Grand Seiko Watches at European Watch Co.

According to industry estimates, Grand Seiko's manufacturing facility in northern Japan produces roughly 35,000 pieces every year with the vast majority of the watches remaining within the Asian market. This number represents a modest fraction of the overall watch market and is roughly equivalent to Audemars Piguet’s production numbers.

The “Spring Drive” movement is a one of a kind watch caliber developed and produced by the Seiko Time Corp which combines mechanical watchmaking with Quartz regulation. The movement utilizes a traditional oscillating weight, like an automatic movement, to generate the electricity that powers Seiko’s tri-synchro regulator system. Unique to the Spring Drive, instead of a traditional Swiss lever escapement, it is equipped with a glide wheel. The tri-synchro regulator controls the speed of this glide wheel using what is called “electromagnetic braking” and makes for a highly accurate mechanical movement. Known to be accurate to +1/-1 second per day, the Spring Drive movement's distinctive feature is the effortless glide of the second hand.

Zaratsu polishing is a finishing technique used exclusively by Grand Seiko. The origin of the word stems from the phonetic Japanese pronunciation of the German name “Sallaz”. Grand Seiko purchased a polishing machine from the German company Gebrüder Sallaz ("Sallaz Brothers") in the early days of the company, and it is still in use to this day. When used properly, the Zaratsu machine produces a brilliant, distortion-free mirror polish. Only a few people, hand selected by Grand Seiko, are licensed to use these machines.

The Grand Seiko line was created in 1960 by two subsidiaries of the Seiko Corporation, Daini Seikoshi and Suwa Seikosha. The goal was to manufacture world-class timepieces that would compete with the Swiss and that would elevate Japanese watchmaking to a category of its own.

In 2004, Grand Seiko’s Shinshu Watch Studio's dial workshop was given the task of creating a dial that reflected the surroundings of where the Spring Drive technology was developed. Drawing inspiration from the crisp white snow atop the mountains that surrounded their studio in northern Japan, the team started with a stamped white dial from 1971 that they found in the Grand Seiko archives. The “Snowflake” dial is made using a 200 metric ton press to stamp the uneven “windswept” hatch pattern onto a brass blank. The blank is then electroplated with silver to create the desired stark white color and sparkle, resulting in a beautiful, texturized dial that the watch community quickly nicknamed the “Snowflake”.