LA GRANDE DAME

The Seiko company was first founded in 1881 by Kintaro Hattori as an importer of fine quality watch and jewellery products, and post-incorporation in 1892, Mr Hattori soon began to develop Japanese watchmaking, believing that the country’s craftsmen would be capable of making sophisticated timekeepers. As Daini Seikosha and Suwa Seikosha began producing watches under various names, in the ’60s they began to focus on developing fine chronometers that were comparable to Swiss precision performers. Like any Asian student competing against foreigners, their diligent study efforts soon paid off, and they quickly caught up with their Swiss peers.

However, the development of beautiful watchmaking isn’t merely innate performance; the exterior is just as significant. Up till the ’50s, Seiko didn’t have a design ideas department until 1958. When Mr Taro Tanaka was hired in 1959, it marked the first step in the transformation of the brand. Mr Tanaka would go on to develop a complete set of rules for Grand Seiko and the discontinued King Seiko’s collection, a system of design that remains within the Seiko organisation’s guidelines.

The rules reflected the style of watch design popular in the era, and to this day, still guides the industry at large. The global perception of luxury and precious products overall has changed very little. However, the