Seiko never turns down an opportunity to celebrate an anniversary.
The Japanese giant spent 2023 celebrating the 110th anniversary of its first wristwatch, the Laurel. The following year, Seiko had another year-long birthday party, this time marking 100 years of the Seiko name.
2026 once again finds Seiko in a celebratory mood, with the brand kicking off the new year with a quartet of watches honoring Seiko’s true beginning as a company in 1881.
The 145th anniversary collection consists of four watches so far, two of which we’ve already covered here and here. But the most unique has to be the Presage SPB538, as it takes direct inspiration from the very first watch ever made by the brand: the Timekeeper.
Keep time
Seiko’s history began not as a watchmaker, but as a watch shop called K. Hattori & Co, opened by brand founder Kintaro Hattori in Tokyo in 1881. That shop eventually led to Hattori opening the Seikosha Factory in 1892, and three years later, in 1895, said factory had produced its first watch: the Timekeeper.
A pocket watch with a white dial sporting thin black printed Roman numeral hour markers and equipped with a cylinder escapement, the Timekeeper was the first creation of Seiko’s ongoing 130-year watchmaking journey that has led to the company becoming one of the largest, most beloved and most consequential watch brands in the world.
