♣ The SEIKO Museum (Tokyo)
セイコー・ミュージアム
The Seiko Museum was established as the Seiko Institute of Horology in 1981, designed to assemble and preserve various research materials related to time and time-keeping instruments. The exhibits cover a range of subjects, including the evolution of time and time-keeping instruments, the history of Seiko products, sports timing instruments, and Japanese traditional clocks (Wadokei), and others.
URL: http://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/
The Seiko Museum gives us the precious knowledge about the story on the development of horology and precision machinery technology.
Accsess: Higashi Mukojima 3-9-7, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 131-0032
8 minutes walk from Higashi-Mukojima Station of Tokyo Skyline Railway
Tel: +81-3-3610-6248
For overseas visitors: Access: http://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/use/overseas/index.html
360 degree of scene of the Seiko Museum is available by: http://museum.seiko.co.jp/virtual/en/virtual-tour/publish/595dfdbe-ad61-4fa8-a4c6-8f74dc2312f6/index.html
Collection of SEIKO Museum
Shows you a collection of books on timepieces and calendars, as well as the books available at the Museum Shop.
Shows you a number of Seiko exhibits and collections.
Shows you colored woodblocks and calendars with illustrations of timepieces reminiscent of old times.
Enjoy videos on Seiko products and the development episodes.
History of Clocks and Watches
Visual VTR is available : History of Clock ans Watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8E2hpoEeOE
Miniature of the World’s First Escapement Clock
A 12-meter-high astronomical observation clock equipped with a water-powered wheel-type escapement. Constructed in 1092 during the Northern Sung Dynasty. A machine built inside integrates the astronomical observation instrument with the clock tower structure
Lantern Clock with Double Foliot Balance (18c) (“Wadokei” in the Edo era)
This weight-driven clock automatically switches over two foliot balances at the transition between daytime and nighttime at sunrise and sunset. With conventional clock with a single-foliot balance, the weight of the balance must be repositioned twice a day at sunrise and sunset.
Ukiyohanjyo Anasagashi (1877)
By Shinsai Kobayashi, an Ukiyoe artist of the Meiji period. The print depicts a giant octagonal clock with a hairspring balance.
Seiko History
360 degree of scene of the Seiko Milstone is available by: http://museum.seiko.co.jp/virtual/en/virtual-tour/publish/595dfdbe-ad61-4fa8-a4c6-8f74dc2312f6/index.html?panoId=f666c104-635f-4b4c-aee2-e63eaad9ebd6
Visual VTR is available : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kD3Wq3D03N4
Kintaro Hattori (Founder of Seiko)
Seiko has been committed to producing and distributing clocks and watches since its founding as a company aiming to “establish a Japan-made timepiece industry and contribute to social and industrial development through clocks and watches.”
Hattori’s biograhy is available directly at the Seko Museum and url:
http://museum.seiko.co.jp/en/history/founder/index.html
The dawn of Seiko, when the company dived into a bold project to modernize Japan’s clock industry and catch up with the West as early as possible.
The period of innovation, when Seiko introduced the world’s first quartz wristwatch and standardized the Seiko method throughout the world.
The current period of advancement, when Seiko seeks more accurate, more convenient watches by further evolving the quartz technology and taking advantage of today’s multi-functionalization(digital), power-generating, and communication technologies.
(Please Refer to the “Development of Clock and Watch” of this Web.