Seiko

A message from CEO!

Dear friend of Grand Seiko,

2020 is a very special year for Grand Seiko as it is the 60th anniversary of its creation.

Of course, the number 60 has great resonance in our industry as one of the fundamental numbers in horology but, for us in Japan, it has another and even more important significance.

When a person reaches 60, he or she has gone full circle through the traditional zodiac calendar cycle and has arrived back at the beginning. It is a moment of new energy and re-birth and, for Grand Seiko, a golden opportunity that we are embracing wholeheartedly.

We are celebrating the 60th anniversary of Grand Seiko in several ways throughout the year.

2020 began with the launch of a series of four commemorative watches and, embodying the spirit of renewal and new energy, we are launching in the summer two important new calibers which will take Grand Seiko forward into the future. 

• Caliber 9SA5 is an entirely new movement and the foundation upon which a whole new generation of Grand Seiko mechanical watches will be created. 

• Caliber 9RA5 takes our unique and greatly respected Spring Drive technology to a new, higher level of functionality.

Our confidence in the future of Grand Seiko is further expressed in the creation of two new and important facilities and teams.

the perfect moment to open a new global showcase: We are opening a Grand Seiko Boutique in the Place Vendome in Paris with a European marketing and sales team.

There could be no more potent symbol of the fact that GS is at the start of an exciting new era than opening a new manufacturing studio. 

In June 2020, an entirely new studio, dedicated exclusively to Grand Seiko, will open its doors alongside the existing facilities of Morioka Seiko Instruments. The studio will be home to the watchmakers who assemble and adjust Grand Seiko’s mechanical watches and has been created with a view to greater production capacity in the future and the expansion of the collection. It will also house an exhibition space where visitors can learn about the ideas, collections and personalities that have made Grand Seiko over the past six decades.

The new studio is an entirely new free-standing building of 1,975 square meters and is surrounded by trees, through which the slopes of Mt. Iwate can be seen. Throughout the studio, the importance of the facility’s natural surroundings as an inspiration for Grand Seiko is evident.

The studio was designed by master architect, Kengo Kuma who is known worldwide for designing buildings that respect the natural world. In 2009, he summed up his architectural philosophy: 

“ I think my architecture is a kind of frame of nature. With it, we can experience nature more deeply and more intimately. Transparency is a characteristic of Japanese architecture; I try to use light and natural materials to get a new kind of transparency.” 

The studio he has created for Grand Seiko is a perfect example. Of wooden construction, with its roof pointing towards Mt. Iwate, the studio allows visitors to feel the beauty of its natural surroundings even from inside and is in elegant harmony with the Grand Seiko philosophy, The Nature of Time. 

The Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi, as it will be known, provides the perfect environment for the craftsmen and women who will create new generations of Grand Seiko watches within its elegant walls.

An overview of the facility

-Name: Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi

-Address: 61-1, Itabashi, Shizukuishi-cho, Iwate-gun, Iwate Prefecture

-Building: two floors of wooden construction

-Design: Kengo Kuma & Associates

-Construction: Daiken Sekkei, Kajima Corporation

-Inauguration: June 2020

An Exciting New Chapter

With these two new calibers, the new boutique in Paris and with the new manufacturing studio, I am certain that Grand Seiko is at the start of an exciting new chapter in its history.

Grand Seiko was created exactly one hundred years after the birth of our founder, my great-grandfather Kintaro Hattori. 

Today, building on his legacy, I have the honor of setting Grand Seiko on the path to further success in its second sixty year cycle.

Our history inspires us. Our future excites us. We look forward to your joining us on the next stage of the adventure that is Grand Seiko.

Yours sincerely,

Shinji Hattori

Chairman & CEO

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