1. SEIKO WATCH CORPORATION
  2. Power Design Project
  3. Power Design Project 2009
  4. Theme "ASTRON 40"

Power design project 2009

ASTRON 40

In celebration of the 40th anniversary of the launch of the world’s first quartz watch in 1969, an exhibition will be held from Tuesday, December 1 to Sunday, December 6, 2009. It will showcase the work in the 8th annual SEIKO Power Design Project of seven of SEIKO’s designers, expressed in 40 new designs especially created to celebrate the launch of the Quartz Astron.

On Christmas Day 1969, K. Hattori and Co. Ltd (now SEIKO Holdings Corporation) launched the first quartz watch in the world, the SEIKO Quartz Astron. Retailing at \450,000, the price of a normal sized car at the time, it generated a huge amount of attention worldwide. It came to be seen as the watch of for the new hi-tech age.
      The advertising for Quartz Astron said it all: “The SEIKO Quartz is changing the world's standard of accuracy”. Its creation revolutionized not only the accuracy of watches, but also the way time was expressed. With its one-second steps, the second hand of Quartz Astron had its own visual signature, precise and definitive, echoing the scientific certainties of the age of space travel and rapidly advancing technologies. Today, quartz remains the world standard for wristwatches, bringing accurate and reliable timekeeping within the range of all.
      The design for the Quartz Astron was created by an in-house competition, a most unusual occurrence for the time. The winning creation was controversial. Rather than adopt a design with a futuristic feel, the Quartz Astron had an orthodox and classical appearance which reflected SEIKO's certainty of its  importance in the industry and the long-term significance of its technology. The generous silhouette and the characteristic surface treatment of the case spoke of the powerful fortitude and confidence of SEIKO.

This year marks the 8th SEIKO Power Design Project; to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the release of the quartz watch, the theme chosen for the project this year was “Quartz Astron”. With this exhibition, entitled “ASTRON 40”, 40 watches are displayed; the watches were designed by seven designers based on the original model and arranged according to each designer's sense of aesthetics. We hope you will feel both the 40 years the quartz watch has opened up and the power of these designers within the rich variety of designs here ・ those that have you feeling the vigorous atmosphere of the time, and those that have been changed with a modern slant to them.