But the first of these automatic chronographs actually on the market (in May 1969, to be precise) was Seiko’s 5 Sports Speed Timer. The results of this competition produced a number of watches that are today regarded as icons, such as the Breitling Chrono-Matic, Zenith El Primero, and Heuer Monaco. Nineteen sixty-nine was an important touchstone for the watch industry, as it was the year of what’s been dubbed “the great automatic chronograph race.” A handful of Swiss brands - and one notable Japanese one - vied to become the first manufacturer to produce and market a wristwatch chronograph watch with automatic winding. The Seiko 5 Sports Speed Timer beat its Swiss competitors to the market in 1969. Seiko’s in-house standards for its dive watches helped establish the ISO standards for dive watches that is still in use today. Its first Professional Diver’s watch in 1975 was water-resistant to 1,000 meters, and also the first dive watch with a titanium case and another version of the Professional Diver’s in 1986 (the first with a unidirectional bezel) increased the water-resistance to 1,000 meters. In 1968, it introduced a version with a high-beat movement (36,000 vph) and 300-meter water resistance. As diving grew in popularity, Seiko continued to refine its dive watches. At the time, diving was a relatively rare hobby, so this was a very specialized product. The watch had a bidirectional rotating bezel and was fitted with the automatic Caliber 6217 (17 jewels, 18,000 vph). As its name implies, its stainless steel case was water-resistant to 150 meters, and measured 38 mm in diameter and 13.4 mm thick. It was just one year after releasing the first Japanese-made chronograph that Seiko launched the first dedicated divers’ watch made in Japan, the Seiko Diver’s 150M. The movement was the 12-ligne, 21-jewel Caliber 5719. The Seiko Crown Chronograph had a stainless steel case, 38.2 mm in diameter and 11.2 mm thick, and water-resistant to 30 meters. Seiko provided more than 1,200 units of various types of stopwatches for the Olympic timers, and to commemorate the event, also issued a commercial version of its wristwatch chronograph, which had a monopusher system. Its story begins with the 1964 Olympic games, held in Tokyo, for which Seiko was the official timekeeper. With all of its previous accomplishments, it is not surprising that Seiko was also responsible for creating Japan’s first chronograph watch. The Seiko Crown Chronograph was inspired by the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. At first, the need to import components meant that production was slow - just 30 to 50 pieces per day - but by 1910, Seikosha had managed to produce its own balance springs and by 1913, its own enamel dials. The Laurel had a silver case, 29.6 mm in diameter, a porcelain enamel dial, and a 12-ligne movement. Hence the debut of the Laurel in 1913, just 11 years after the first Hattori wall clocks. Hattori quickly recognized the growing worldwide popularity of the wristwatch and predicted that the demand for wristwatches would shortly outpace that for pocketwatches. The English name “Timekeeper” was a product of Hattori’s shrewd business sense, as he realized that such a name would expand future export possibilities for the product. The 54.9-mm silver case was made in Japan, but most of the 22- ligne movement was imported from Switzerland. After several years of producing high-quality wall clocks, Seikosha released its first pocketwatch, called simply the Timekeeper, in 1895. He was only 31 when he partnered with an engineer named Tsuruhiko Yoshikawa to set up the Seikosha watch factory, forerunner of today’s Seiko, in 1892. Hattori watch and clock shop in Tokyo’s Kyobashi district and began building and repairing watches and clocks. Seiko founder Kintaro Hattori was only 21 years old when he opened the K.
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