Seiko Champion

After posting about Alba and Orient, I’ve been asked what the various sub-brands of Seiko are. That’s actually not an easy question to answer at all.



Part of the challenge is that the 2 main manufacturing groups within Seiko that vintage Seiko collectors will be familiar with – Daini Seikosha and Suwa Seikosha – developed into quite separate corporations within Seiko, and although they share some of the same ownership are managed independently and are not affiliated.

Here is a summary of the 3 core companies that exist today within the Seiko Group:


1. Seiko Holdings Corporation



This is the company you are actually referring to when you say “Seiko”. Headquartered in Tokyo,  Seiko have only 58 head office staff, but when you include all their divisions their employees total 7,500.

This firm controls many subsidiaries (12 firms loosely organized into 5 divisions from what I can tell), but the one of interest to us is Seiko Watch Corporation – this is the company that markets and sells Seiko watches, although they do none of the actual manufacturing.

The four main brands marketed by SWC are Seiko, Alba, Lorus, and Pulsar.

Seiko as a watch brand has used many different model lines – Grand Seiko, King Seiko Brightz, Prospex, Kinetic, Alpinist, Laurel – the list goes on and on. These are definitely model line names however, rather than brands, all being obviously secondary to the Seiko name.

Seiko also promote a number of model lines with not quite as in-your-face connection to Seiko (Credor, Galante, Wired), but which are still self-evidently model lines within Seiko rather than separate sub-brands.



Alba use Seiko movements, and are marketed to younger consumers with the hope of having them continue to buy from the Seiko family as their purchasing power increases with age. Alba watches are sold primarily just in Asia and the Middle East.





Pulsar (originally a Hamilton model name for their digital watches, acquired by Seiko in 1980) also use Seiko movements, and are marketed world-wide, typically at a lower price point than Seiko. Lorus is a similar Seiko sub-brand, but positioned even lower, at just above entry-level prices. Although neither sub-brand use their relationship with Seiko as a strong marketing thread, both are very open about being a Seiko sub-brand.

The Alba and Pulsar brands have also both introduced watches under various product line names, and all have done collaborations under license – Spoon, Giugiaro, Riki Watanabe, Nooka (now independent), etc.

There are also pure licensing/marketing arrangements (Cabane Zucca, Lanvin, Michel Klein, Anna Sui, Courrèges) as well as brands associated with joint ventures at the subsidiary level, for example Breil or B & G watches (Seiko UK and  Binda Italia joint venture). For my purposes, I do not consider any of these to be Seiko watches at all. Lassale was probably closest to being what I would consider a true sub-brand (being an existing brand that Seiko purchased), but ended up being tied to the Seiko name first.


2. Seiko Instruments Incorporated (SII)



Located in Chiba, SII is the new name for what started as Daini Seikosha.  With a few dozen subsidiaries and affiliates spread over 4 business lines, SII have 3,000 employees, which jumps to 13,000 total when counting all divisions.

This firm is one of the two manufacturing arms providing the watch movements sold by SWC, and watch manufacturing is a very visible part of their business. However SII have also been very active in setting up their own independent selling channels, including a lot of collaborative efforts with various artists and third party firms.



J. Springs is an SII independent brand.

Some of SII’s “collaborative” model lines (they’re actually licensing contracts, the brand name already existed elsewhere first) include Issey Miyake, Tsumori Chisato, Alessi, Cacheral, Jill Stuart, and Appletime. SII also produce the movements for Nike Timing, and distribute these in some regions.


3. Seiko Epson Corporation (Epson)



Independent enough that they usually refer to themselves simply as Epson, without mentioning Seiko, this is the current incarnation of Suwa Seikosha (headquarters of course is in Suwa), and is the other manufacturing arm for watch movements sold by SWC. Epson employs 13,000 people, but when you include their 107 individual group companies, that number jumps to over 93,000 employees. Their watch manufacturing role is downplayed at the corporate level, and is part of Epson’s “Precision Products” group.



Epson are also the majority owner of Orient Watches, now considered an Epson subsidiary, manufacturing and marketing their own watches.


The Bottom Line (for this blog)

So what do I consider Seiko sub-brands? That’s easy – Seiko, Pulsar, Alba, and Lorus. I also consider J. Springs and Orient to be related enough to be considered sub-brands too. You won’t notice me writing about either Lorus or J. Springs however, they are both too low-level mass market watches for me to care about.

What about model lines? None of them are properly called sub-brands, but do I still consider them a Seiko? If the watch is marketed under one of the above sub-brands being named (ie Alba Orvitax), or visibly manufactured by Seiko under licensing of the collaborative brand (ie Issey Miyake), or both (Alba Riki Watanabe), then for me it’s a Seiko watch. Although I really like the examples I just listed, you’ll notice a number of other names that I don’t write about also, basically any of the “glam/fashion” watches. They’re still Seiko watches, but they’re tacky.

Pure marketing/licensing arrangements, such as Michel Klein? Nope, not a Seiko. “Hidden” Seiko manufacturing or marketing, such as Nike … that’s the only area I find a bit iffy, but for the purposes of this blog they are not a Seiko.

Phew! Hope that helps! This post is a compendium of information from number of blogs, forums, company sites, magazine articles and news releases. I’m sure I’ve missed a number of Asian-only lines, as well as many of the Seiko detailed lines (both current and history) – and probably some larger points as well, but it represents my best knowledge to this point.