The story of Seiko corporation began in 1881 when a young entrepreneur name Kintaro Hattori opened a watch shop in Chuo, Tokyo, japan. It was a repair and sell shop for watches and clocks. In 1892, Hattori established the “Seikosha” factory and began to produce clocks under the same name. The name in Japanese means “House of Exquisite Workmanship”.

The company was incorporated in 1917 and was renamed to Hattori Seiko Co., Ltd. in 1983, then changed again to Seiko Corporation in 1990. After reconstructing and creating its operating subsidiaries (such as Seiko Watch Corporation and Seiko Clock Inc.), it became a holding company in 2001 and was renamed Seiko Holdings Corporation as of July 1, 2007.

Seiko Holdings is one of the three companies of the Seiko Group. It consists of Seiko Holding Corporation (Seiko), Seiko Instruments Inc. (SII) and Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson). These three are managed and operated independently.

“Seiko” itself is an abbreviation of “Seikosha”, a Japanese word withe the meaning “exquisite” and “success”. In 1924, Seikosha officially changed its trade mark to “Seiko”.

The first Grand Seiko model was created in 1960, other models followed such as Seiko Diver’s in 1965 and Seiko 5 sports in 1969. Grand Seiko, their high-end products, are still manufactured in Northern Japan. This is the most expensive model, the platinum-case Spring Drive is priced at about 8 million Yen or US$ 72.200.