Le Journal de la Haute Horlogerie & Seiko
Recently I subscribed to the online newsletter from Le Journal de la Haute Horlogerie. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but thought it would be a useful journal to try out.
Today I received my first newsletter via email, and was very pleasantly surprised to see two articles about Seiko in it, and one about watch brand Internet usage.
The newsletter includes short intro snippets with a link to the full text online, for each article.
The two articles about Seiko are on a topic that is near to my heart, that being their entries in the category of fine watchmaking. The first article is very summary, speaking mostly about the Spring Drive, although with a bit of background.
Certain of the timepieces proposed by Seiko Epson, still a family-owned group, easily meet the criteria of many a Swiss brand that prides itself on being part of the Fine Watch segment. The Grand Seiko and Credor lines are two examples …
The second article is more detailed, about Seiko’s finer watchmaking facilities.
… 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…
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Update 2008-Mar-21: Thanks to Paul at Fnord, and through him to Norburtus on SCWF, for this link to the English web site for the Shizukuishi Watch Studio that makes these higher-end Seikos, including a movie tour. Paul’s article is neat, because this is the factory his MarineMaster was made at!
March 20th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
[...] was reading Harry Bishop’s blog and found a link to a Seiko article in Haute Horologorie. (The spelling and language should warn you of pretension [...]
March 21st, 2008 at 8:13 pm
[...] studio was mentioned in a post last week and a comment from Paul at Fnord, but since then I’ve visited that site and looked [...]