Decades-long dream lives in the Grand Seiko
Grand Seiko’s history symbolizes the culmination of efforts and development aiming for better practical watches.
The Grand Seiko watch was born in 1960, reached the very top in the mechanical watch field around the world at the end of the 1960’s. After a hiatus of dozen years or so, in 1993, the Grand Seiko 9F series equipped with world-class quartz movement was released.
In 1998, the 9S series mechanical movement that combined traditional craftsmanship and advanced technology was developed to reintroduce the Grand Seiko mechanical caliber. While using the unwinding power of the mainspring as its sole power source, the new mechanism Spring Drive realizes an average monthly rate of ±15 seconds (For Cal. 9R96, 9R16 and 9R15, ±10 seconds), substantially exceeding the accuracy of conventional mechanical watches. The watch also embodies the concepts of Grand Seiko that continues the challenge of creating the best practical watch.
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1960 |
Released the first Grand Seiko. |
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1964 |
Participated in the Neuchatel Observatory Competition in Switzerland for the first time. |
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1968 |
Released Japan’s first automatic winding 10-beat model, 61GS. |
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1968 |
Won the first prize in the mechanical wrist chronometer category of the Geneva Observatory Competition in Switzerland. |
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1978 |
Filed a patent for the Spring Drive mechanism for the first time. |
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1982 |
Filed a patent for the Spring Drive mechanism (registered). Started initial development. |
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1988 |
Released the first Grand Seiko quartz caliber. |
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1993 |
Started the second development of the Spring Drive. Released the Grand Seiko 9F series equipped with world-class quartz movement. |
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1997 |
Started the third development of the Spring Drive. Released technological announcement of the Spring Drive at the Swiss Society of Chronometry (SSC). |
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1998 |
Exhibited the Spring Drive at BASELWORLD. Released the Grand Seiko 9S series mechanical caliber combining traditional craftsmanship and advanced technology. Started the development of the automatic winding Spring Drive. |
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1999 |
Released the manual-winding Spring Drive (CAL.7R68) limited edition from SEIKO. |
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2002 |
Released the manual-winding Spring Drive (CAL.7R88) from CREDOR. |
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2004 |
Released the Grand Seiko automatic winding Spring Drive (CAL.9R65). |
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2007 |
Released the first Grand Seiko chronograph (9R86). |
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2016 |
Released 9R01 8Days which realized a long continuous operating time with three barrels. |
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2020 |
Released Spring Drive 9RA5 which was evolved to have high accuracy and 5-day power reserve. |