Being on my bucket list ever since I have been fascinated with Seiko timepieces, a visit to the Seiko museum seemed surreal. After months of saving up, I finally put aside enough money to make a trip all the way to the land of the rising sun.

The Seiko museum is located near the Sumida river. If you're interested in paying them a visit, you can find their location by simply googling Seiko Museum.



After taking some pictures in the main entrance of the museum, I was warmly greeted by the reception staff as I entered. The receptionist spoke little English just as most Japanese people in Japan. However, they would go all out to make my visit to the museum a great one.

After some basic English communication, I was told by the staff that the ipad that she is about to handover to me will enhance my visit by translating the Japanese descriptions into English.

Filling thrilled, I head on to the start of the exhibition. They started off explaining how people used different methods to tell them before watches and clocks came about.

Besides the classical sundial method, other interesting methods to tell time elapsed included sticking a bunch of incense on a board and light them up. Every incense stick burnt is 30 minutes on the clock. So technically you burn 48 incense sticks a day. Pretty neat way to tell time with the lack of technology

During the great kanto quake, they managed to retrieve the remains of a couple of pocket clocks which looks surprisingly aesthetic and almost like a black Christmas tree.

Besides wrist watches, Seiko makes lots of different kinds of wall clocks as well as table clocks. They range from simple clocks to the more complex ones which comes with an alarm.

The start of the wrist watch exhibits features the very very first wrist watch that Seiko made, The Seiko laurel from 1913. This is also the very first wrist watch in Japan.

This timepiece have withstood the test of time and looks fabulous behind the glass. The ceramic dial played a crucial role in ensuring that Laurel looked perfect after all this years.

Laurel was born when pocket watches was a norm. Hence, it was detachable from its bands if need be.


Following the Seiko Laurel exhibit is a couple of Seiko ladies watches as well as a Seikosha pocket watch used in Japanese trains. That reflects on how reliable Seiko pocket watches were.

Seiko marvel was the first Seiko watch will full in house movements as well as the diashock shock absorption system.


In the subsequent years after the release of Seiko marvel, they improved the movement and released newer models such as the Cronos and Gyro marvel. The Seiko Cronos was a higher end model where the movement was later altered and used for King Seikos.


The watch above is the very first Grand Seiko to be made. The timeless designed remained classy throughout all these years.


A grade below grand Seiko would be King Seiko during the 1960s to 1970s. The price difference for the time back then is pretty drastic. 25000 yen for a grand Seiko and 15000 yen for a King Seiko.



Two grades below King Seiko lies the Seiko sportsmatic which offered sporty and and an affordable alternative to watch collectors.

The next watch on display is the reason why I came all the way to Tokyo. I wanted to see the 62mas in person. I guess you could say i'm a sucker when it comes to vintage timepieces. What I saw in a museum blew me away. A 62mas is pristine condition sitting there with a label and tag showing 13000 yen. If that was actually the current price, I would have immediately bought it.