There is a reason why magazines such as ourselves talk a lot about Seiko, first, they have a long history that we have already covered, second, they are a rookie collectors dream, releasing watches almost every week, and in that, a whole host of limited editions and special editions. They are also a starting point for many, me included, with their 5 sports line or more elegant Cocktail time. But most of all, they are a content machine; there is always something to say when it comes to Seiko, and with a rabid and loyal fanbase that won’t stop anytime soon.

We love to talk about Seiko since we adore history, and as we said in our article talking about the general history of Seiko, we will go into a deep dive for sub categories like the Seiko Astron, Grand Seiko and the topic of this Article King Seiko. Since they released the King Seiko Vanac a few months back I have been researching for this article off and on and now we present the fruit of those efforts.

We start in the years following the Second World War, which is a strange time for Japan, fresh off two nuclear bombs and a deflating, inevitable loss. Reform was necessary, the allies did their part in those reforms as they spent a lot of time and energy rebuilding Japan in western ideals, they played a big role in the political and economic reforms as they shaped Japan from a proud militaristic nation, ruled by the army and an emporor into a traditional western democracy.

This leads to the beginning of a Japanese economic boom as trade and industry reached new heights and money came pouring into the economy and more importantly into people’s pockets, this time not just to the already wealthy but also the working man. These particular circumstance is a big reason for the rise of both King Seiko and Grand Seiko. The main part of this story starts in the Dani Seikosha factory in 1961.

The first King Seiko piece was manual-wound and really embodied and followed the design language of Tokyo at the time, sharp, pointy hands with thick hour markers, long, straight lugs, and a thin case, which gave an elegant allure to the piece. The goal with the King Seiko was to capture the spirit of Japan and especially Tokyo, and this watch knocked it out of the park.

Just a year earlier, Seiko had made a watch with the target of reaching the same accuracy and quality as the fine Swiss watches being imported from the West. That watch and that project got the name Grand Seiko. The overall target from Seiko was to make a watch to compete with watches from Switzerland, but the target of the watchmakers was different; their target was to make the perfect watch. To do that, it had to follow a set list of qualities: accuracy, reliability, and beauty, which made the perfect blend to lead watches into the future. It is sufficient to say that Grand Seiko reached that and more; they made the perfect watch.

Design wise the Grand Seiko watch is not all that different from the King Seiko piece that would come out only a year later, the big difference between the two was the gap in elegance, the King Seiko piece though still an elegant piece was rougher and just a tad sharper, one way to look at it is saying it was a bit more boxy than the Grand Seiko. This is similar to saying that the Porsche 911 is more elegant than the Porsche Taycan; both are beautiful and elegant, but the question of which car is more elegant was never in doubt.

King Seiko was not only great at capturing the essence of Japanese society, but they were also great mechanically. In 1965, they released the KSK, which stood for King Seiko Kisei-Tsuki, or guaranteed accuracy. This caliber had a hacking seconds function, which means that you can fully stop the movement, so the seconds hand will stop moving. This is important in relation to accuracy, as it allows you to set the time to the exact second needed.

This was the second generation that had this Hacking seconds feature, and design-wise, we still see the iconic KSK design to this day. The KSK marked a new generation of glamour in Japanese watchmaking. These watches became known for their design, quality, and accuracy. The iterations that followed became certified chronometers through the Japanese Chronometer Inspection.

King Seiko kept updating its line every 4 years; the third generation, which bore the name 45KCM, was released in 1969. Out went the sharp cases, in came a linear design which is reminiscent of a turtle.

KCM stands for King Seiko Calendar Chronometer. The most important and impressive bit about this watch, apart from the desig,n is the fact that it’s the first instance of Seiko using a Hi-beat movement. Hi-beat means that the watch beats faster, instead of beating at 3 hz or 21.600 times every hour ( which was the norm at the time) the KCM would beat at 4 hz or 28.800 times every hour, that creates improved accuracy in the watch. The movement of the seconds hand becomes smoother and it almost looks like it floats.

Today the majority of brands use this 4 hz method, some still do 3 hz in order to have extra hours of power reserve but most have found a way to get at least 70 hours while doing it at a 4 hz beat speed. Today Seiko uses 5 hz or 36.000 beats an hour for its Hi-Beat calibers.

After the third generation, the line started to slowly die out. They did, however, release the original King Seiko Vanac in 1972, which is, of course, what the newest King Seiko line is based on. There are a few different reasons as to why the line started to slowly fade.

Grand Seiko, as previously stated was started to provide incredible quality that matched the quality of Switzerland and became the magnum opus of the Japanese watch industry. King Seiko was supposed to offer quality watches for the public, sort of like Rolex and Tudor. These two sublines of Seiko were started at practically the same time, and that was done to make them compete against each other as well as work together in driving increased quality and innovation. This gave Seiko a huge boost in the watch community.

The biggest reason was probably the quartz revolution,  which Seiko was of course the driver of, so in truth they pretty much killed the King Seiko line off, there became space for only one top dog in the Seiko eco-system, and Grand Seiko was the obvious choice.

After a nearly 50-year hiatus, the King Seiko line was reborn in 2020. The new line took the design of the old KSK and reinvented it for a modern audience, a classic watch case, interesting bracelets, and dials so intricate only Seiko can accomplish.

Mechanically, the watches are also fantastic, especially when you talk about quality for money. For instance, the new King Seiko Vanacs use a caliber developed by Grand Seiko; the only difference between the two is that it is not as intricately decorated at King Seiko compared to Grand Seiko. This does not matter as King Seiko has closed case backs, and the Grand Seikos are also more accurately regulated.