achieved results with prototypes in 1967 (IEEE Milestone, Pioneering Work on the Quartz Electronic Wristwatch, 1962–1967). Seiko’s “world first” is best understood as the first quartz wristwatch sold to the public.

Quartz watches became cheaper and widespread as electronics and manufacturing advanced (ETHW, Quartz Watch). The Astron’s significance is that it was the product at the start of that change.

A letter from the deep sea, and a different kind of watch

Precision wasn’t the only problem to solve.

Seiko released Japan’s first diver’s watch in 1965. In 1968, according to Seiko’s own retrospective, a letter arrived from a professional diver explaining that no diver’s watch yet made could withstand the conditions of his work as a saturation diver.

The answer, after seven years, was the 600m diver’s watch of 1975, with a one-piece titanium case and an outer protective shroud (Seiko, Celebrating 55 years of Seiko diver’s watches).

Running accurately on a desk isn’t enough in some places. Here, a real user’s problem called for a new construction.

That history gives a reason to the look of later diver’s watches, too. A large case and outer protection came, at least in part, from the environments the watches were built for.

For a husband who loves the sea: Prospex SBDC205

If that story appeals, the Prospex “Diver’s 1965 Heritage PADI Special Edition” SBDC205 is one to consider. Its name points to 1965, the starting point. It is not a re-creation of the 1975 600m watch; today’s specification is 300m water resistance for air diving (Seiko, SBDC205).

The emerald-green gradient dial is inspired by light and the moving surface of the water seen from below. The model marks Prospex’s partnership with PADI, and comes with a spare fabric strap woven from recycled nylon upcycled from discarded fishing nets.

Think of a husband who picks holiday destinations by how clear the water is, or a partner who has been diving for years. For a wedding anniversary or a milestone birthday, it’s a watch you can choose with their favourite place in mind. “For you, who love the sea: a watch connected to the history of Japanese diver’s watches.” This one lets you combine their colour, their hobby and the watch’s background in one gift.

Seiko’s specifications. Stainless steel case, 40.0mm wide, 46.4mm long and 13.0mm thick (1.57 × 1.83 × 0.51 in); curved sapphire crystal; metal bracelet with a diver’s adjuster clasp that Seiko says adjusts by up to about 15mm in six steps; fits wrists up to 196mm (7.7 in); 174g (6.1 oz). Calibre 6R55, automatic with hand-winding, running about 72 hours when fully wound; accuracy +25 to −15 seconds a day. 300m water resistance for air diving; unidirectional bezel; screw-down crown; spare nylon strap included.

Know before you buy. At 174g and 13mm it’s a substantial watch; if they prefer something light, check the weight first. Sizing the bracelet to their wrist is a separate job from the fine-adjust clasp. Ask the shop how the bracelet can be sized before ordering.

A mainspring and a quartz crystal in one watch

Even after quartz spread, engineers kept asking questions.

Yoshikazu Akahane, an engineer at Suwa Seikosha, imagined a watch driven by a mainspring but regulated by a quartz crystal. It was the idea that became Spring Drive.

According to the Seiko Museum, full development began in 1982. The main challenge was power: running an electronic circuit on the tiny energy available from a mainspring, for a practical length of time. Development was halted twice and restarted in 1997 (Seiko Museum Ginza, Spring Drive).

Put simply, the force that turns the hands comes from the mainspring, the time reference is a quartz crystal, and an electronic circuit with an electromagnetic brake regulates the speed. It doesn’t drive the hands with a rechargeable battery or with the stepping motor of an ordinary quartz watch (Seiko, Our Heritage).

A hand-wound Spring Drive went on sale in 1999, and in 2004 a Grand Seiko with the automatic calibre 9R65 followed (Grand Seiko, History of Spring Drive).

Akahane died in 1998, the year before the first model went on sale. The finished watch also holds the time of the team that carried one person’s idea through to completion (Seiko Museum Ginza, Spring Drive).

Knowing the history, choosing the watch

Seiko’s history holds several different ideas of what makes a watch valuable: accuracy, ease of everyday use, working in hard conditions, looking good on the wrist. Each problem produced different mechanisms and different shapes.

One note: Grand Seiko was announced as an independent brand in 2017 (Seiko, Grand Seiko in 2017). The history is shared, but when you choose a current watch, it helps to treat Seiko and Grand Seiko as separate lines.

If you’re giving someone a Seiko, you don’t need to explain all of this.

Of the two here, the SART011 suits someone who enjoys Japanese craft and classic design. The SBDC205 suits someone who is moved by the sea and diving. Both are mechanical, so think about whether the person will enjoy winding and setting a watch as part of owning it.

The words you add can be short. “When I read where this dial came from, I thought of you.” “You love the sea, so I chose this one.” Knowing the history lets you explain, in your own words, why you chose that watch.

For another Japanese watch story, see how G-SHOCK began with a broken gift. More watches are in the Watches category.

Before you settle on a date, check the shop’s terms

Both watches are bought and paid for at the external shop, Discovery Japan Mall, not Seiko’s own store. Okurimono Japan is a guide and doesn’t sell anything. Check the current price, stock, shipping cost and delivery estimate to your address on the product page and at checkout.

The spare nylon strap for the SBDC205 is confirmed by both Seiko and the shop’s listing. For both watches, the shop’s descriptions don’t say what’s in the box or whether gift wrapping is available. If you need a gift box, wrapping, or want price documents left out, ask the shop before ordering. Seiko’s own online store offers free wrapping, but that is Seiko’s service, not the shop’s.

When checked, the shop didn’t accept returns or exchanges for change of mind; damaged, defective or incorrect items had to be reported within 7 days of delivery, with photos. The shop also states its watches are Japanese domestic models whose domestic warranty doesn’t apply overseas unless a worldwide warranty card is included, and that warranty repairs mean shipping to Japan at your cost. Check the details on Discovery Japan Mall’s Returns & Exchanges page before ordering.

Sources

Checked 13 September 2026. Where a source doesn’t show a publication date, none is given.

1. IEEE / Engineering and Technology History Wiki, Milestones: Electronic Quartz Wristwatch, 1969 (dedicated 25 November 2004): first quartz wristwatch sold to the public, release date, accuracy, key components.
2. Seiko Museum Ginza, 1950s–1960s (Japanese): Marvel, Crown, Grand Seiko, the Tokyo Olympics.
3. Seiko Group, Chronology (Japanese): 1881, 1892, 1895, 1913 and 1924.
4. Seiko Design 140, Founding of Seikosha, 1892 (Japanese): Tsuruhiko Yoshikawa and the move into manufacturing.
5. Seiko Museum Ginza, Laurel (Japanese): Japan’s first wristwatch and its technical significance.
6. Seiko Museum Ginza, Kintaro Hattori story, part 5: the Great Kanto Earthquake (Japanese): about 1,500 watches lost, replacement with similar new watches, the advertisement.
7. Seiko, Heritage (Japanese): the 1967 Neuchâtel results.
8. Grand Seiko, The Grand Seiko Style: the 44GS of 1967.
9. Seiko Museum Ginza, Sportsmatic 5: 1963 and its practical features.
10. Seiko Museum Ginza, Quartz Crystal Chronometer: the reference clock for long-distance events at Tokyo 1964.
11. Seiko, Quartz Astron 50th anniversary story (Japanese): 18-karat case, ¥450,000 launch price, development.
12. IEEE / ETHW, Milestones: Pioneering Work on the Quartz Electronic Wristwatch, 1962–1967 (dedicated 28 September 2002): CEH’s research and prototypes.
13. ETHW, Quartz Watch (last edited 28 March 2016): electronics and falling prices.
14. Seiko, Celebrating 55 years of Seiko diver’s watches (5 March 2020): 1965, the 1968 letter, the 1975 600m diver.
15. Seiko Museum Ginza, Spring Drive: development pauses, power consumption, Akahane’s death, launch.
16. Seiko, Our Heritage: how Spring Drive works.
17. Grand Seiko, History of Spring Drive: 1999 and the 2004 9R65.
18. Seiko, Grand Seiko in 2017. The next step forward. (23 March 2017): Grand Seiko as an independent brand.
19. Seiko online store, SART011 (Japanese): homage to the Timekeeper, lacquer and Roman numerals.
20. Seiko, SART011 specifications (Japanese): dimensions, materials, weight, 6R5H, accuracy, reserve, water resistance, handmade lacquer.
21. Seiko, SBDC205 (Japanese): 1965 Heritage, PADI, dial, spare strap, specifications.
22. Discovery Japan Mall, SART011 and SBDC205 product pages (linked from the product cards above): listings, prices and stock on 13 September 2026.
23. Discovery Japan Mall, Returns & Exchanges: returns, 7-day notice, warranty and return shipping to Japan.