Grand Seiko

Grand Seiko was a further refinement of the Crown, itself a more precise version of Seiko’s 1956 Marvel. Grand Seiko says each watch of 1960 was certified in house to a level matching the superior grade of the Swiss chronometer standard of the day.^1, 6

In 1966 it set a Grand Seiko Standard of its own, tightened in 1969 to between five seconds fast and three slow a day. Both of Seiko’s watch factories made Grand Seiko: the 44GS of 1967, whose case style the brand still follows, came from Daini Seikosha, and automatic models such as the 61GS used the Magic Lever winding of Suwa Seikosha.¹

The same work went into the observatory chronometer competitions in Switzerland. Daini and Suwa placed second and third for series of movements at Neuchâtel in 1967; at Geneva in 1968 Suwa took fourth to tenth place, behind three Swiss quartz watches. The hand-adjusted V.F.A. models of 1969 were rated to about a minute a month.^1, 6

Quartz pushed the mechanical Grand Seiko aside in the 1970s, and it spent decades out of view. A new line began with the quartz calibre 9F in 1993; mechanical calibre 9S watches came back in 1998, and Spring Drive, which Seiko had introduced in 1999, entered Grand Seiko in 2004.^2, 3, 7

In 2017 the Grand Seiko name moved to the top of the dial and the line became a brand separate from Seiko. Its watches come from two workshops: Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi in Iwate, on a site of Morioka Seiko Instruments, and the Shinshu Watch Studio of Seiko Epson in Nagano.^{2, 7, 8, 9, 10}