Japan
Grand Seiko is the only Japanese brand in the catalog, but it operates two studios that make different watches and tell different stories. The Shinshu Watch Studio in Shiojiri (Nagano) produces the Spring Drive and most mechanical movements; the Shizukuishi Watch Studio in Iwate produces the hand-wound Heritage line and the high-end mechanical references. The two studios are about 600 km apart. The distance itself is part of how Grand Seiko organises the work.
Browse all 42 Japan references →
- Japan, Hachioji1 manufacture
- Morioka Seiko Instruments (Iwate)1 manufacture
- Shinshu Watch Studio (Nagano)1 manufacture
- Shizukuishi Watch Studio (Iwate)1 manufacture
- Tokorozawa1 manufacture
- Tokyo1 manufacture
6 pins across 6 regions. Hover or focus a pin for the brand name; click through for the brand’s catalog page.
Clusters
Japan, Hachioji
Orient Watch was founded in 1950 in Hachioji (Tokyo), one of the few Japanese watch brands to develop and manufacture its own movement in-house. Now a Seiko Epson subsidiary, the Hachioji factory still produces in-house calibers (including the F6922 used in the Ray diver and F6B22 in the Sun & Moon) that compete against Swiss ETA at a fraction of the cost.
Shinshu Watch Studio (Nagano)
Mechanical Grand Seikos are built at the Shinshu Watch Studio in Shiojiri (Nagano); Spring Drive and the high-end mechanical lines are made at the Shizukuishi Watch Studio in Iwate.
Tokorozawa
Founded in Tokyo in 1918 as the Shokosha Watch Research Institute; the Citizen name dates from 1924. Headquartered in Tokorozawa, Saitama, since 1930. Best known for the Eco-Drive light-powered quartz platform (1976); the Series 8 mechanical line (represented in this catalog) is the modern carve-out from the quartz-dominant product family.
Tokyo
Kintarō Hattori opened a clock-and-watch repair shop in the Ginza district of Tokyo in 1881; the brand’s mechanical watches today are made at the Morioka Seiko Instruments plant in Iwate and the Shinshu Watch Studio in Shiojiri.
Additional studios
Shizukuishi Watch Studio assembles the hand-wound Heritage and high-end mechanical Grand Seiko lines; the Iwate studio is roughly 600 km north of the Shinshu studio.
Morioka Seiko Instruments: the Iwate plant where Seiko’s mechanical Prospex and the higher-spec 6R-series calibers are assembled. Shares the Iwate region with the Grand Seiko Shizukuishi studio.