Few watchmakers have single handedly changed the watch industry in the way Seiko has. Founded in Japan by Kintaro Hattori in 1881, Seiko’s brand name comes from the Japanese word seikoshia, meaning precision, which served as the philosophy at the center of the brands technical innovations. In 1969, Seiko shook the watch world by releasing the most accurate timepiece made at the time, the Astron, whose quartz-powered movement became the spark for the quartz revolution that would radically change the face of modern watchmaking. Today, Seiko continues to cement itself as a fully-integrated watchmaker, producing every component of their timepieces themselves, down to the formulation of their own lubricating oils. Some of their modern groundbreaking technologies include the Spring Drive, a movement that is regulated with a quartz regulator, combining the high accuracy of a quartz timepiece with the characteristics of an automatic mechanical movement.