The story of Seiko began in 1881, when a 21 year old entrepreneur, Kintaro Hattori, opened a shop in  central Tokyo. Just eleven years later, in 1892, he established the ‘Seikosha’ factory. Seiko’s line of luxury watches, Grand Seiko, was created in 1960 by Daini Seikosha and Suwa Seikosha which were two subsidiaries of the Seiko corporation. They wanted to create a line of watches that could compete with the Swiss watchmakers.