Grand Seiko Manufacture Tour Part 5: Seiko/Epson Shiojiri Studio Shinshu – home of all Spring Drive, 9F quartz, and the Micro Artist Studio
Zach BlassEditor’s note: We have finally reached the end of the Grand Seiko Manufacture Tour series. In part one I detailed my visit to Grand Seiko Studio Shizukuishi, the home of all things 9S mechanical, in Morioka. Part two detailed my return to Ginza and my visit to the incredible Seiko Museum Ginza. After leaving the museum, in part three I shared my experience at the Seiko House Ginza (Wako Building) where I was able to see the unique opportunities this Grand Seiko flagship of flagship offers first-hand – such as the Grand Seiko Bespoke program. In part four I dug into my visit to the Atelier Ginza within Seiko House Ginza and my conversation with Takuma Kawauchiya – the watchmaker behind the Grand Seiko SLGT003 ‘Kodo’ Constant Force Tourbillon. In this fifth and final part, we go to Shiojiri, where I visited the Seiko/Epson facility – home to Studio Shinshu and all things Spring Drive and 9F quartz, along with the famed Micro Artist Studio.
While Studio Shizukuishi is a beautiful work of art in its construction, the Seiko/Epson facility, which is home to Studio Shinshu and all things Spring Drive and 9F quartz, is much less artistic in appearance on the outside. In fairness, it is a larger building that is not designed with the public in mind – you cannot visit this manufacture site without an appointment. Inside, however, I did get what I would say was my most in-depth look at Grand Seiko watchmaking.
Like Studio Shizukuishi, islands of watchmakers perform dedicated tasks – various parts of movement assembly, hand-setting and casing, bracelet attachment, and more. Within movement assembly, some watchmakers focus solely on quartz calibres while others strictly on Spring Drive calibres. Again, very similar to the watchmakers I saw working within Studio Shizukuishi.
On another floor, however, was where I got more of a look behind the curtain – the artisans working to create the components the watchmakers later finally assemble. Most notable, of course, is the famed Zaratsu polishing process for the cases.
Once a case has been constructed, through both cold forging for a harder case and CNC cutting to create the case geometries, these artisans are tasked with finishing these highly geometric cases to an incredible standard that takes years to master. Zaratsu distortion-free mirror polishing brings high level black polishing, typically found only in the highest end of watchmaking on small movement components, to the external case – resulting in a unparalleled level of case finishing.
Grand Seiko Corporation of America Brand Curator and National Training Manager Joseph Kirk once explained on the WatchUSeek forums: “In order to achieve this quality of finish for the final product, cases undergo a four-part polishing process. The polishing is executed by fixing the case or bezel on a chuck, and applying it to a rotating tin and/or abrasive wheel delicately. The wheel is cleaned and wet with a brush numerous times per case. It can take hours to finish just one surface. The tin wheels are made in-house, and the abrasive used is very fine (the details of which are undisclosed to the public). The result is, as mentioned, a distortion-free mirror finish, showing no blurring in reflections, only a pure and crisp image.”
Once the distortion-free mirror polishing is finished, artisans then apply a hairline brushed finish to requisite surfaces with either a special hand brush for smaller surfaces or a larger stationary surface or wheel for wider ones.
While the Zaratsu case finishing component of the Grand Seiko proposition is certainly a compelling point of difference, arguably the part of a Grand Seiko watch that the manufacture is most known for is their elaborately designed and manufactured dial. One dial in particular, found originally on the co-branded SBGA011 and now the strictly Grand Seiko branded SBGA211, can be credited for bringing Grand Seiko to a greater level of awareness on an international scale: the ‘Snowflake’ dial. Here, in Studio Shinsh,u is where this famed dial is produced. As with many Grand Seiko dials, its nature-inspired texture is captivating, but it is important to recognise that while the texture is pressed into the base metal plate, the original mold for the press is crafted by hand. So a hand-made design is pressed into the dial, but the pattern and pressing are just a couple of steps in a ten-part process for the ‘Snowflake’ dial.
I was able to see various stages of the beloved Lake Suwa dial being made, first watching as an artisan, using pad printing, printed the Grand Seiko logo and ‘Spring Drive 5 Days’ text onto the dial. With their own in-house gelatin for the pad, the printing is able to have a three-dimensional effect the adds further depth to the dial. At this angle, if I am being honest, I did not initially recognize it was a ‘Lake Suwa’ dial.
It was only when I watched an artisan apply the indices to the dial, holding the plate at an awkward angle, no less, so it would be easier for us to see on camera, that I immediately clocked the wavy pattern. She made it look so easy, dropping one after another, each tiny index, into its unfathomably small slots like it was nothing. I would later learn just how hard it is, and how skilled she must be, considering after ten minutes of sweating I was finally able to get the double 12 o’clock index into its slot. After celebrating for a few seconds, our guide would sheepishly inform me I had applied it upside down – a very short-lived celebration.
I would then go on to walk towards the studio within the studio: the Micro Artist Studio. This is where the most elaborate Seiko corporation watches, for both Credor and Grand Seiko, are made. Within a small space, you can find some of the most talented watchmakers at work within the company.
It was here I got to tick off another box on my horological bucket list. I got to see, live ‘in the metal, or should I say ‘in the porcelain’, a Credor Eichi II dial being painted. On a porcelain surface, now made in-house, the dial design is initially screen printed on via transfer paper. After a firing process, four types of paint are mixed and each aspect of the dial, logo and indices, is then hand-painted with a tiny brush.
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The movement of the hand is so precise and slow, watching the artisan you would think they were frozen in time. Only by speeding up the video do you really see the artisans hand move, painstakingly tracing the screen printed elements. After the hand-painting is applied, the dial is once again fired.
Being within the studio where Spring Drive was born and manufactured, arguably the coolest moment for me was getting to meet Mr Masatoshi Moteki. Moteki, currently a watchmaker within the Micro Artist Studio, is also notably a co-founder of Spring Drive. With our required masks on, I could not see his full face, but seeing his eyes light up when he registered I was also wearing a Seiko SBWA001, a JDM limited edition of 500 pieces that was the first commercial Seiko Spring Drive watch in 1999, is a moment I will never forget. Of course I wanted to bring the original Seiko Spring Drive watch home to its birthplace, and getting the chance to take a photo together – both flexing the watch – is one of the most, if not the most, prized photographs I had taken on the trip.
If I am being honest, this concluding overview of my final stop of my Grand Seiko manufacture tour just scratches the surface – there is just so much detail to go into. Each segment of the assembly process on its own could be an in-depth article, down to the fabrication of a screw. My ultimate goal with this series was to give you a taste of what Grand Seiko watchmaking is all about, and what such a visit is like for us within watch media. At the risk of offending other brands, this visit to Japan was the press trip highlight of my career so far. As an editor for Time+Tide, it is my job to objectively review watches, never letting my own personal emotions takeover a review. As a die-hard Grand Seiko fanboy on a personal level, it can be challenging at times – but I promise my journalistic integrity always prevails. In life, they say never to meet your heroes because you risk being disappointed by them. I can honestly and fairly say it was such a rich experience for me that lived up to all my hopes, expectations, and more. Immersing myself not only in Grand Seiko, but Japanese culture as a whole, the familial sense the watchmakers and staff offer, the passion and drive these individuals have in their craft and mission, and the pursuit of precision across their manufacturers is something Grand Seiko enthusiasts would all take comfort in – validating their trust and purchases with the brand.
For each installment of this series, I have sat before my laptop wearing my Grand Seiko SBGH283 ‘Shizukuishi Limited’ that I purchased at Studio Shizukuishi, because with each glance at the watch it transports me back to the wonderful week I spent with them. I hope this series has been informative and enjoyable for you all, and that one day you too will be able to visit Japan and experience Grand Seiko and Seiko’s rich roots as well.