140 Years Of Craftsmanship

The new president of the Seiko Watch Corporation, Akio Naito, reveals his plans for the future.

- Wei-Yu Wang

FOR QUITE SOME time, Seiko felt like fine watchmaking’s best-kept secret. This can be attributed in part due to its success at the consumer, quartz-dominated end of the spectrum, in which the company – along with fellow Japanese contemporaries Casio and Citizen – ruled the roost and carved a household name for itself.

But the company is no stranger to luxury watchmaking. It principally facilitates this through the Grand Seiko brand, which has been around since 1960. Also in the stable is Credor, a near-mythical entity that makes pieces of extraordinarily high quality; they are rare enough domestically, but witnessing one outside Japan is an extraordinary rarity.

“Grand Seiko and Credor are two different brands with their distinctive identities and features,” describes Akio Naito, the president of Seiko Watch Corporation. “Grand Seiko pursues the essential values of a watch, such as accuracy, precision, legibility, durability and ease of use, whereas Credor offers exquisite timepieces with aesthetic appeal based on craftwork, utilising rare and fine materials to embody a uniquely Japanese quality, such as the acclaimed Eichi II watch and some complication models including the Tourbillon, Minutes Repeater and Sonnerie.”