Fnord.

I was reading Harry Bishop’s blog and found a link to a Seiko article in Haute Horologorie. (The title spelling and language should warn you of pretension and inflated prices.)

Anyway. Where was I? Oh yeah, it turns out that Seiko has a workshop Morioka, Iwate prefecture in northern Japan. This is where they assemble a lot of the high-end Seiko movements. From the article:

Twenty watchmakers are employed at the Shizukuishi Watch Studio, assembling 21 types of mechanical movement in five series as follows:

1) 68 series (very thin manual-winding movement) Cal.6870 Cal.6898 Cal.6899
2) 9S series (manual-winding and automatic movement) Cal. 9S67 Cal.9S55 Cal.9S54 Cal.9S56 Cal.9S51 Cal.9S54 is manual-winding, the others are automatic.
3) 6S series(manual-winding and automatic chronograph movement) Cal.6S74 Cal.6S77 Cal.6S99 Cal.6S37 Cal.6S28 Cal.6S99 is manual-winding, the others are automatic.
4) 8L series(50-hour power reserve automatic movement) Cal.8L75 Cal.8L38 Cal.8L35 Cal.8L21
5) 4S series (day-date, 24-hour indicator, dual time, automatic movement) Cal.4S76 Cal.4S77 Cal.4S36 Cal.4S27

Seiko warrants the title Manufacture as every part of the movement including the balance spring can be made within the company. Around 15,000 mechanical watches are assembled at the Shizukuishi Watch Studio per year.

See that? 8L35! That’s my Marinemaster! I find it tremendously cool to see, and also to learn that the shop is a full-blown master-apprentice setup, just as you’d hope for a high-grade mechanical watch:

Seiko is proud of its highly skilled watchmakers, such as Mamoru Sakurada, 57, who was awarded the Medal of Honour with Yellow Ribbon. Master engraver Kiyoshi Terui was also awarded the Medal of Honour with Yellow Ribbon. Because there are no watchmaking schools in Japan, newcomers and young watchmakers are trained as apprentices by master watchmakers.

Thanks for a great pointer, Harry!

Update 3/21/08: Thanks to Norburtus on SCWF, here’s the factory web page. It’s pretty good – movie, tour, lots of pictures.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 20th, 2008 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Watches and timekeeping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.