Japan is thought to start copy western technology after WWII and applied it in their own technology. This thought might be true, however there is a fact that need to be considered. In 1881, a jewelry shop was openned in Tokyo by Kintaro Hattori and clocks started to be produced in 1892 under the brand name of Seikosha.

This was the start of what is today the Seiko Group, consisting of ‘Seiko Corporation’, ‘Seiko Instruments Inc’ and the ‘Seiko Epson Corporation’.

Today, Seiko Corporation produces among other things: watches, glasses, jewelery, semiconductors, precision instruments, safety razors etc…

A few milestones of Seiko watchmaking are:

1895, start of the production of pocket watches.

1913, first wristwatches for the Japanese market.

1924, first wristwatches with the brand ‘Seiko’.

1955, production of automatic winding watches for Japanese market starts.

1963, introduction of the first quartz driven portable stopwatch.

1969, production of the first quartz wristwatch.

1973, first LCD quartz wristwatch.

1988, first quartz driven watch powered by automatic generators.

1997, Seiko introduces the ‘Kinetic’ driven quartz system.

2005, Seiko introduces ‘Spring Drive’, a mechanical automatic watch with quartz regulation.

In October 2008, Richard Garriott, a well known video game designer and adventurer, was the sixth private space explorer in history visiting the International Space Station, wearing a special designed Seiko watch, the Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk. Unfortunately the planned spacewalk did not take place. But the watch was used in the Space Station.

However, the first automatic watch known to be used in space was also a Seiko, the 6139-6002. It was the astronaut William R. Pogue who took this watch to Skylab 4 in 1974. As his private watch. Astronauts are allowed to take some private stuff with them into space and a lot of them use their own watches next to the official provided watches by NASA.

As you can see, Seiko has been very innovative and uses new technology to improve their products.

Today Seiko produces watches, ranging from good quality affordable mechanical watches (Seiko 5), quartz driven watches, divers, dress watches, sports watches, etc.. up to the luxury ‘Grand Seiko’ with Spring Drive technology.

Do you like to have one? Look at eBay and use the search engines on the internet. You will not be disappointed.

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For many years, people have enjoyed watching and following the developments of the stock car racing world, thanks to the efforts of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. This implementing body has made it their mission to establish a healthy competition for all its participants, thus bringing many skilled drivers into light. Seeing that this association succeeded with fulfilling this task, a little background on Nascar would make us aware of what it has so far accomplished, and what we may expect from it in the years to come.

This venture was conceived by a couple of stock car racing enthusiasts after the end of World War II when they observed that there is a need to standardize implementing rules about the races. There have been many unsettled arguments in the past regarding the conduct of stock car races, and so, the founders of Nascar made this sanctioning body to create a unanimous concept for all racing enthusiasts.

In the late 70s, this organization had one of its most prestigious moments when it became the first ever racing tournament that was ever aired on television. From that moment on, it has received awards of excellence for keeping up the values of true stock car racing after all the generations that passed.

Founded around the late 40s, Nascar was conceptualized as a governing body that would make the stock car racing event a fair and just competition among proficient participants. The founders of this association have initiated their pursuit for their mission and vision after the Second World War has ended, knowing that there are a lot of things to achieve to stop all the anarchy going around during that time in the stock car racing scene. Fortunately, these people have succeeded in meeting and maintaining their goals, which makes it one of the most accomplished associations that anyone has ever heard of.

Regardless, the performance of this association when it comes to raising the level of participation of its drivers to meeting higher standards is truly remarkable. People compete against each other to show the world how a simple stock car could be made to race and win just by using the proper techniques and skills of the driver and its team.

And so, the future of this authority indeed is bright as the noonday sun. And as every generation of stock car enthusiasts have seen before and would still be seeing in the future, there is ultimately no limits as to what one might be able to achieve if he is determined in doing so.

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The development history of watches

Measurement of time was one of the needs of human beings. The ice-age hunters of Europe made marks on sticks and bones to count the days between the phases of the moon. In the more organized societies more precise time measurement was needed for religious purposes and social occasions. The Egyptians were the first to divide the day into hours as we do now. The obelisks, slender, pointing and four sided pillar like structures were built for this purpose. The moving shadows of these pillars helped the people to know time. The sun dial that came later was only an evolution of the ancient Egyptian obelisk. This could be carried from place to place and was perhaps the first portable devise for measuring time.

The making of the water clock was another development as time could be measured during night also. The water clocks gave way to the candle clocks which were wax candles with lines on them to mark the hour. In the fourteenth century large weight driven clocks appeared in many cities on the towers at city centre. Sandglasses were another devise that was used to measure time. The fifteenth century saw the birth of spring driven clocks and then pendulum clocks. The modern watches have evolved from these.

In the infancy of watch making they were very expensive and only the kings, queens and royalty generally speaking owned personal watches to measure time. But soon technology made watches available to all, especially with the invention of the quartz movement. When any thing is hand crafted it becomes art, so many ancient companies continued to produce hand crafted watches that are fabulously costly. The difference between a hand crafted watch and a mass produced watch is the same as that of a photograph and a painting. So the traditional watch makers started selling the hand crafted watches for the rich at hyped prices. So some watches like Vacheron Constantin, Omega, Rolex, Patek Philippe, Blancpain, Bulgari and many others became ultimate symbols of luxury.Manufacturers now present the near perfect clones of these handcrafted watches to the public at the fraction of the price of the original. Today illustrious watch comapny are sold by reliable portals like www.rolex-heavens.com

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Gold pocket watches have once been very popular among the upper classes in society as they were a symbol of wealthy and position. Gradually, it has become quite a common accessory for people of fashion. This article will give you a quick look on the history of gold pocket watches.

The evolution of gold pocket watch began around the 16th century with earlier recorded times dating back to the 14th century as the original birth of this watch. These watches could be worn or carried mainly three different ways. During the early 16th century wearing your watch around your neck seemed to be the choice of the times as this lasted several years. I have seen several instances over the last couple of years where this display of watch wearing could be seen in some music and fashion venues. I did not realize at the time that this was a fashion statement from the 16th century, after all displaying a watch of this type around your neck spoke volumes about your place in society.

That trend faded and the gold pocket watch made its way to the wrist. Again the watch was worn fashionably, if you could afford this watch you were considered royalty and you showed it off as such. The pocket watch soon made its way to the pocket for several reasons one being to protect it because of how easily the watch could be damaged from being worn around the wrist. The wrist worn watch also led to a number of dropped watches from being worn from the wrist. So the pocket is where the gold pocket watch resides and will be forever.

During the 16th century pocket watches would occasionally be lost or stolen probably due to the way they were worn or just carelessness. Ransoms of 3-5 pecos were offered for the return of any lost or stolen watch. These watches were highly thought of as evidenced by the ransoms being offered for their returns. After all these were the keepers of time and very fancy ones at that. The accuracy of the gold pocket watch improved with time and will forever be considered the beginning of time as we know it.

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