Making Grand Seiko an independent brand (2017)

A company that conquered the world by volume enters the territory of feeling

The crux of this decision is that the company relativised, at its very summit, the value it had itself created — “cheap and accurate.” A company that broke the stronghold of the mechanical with quartz and set the world standard for mass-produced watches moved, half a century later, towards the mechanical, which is less accurate, and towards values of feeling that resist comparison. In a firm that rose by efficiency and precision deliberately stepping into territory efficiency cannot measure, one glimpses the paradox of the watch industry: that success as a volume brand becomes, in itself, a constraint on going upmarket. Separating Grand Seiko from SEIKO can be seen as an attempt to draw a line under that contradiction.

Luxury, however, cannot be built quickly. Hattori Shinji himself has said that recognition is accumulated over time, and the stated goal of becoming one of the world’s top ten brands is still only part-way there. Support in North America and the earnings contribution of the emotional-value segment show the effect of independence, while how far Japanese technique and aesthetics can stand beside the accumulated history of the Swiss houses will be decided by the market ahead. Whether a company that conquered the world by volume can be recognised worldwide in the opposite territory is what will divide the results of this shift.