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When we think pocket watch we normal think Swiss or English or french or even maybe america but would one think Japanese well it seems not as they started to make pocket watch just after the Americans did ( america was it 1859 or so ) where with japan most time pieces arrived through Swiss merchants in Yokohama they imported models for sale through local distributors.
Among these was one kintaro hattori yes that name rings bell doesn't it so under the name at the time of seikosha he began by whole sale ,retail and repairing watches and clocks. and then he went on to manufacturing clocks.
when pocket watches started to become wanted more hattori became interested in trying to produce a Japanese made pocket watch, so he set about modernising his factory's to take on the opportunity to produce the first Japanese pocket watch. at that time to reduce in size a watch from clock proportions was a hard challenge it was the first wave of miniaturisation that happen in the Japanese watch industry.
seikosha time-checker first pocket watch.
Kintaro hattori started with making cases in 1893 by 1895 he was producing the first pocket watch a six-jewelled time-keeper it feature a cylinder escapement and probably had a few Swiss components in it . but it was a big step forward for the company and japan. it was a stepping stone in showing that it was establish and had the modern technology to be able to mass produce these watches .
Over the next four years or so he built on his capabilities and skills and in 1899 he brought out the excellent it was the same year the company also sold the first alarm clocks. the excellent was seven jewels and received the imperial award watch designation some years later for it think in 1907.could not source a pic
Although it still held imported parts by the early 1900's seikosha had spent some considerable time and money on setting up in-house factory's for creating his own parts and spring boarding off success of the pocket watches he started to look into wristwatches as his next stepping stone and to strengthen his position in the watch world.
Even thou looking to the future and the wrist watch he still fortified his position by constantly refining his pocket watches for precision to the point of being approved to rail-road standard in 1929 the seikosha model especially with the accuracy on the Japanese train systems being well known. I believe he also produced a ships clock for the same purpose.
This is just a quick into into Japanese pocket watch history I am more a collator of this thread then the writer as I gleamed the info from various threads and the seiko museum. but I hope it spike your interest in Japanese pocket watches I know it did mine.
As always Ismy
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