Our whole day is divided into hours, minutes, and seconds, and we have scheduled all our activities accordingly with the time. The human psyche has taken a great leap for keeping by the time; everything is related to time such as keeping time, being on time, and managing times, etc.
It is believed to be an obsession of the recent age, but it goes back to the times of Egyptians, and Mesopotamians. One of the ancient examples of this obsession is the Egyptian sundial, which was made some where in the 1500 B.C. Apart from this, time keeping is a different phenomenon that has its own ancient history. After the invention of the sundial, the technology of time keeping has gone through many changes, and has evolved with the human society.
The history tells that the first mechanical clocks were developed by the monks in the monasteries, which were for aligning their meditation with the time. The chiming of bells indicated the time division of twenty-four hours in a day. Later, the day was further divided into hours, which then went through many phases, and ended up in dividing time into minutes, and seconds along with hours.
Japan is among the pioneers in the watch industry, and the most famous of the Japanese is the Seiko, which is believed to be the largest manufacturers of the watches in the world. The reason behind this is that Seiko has gone through the period of both the world war one, and the world war two. In those tough times, it still managed its position, and after coming through it, they put more effort, and thus become one of the world giants in the watch industry. They are now considered to have laid the foundations of the international timepiece industry.
They adopted the strategy of providing the good quality product at such a rate that is affordable by many people; they started their production with this target in mind. The founder of the Seiko, Kintaro Hattori, very wisely named the company as Seiko, which in Japanese means precise. He laid the foundations of this company in the year 1892. The first Seiko pocket watches were launched in 1895, and their first wristwatches were launched in 1913.
The business processing, and the thinking of the Japanese manufacturers is an example for every one in the world, which can be easily learned form the history of Seiko. Initially they designed products that used very simple technology, and the designs were mostly imported. They used these and managed to develop, and use them at home for the required parts. Later on, the products became a lot complex during the further production of the watches, and the need for quality. They started their exports from their neighbouring countries in Asia, and moved on to exporting to Europe, and America, and thus became a world leader in the watch making industry.
They have recently developed the art of fine watches. Seiko started manufacturing mechanical watches when the Swiss watch exports increased in the decade of 90s. They hired experienced watchmakers for the purpose. They opened a Shizukuishi watch studio was started in the year 2004.
There is not a single person on earth who can escape time. Somehow, our lives are dependent on time. Everything we have, such as cell phones, etc have a time telling feature in them. A lot man companies and designer brands have taken advantage of this obsession, and have introduced a large variety of luxury, and collectible watches.