Seiko Kinetic

Seiko is a Japanese manufacturer of watches, which was founded in 1881 as a watch and jewellery shop, "K. Hattori", by Kintaro Hattori. The first watches bearing the Seiko name first appeared in 1924. Seiko has traditionally been a pioneer in watch-masking and launched the world’s first quartz wristwatch, the world’s first quartz talking clock, etc.

Seiko was the world’s first watchmaker to launch a wristwatch based on the automatic-quartz technique, when it launched a watch under the Auto-Quartz name in January 1988, in Germany. The company introduced the Kinetic brand name in 1991. Watches using the Seiko Kinetic mechanism, besides featuring a traditional quartz mechanism, also feature an automatic mechanism which generates electricity with the help of the motions of the wearer’s hands, which in turn powers the quartz mechanism.

The Seiko Kinetic mechanism also boasts multiple tiny capacitors, which store and supply electricity as and when needed. The entire mechanism is thus "almost self-sustained" and, as such, Seiko Kinetic watches do not need winding or battery changes. However, if the watch is kept aside and not worn, the electricity stored in the watch’s capacitors will run out in the end. Consequently, the watch will stop functioning and the wearer will have to then "charge" the watch by swinging it like a pendulum.

Besides watches with the Seiko Kinetic mechanism, Seiko has also launched watches with the Kinetic Perpetual mechanism (an automatic-quartz watch with a calendar) and the Seiko Kinetic Auto Relay (an advanced power-saving Kinetic mechanism with a standby time of 6 months).