We deep dive into the history of Grand Seiko, its drive for accuracy and its inspiration from the natural world, as seen in the new Grand Seiko Ushio Diver Spring Drive UFA watch. Read all about it below.
Read More: Phillips announce Asia’s first Patek Philippe ref. 2499 to come to auction.
Visit the Seiko Museum in Tokyo’s Ginza district and you’ll find horological wonders that existed long before Japan’s Meiji era, which began in 1868 and marked the rapid Westernisation and modernisation of the once feudal nation.
Here, there are highly decorative traditional clocks (wadokei) dating from the Edo period (1603 – 1867), when the year was divided into 24 seasons, and day and night were defined by sunrises and sunsets, with each split into six equal periods called ittoki, which varied in length from season to season.
These complex objects speak of a time governed by nature, when landowners, warriors and famers alike rose during the ‘hour of the rabbit’ (5AM – 7AM), took lunch during the ‘hour of the horse’ (11AM – 1PM) and perhaps crawled into their beds between the hours of ‘the pig’ (9PM – 11PM) and ‘the mouse’ (11PM – 1AM).
This all changed in 1873, when Japan officially adopted the Gregorian calendar and a fixed, 24-hour day, which led to a huge influx of foreign pocket watches and clocks. Just a few years later, in 1881, an entrepreneur named Kintaro Hattori founded a watch store in the heart of Ginza, initially concentrating on importing, selling and repairing Western-style watches from abroad. Soon, however, he became determined to offer Seiko (‘precise’) timepieces of his own and eventually opened the Seikosha (‘exquisite success’) factory in 1892, establishing Japan’s successful timepiece industry in the process.
By 1959 – having endured the devastation of both the Great Kantō earthquake and WWII – Seiko was investing heavily in its future, with two factories (one in Kameido, in eastern Tokyo, and another in Nagano Prefecture, just over 200km west of the city) and an insatiable desire to compete with Swiss brands like Patek Phillipe and Vacheron Constantin in terms of technical excellence. In 1960, the company unveiled its first Grand Seiko timepiece – the Reference 3180 – and a time-telling legacy was born.
With a sleek, rounded case, distinctive lugs, elegant Dauphine hands and faceted gold hour markers, the 3180 stood apart as a stylish-looking wristwatch. Crucially, beneath its luxurious good looks lay a manual-wind calibre accurate to -3/+12 seconds a day, a feat rigorously tested by an in-house certification process equivalent to the superior standards set by the Swiss Bureaux Officiels de Contrôle de la Marche des Montres. With ‘Chronometer’ officially emblazoned on its dial, the Grand Seiko 3180 announced the company was ready to compete with the elite timepieces of the West.
And compete it certainly did. Just seven years later, in 1967, Seiko became a high-ranking winner for its timepiece accuracy at the Swiss Observatoire Cantonal de Neuchâtel competition – an important moment for telegraphing the company’s dedication to technical excellence and accuracy around the world and that still defines the brand to this day.
Fast forward to 2026, and Grand Seiko is renowned amongst connoisseurs for its covetable timepieces that fuse high accuracy with sublime craftsmanship, or takumi. It also continues to draw inspiration from the natural world, a feature rooted in its Japanese heritage. “A deep appreciation and reverence for nature lies at the heart of our culture and tradition,” says Seiko Watch Corporation president Akio Naito. “Grand Seiko’s philosophy, ‘The Nature of Time’ reflects both this reverence, and also our goal to capture the ‘essence’ of time through high-accuracy watchmaking.”
Indeed, many of Grand Seiko’s most esteemed timepieces owe their innovative dials to this appreciation for nature, including the multi-award-winning Grand Seiko Hi-Beat ‘White Birch’ (Ref. SLGH005), which boasts a silvery white textured dial that nods to the vast birch forests of Iwate Prefecture, home to Grand Seiko’s Studio Shizukuishi manufacture, where it exclusively produces its Grand Seiko timepieces.
Then there’s the Grand Seiko ‘Snowflake’ (ref. SBGA211), a luxurious titanium-clad model with a unique, powdery-looking dial inspired by the windswept snow on the slopes of Japan’s Hotaka Mountains.
In line with this tradition, Grand Seiko is unveiling the latest iteration of its ‘Ushio’ Diver Spring Drive UFA (Ultra Fine Accuracy) watch at this year’s Watches and Wonders event in Geneva. An evolution of the company’s diver watches from last year, this slimmer (12.9mm thick), 40.8mm diameter model is crafted in high-intensity titanium, Grand Seiko’s exclusive, lightweight and corrosion-resistant alloy, with a mirror-like finish thanks to its signature Zaratsu-polishing technique.
A new micro-adjustable slider has also been engineered into the bracelet’s clasp – paired with an additional ‘extension link’, this allows plenty of comfortable adjustment on the wrist (essential when you’re wearing a wetsuit). As expected, there’s plenty of natural inspiration here, too: undulating dial patterns on the dial are inspired by the flow of powerful oceanic currents that surround the Japanese coastline.
Available in deep blue or green variations (Refs. SLGB023 and SLGB025), these modern divers also benefit from Grand Seiko’s new 9RB1 movement, a next-generation Spring Drive Calibre with automatic winding and 72-hour power reserve. Spring Drive watches debuted at Grand Seiko in 2004, and are another integral part of the house’s ongoing quest for hyper-accurate timepieces. A unique hybrid calibre that combines a mechanical mainspring for power with a quartz oscillator for accuracy, these movements provide an incredible level of precision to a watch: typically just +/- 1 second per day, as seen in the the Grand Seiko ‘Snowflake’.
The new ‘Ushio’ Diver Spring Drive UFA watches take this a step (or should that be a swim?) further, boasting an accuracy of +/- 20 seconds per year. That’s 18 times more accuracy than previously achieved, making these watches the smallest and most accurate divers Grand Seiko has ever made – the kind of impressive spec your life might just depend on if you choose to swim beneath the depths of the ocean.
In a world where digital timekeeping is now the norm, Grand Seiko’s ongoing quest to achieve greater accuracy and technical innovation whilst maintaining a reverence for nature and exceptional craftsmanship is increasingly rare, but a task the company undertakes with quiet confidence and Zen-like grace. “Our approach [to watchmaking] is to remain true to our core values while adapting to change and continuing to refine our craftsmanship, strengthen our brand identity and connect with customers around the world in meaningful ways,” says Mr. Naito.
No doubt Kintaro Hattori would approve.
Like this? Learn more about Grand Seiko Spring Drive technology
Subscribe to our newsletter for all the latest watch and jewellery headlines
