Visit to Seiko Institute of Horology

... a Seiko watch collector's Disneyworld....

by

Wayne Lee

I arrived to the Tokyo Central train station at about 11.15 am.  I had earlier received emails from both Seiya Kobayashi and Mark Skorji who will be meeting me at the platform.  Having to just boarded on the train from Kyoto earlier (less than 3 hours ago), it is truly marvellous how fast the Shinkansen train travels.  No wonder it is sometimes known as the bullet train.  OK, I saw Seiya (I told myself)... he is standing by a koisk.  After several minutes, I spotted another gentleman from a distance with a smile and I knew he must be Mark.  Mark looks very fit and young, considering he has a 16-year old daughter.  We all introduced ourselves and then hurried off the train station.  On the way out, Seiya stopped by a gift shop to purchase a box of Japanese cookies for this afternoon.  I am prepared of course - I have gotten mine from Kyoto.  As an Asian, hand gifts, although not a must, is truly appreciated by our host. 

Seiya knew that I love Japanese soba (buck noodle) very much, so he told me that he will be bringing me to the best Soba restaurant in Tokyo.   After dropping off my luggages at the hotel that I will be staying at Okachimachi, Ueno, three of us went to have our soba lunch and then proceeded to take the subway train.  We took the Tobu Isezaki Line to Higashi-Mukojima Station.  From there, we walked about 10 minutes before arriving to the our 'Disneyworld' (as Mark put it).  Seiya told me that the visit had to be arranged earlier, because only those with an appointment can be admitted into the museum. 

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the receptionist, followed by the museum guide, Nagai-san.  Nagai-san can speak a few languages, including English and French.  We were extremely happy to have such a great guide to show us around the museum.  After introducing ourselves to him, the 'journey of discovery and excitement' started. 

The Seiko Institute of Horology was established in 1981 on the year Seiko celebrated its 100th anniversary.  The purpose of the institute is to collect, organize and store a wide range of information on Japanese and overseas clocks and watches, and as well as set to be a location where materials and information related to time and timepieces can be studied and researched upon.  The institute is 4-storey high.  The first and second floors are dedicated to clock and watch exhibitions, while the third floor is where the adminstrative office and library are located.  The final floor has a meeting room, Director's office, and a storage room for many priceless clocks that were not on exhibit. 

Nagai-san initially briefed us the history of the institute and showed us the exhibits of first floor which consisted of some of the earliest clocks and some early Seiko watches.  He told us that the earliest time-telling instrument was the sundials inspired by the Egyptians as early as 2000 BC.  Upon sunset, they measured time by charting the movement of the stars or with water clocks.  The earliest known of these types of clocks dates about 14th century BC.  Mechanical timekeeping began about 1090 AD when Su Sung, a Chinese astronomer devised a water-powered clock controlled by a form of escapement (a notch wheel that is driven by a falling weight on a cord).   Meanwhile in Europe, the earliest mechanical clocks were made in the late 13th century.   It was very interesting for me to note here that the a day in the earlier Chinese clock consisted of 12 sections (not 24 as now).  Each section was 2 hours. 

Next, we took the elevator and moved to the second floor.  Over here, there are more exhibitions of clocks (but more of recent types), as well as watches.  According to Nagai-san, there are approximately 16,000 watches and clocks on exhibits in the museum.   You can imagine how excited we were when we started to spot dozens and dozens of watches in show cases (rather than the big-size clocks). 

Above (left) was the first wristwatch made by Seiko, the Laurel.  It was first produced in 1913.   I remembered seeing one for sale in eBay about 2 years ago, which the ending bid was only about US$300.    The above (right) showed two railroad watches made by Seiko in 1931 and the far right showed the Japanese naval watch made by Seiko.  As most of you would probably remember, there were replicas of this version available about 2 years ago in quartz and manual-winding movements.  

Next, we reached the section which I love most - the Grand Seiko collections.  The first GS chronometer which was produced in 1960 in solid gold was the first on exhibit.  It carries caliber 3180 with 25 jewels that run at 5 beats per second (18,000 bph).  I also spotted the 44GS VFA (see the scan on right [above]) which is my dream GS.  Jokingly, I asked Nagai-san if there is any possibility of buying the VFA from the museum and he politely told me it is not possible!!!.   The 44GS is also on exhibit.  This is an extremely rare GS, along with 62GS and only appears in Yahoo Japan auction once in a blue moon.  On exhibit are also the certificates which showed Seiko won at the Neuchatel Observatory Competition in Switzerland in 1967 where Seiko watches took the 2nd, and 4th through 8 prizes.  That was the year which Seiko's mechanical watches attained the highest level of excellence in the world, and becoming comparable to its Swiss counterparts, if not better. 

We also saw many King Seikos in one of the show cases, but they were mostly in gold-plated cases.  Nevertheless, I have never seen so many King Seikos at one go!.   Next we reached the section where they exhibit Seiko diver watches.  Knowing there are many Seiko diver lovers in SCF, the following scans were taken for your viewing pleasure.  Can you spot the first Seiko diver watch (caliber 6217) and everybody's dream diver watch (caliber 6159)?

The rest of the collections were dedicated to the special and innovative watches made by Seikos including the chronographs, digital, calculator watch, Quartz Astron (the world's first quartz watch), AGSs and kinetics, solar and Thermic. 

We spent almost an hour on the second floor, asking alot of questions and taking lots of photographs.  Nagai-san was very impressed with our knowledge on Seiko watches.  After the second floor, Nagai-san brought us to the 4th floor to view some other clock collections which were not on exhibit.  According to him, this is only because we were special guests and they usually do not bring visitors to that special room.  The room was temperature- and humidity-controlled and the collections were very impressive.  I guessed they have too many items that cannot be shown all at one time.  Please look at the scan on your left.  This was one section of the collection in that storage room. 

As Seiya has kindly made an appointment to have us to meet up with the Director of the Institute, Mr. Kouji Kubota, we then proceeded to meet him.  Mr Kubota is an aged man (I guessed he must be at least 75) and soft-spoken, but very alert and sharp.  According to the Seiko Book (pg. 81), he joined Seiko in 1947 and has since worked for Seiko up to today.  Please take a while to ponder how many of us can actually work for the same company for more than 50 years.

At the meeting, Mr Kubota told us that he is aware of the Seiko and Citizen Forum, as well as my website and Seiya's.  We were really flattered to hear that.  Having somebody at that position and seniority to take notice of us (small fries) and our work really mean alot to us and we were both more determined to work harder. 

Here are some of the questions or requests during the meeting to Mr Kubota to be brought to the top management of Seiko watch Japan:

Question:  Why Seiko Japan does not market Grand Seikos to overseas markets, such as Southeast Asia, Europe and North America? 

Answer:  According to Nagai-san (who served as the translator to Mr Kubota), Seiko Japan has tried once many years ago to market high end watches out of Japan, but failed to capture anything.  In addition, most overseas marketing offices were not interested to market high-end Seikos because they felt there may not be any demand or too little demand for that.   The marketing office of course refers to the local Seiko representative (eg. Seiko USA, Seiko Malaysia, etc).  In addition, most high end models like Grand Seikos can only be serviced in Japan, and after-sale-service may pose a problem to these markets where service and parts are not readily available. 

Mark then suggested to them that they should follow the Toyota car business models of introducing Lexus as a high-end car, rather than the normal Japanese car.  Kubota-san agreed that 'once bitten should not end up as shy at every subsequent time'.   Wayne also brought up that there is gradually an increase in appreciation of high end Seiko watches in overseas market, particularly the US, Hongkong, Singapore, Taiwan and Malaysia and Seiko should seriously consider to study these markets again for the possibility of penetrating them with Grand Seikos and Credors. 

Question:  Does Seiko has any plan to revive the automatic diver and chronograph watches at mid-price range?

Answer:  The answer is no so far, but they agreed that it is a good suggestion after learning that there is increased appreciation among Seiko watch lovers for vintage diver watches and chronographs.  Mr Kubota told us that he will bring this matter up to the top Seiko management personally, so guys - let wait and see !

Suggestion:  Seiya suggested to Mr Kubota that Seiko should seriously consider to introduce the Grand Seiko lines with chronometer rating.  Although it is a known fact that Grand Seiko automatic performed beyond chronometer level, the Seiko collectors love to have the chronometer word written on the dial.  He also suggested to have Seiko Japan to look in future for the possibility of producing chronometer manual wind Grand Seiko that beats at 36,000 bph within the price range of US$4000.00. 

After about 30 - 40 minutes talking about various issues with regards to Seiko watches, the meeting ended with a photo session (as shown below - from left:  Mr Kubota, Wayne-san, Mark-san and Seiya-san).   Can you spot which Seiko diver was Mark wearing???  During the meeting, Mr Kubota showed an interest on his watch and went to his room, took a loupe and viewed the watch in detail!

After the meeting, we proceeded to the 3rd floor to view some literatures and reading collections.  I found so many old Seiko catalogues, and xeroxed a few pages showing Grand Seikos and Diver watches in the late 1960s.  In addition, this floor also keeps literature on time and timepieces, Japanese and overseas; industry history, horological technology, colored wood-block prints, antique documents, video tapes, etc.  There is also an area for reading with sofa, tables and chairs for visitors. 

The visit had been a great one, and I truly enjoyed visiting with Mark and Seiya because both of them are very knowledgable and it really added to the excitement of the visit.  One thing is for sure - I will be back to the museum in my future trips to Japan. 

For those of you who planned to visit the Seiko Institute of Horology, here are some details you may need to know to plan for your trip:

Time:  10 - 12; 13 - 16 hours (closed on Sunday, Monday, national holidays and year-end/New year).

Admission:  Free.

By appointment only - Please call in advance (Phone: +81 3 3610 6248; Fax: +81 3 3610 6256).

Address:  3-9-7 Higashi Mukojima 3-chome, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 131-0032, Japan.

Wayne Lee (30 March 2003), Penang Island, Malaysia.