Seiko will offer select retailers and their clients a rare glimpse into the inner workings of the brand’s “Spring Drive” watch through a traveling exhibition embarking this fall.

Award-winning master craftswoman Chitose Masuda will make appearances at five of the country’s top jewelers from Sept. 29-Oct. 3. The jewelers are ones whose clients have taken a special interest in learning more about the technology and securing limited-edition introductions, Seiko Corp. of America Executive Vice President Les Perry said in a media release.

Masuda is one of only a handful of people in the world capable of assembling the Seiko Spring Drive, which the brand says represents the pinnacle of micromechanics and expert watchmaking.

Masuda will disassemble and assemble the 416 individual parts of the watch on-site, providing a rare glimpse into the Spring Drive technology, which took Seiko 28 years to develop and perfect.

“The Spring Drive exhibition is a great way for Seiko to demonstrate and communicate its expertise and dedication in fine watchmaking,” Perry said in the release.

The exhibition will kick off on Sept. 29 at Tourneau in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., followed by stops at Old NorthEast Jewelers in St. Petersburg, Fla., Arizona Fine Time in Scottsdale, Ariz., Jackson Square Fine Jewels in Redwood City, Calif., and World Lux in Seattle.

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The watch has been engineered to withstand the extreme environment of outer space and will be worn on the wrist of Richard Garriott, the sixth private-citizen space explorer, when he takes his trip this fall.

Garriott, a video game designer and the son of a NASA astronaut, will pay $45 million for his trip and plant to viisit the International Space Station and become the first private citizen to do a space walk outside of it.

He will be wearing the Seiko Spring Drive Spacewalk outside of his spacesuit and so the watch has to be able to survive zero gravity and an environment where temperatures can get as low as negative 22 degrees Celsius.

Battery-powered watches aren’t viable for space and the spring drive was chosen over a mechanical watch for safety and accuracy. The watch was designed to be light and recesses on the sides of the case save weight. It also has a dial with a Lumibrite treatment for readability.

The case is air tight and made of high-intensity titanium. The watch is a limited edition of 100, three will go with Garriott on his October adventure and the other 97 will be available in December and will retail for $25,000.

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“The past one year has seen us emerge among the top three brands in the premium luxury watch segment in India. We have presence in 33 cities with 81 stores and are aiming to cover the remaining major centres in the country,” Seiko Watch India Sales and Marketing Head Niladri Mazumder told PTI.   

 He said Seiko, which launched its brand in India with a dozen models last year, is looking to have 200 models in the country by end of 2008-09 with presence in around 40 cities.    

Mazumder said the first year has seen the company position itself as a high-end brand. As a follow up, the company is now launching its Arctura collection which will hit the market in August-September.    

“While our existing Sportura and Permier collections are available in the Rs 6,700-55,000 range, the Acrtura would have a starting range of Rs 25,000, besides limited editions of above Rs 1.5 lakh,” Mazumder said.    

Springdrive, another international collection, would also hit India this year with a starting range of Rs 1.76 lakh.    

Currently Seiko outlets are multi-brand ones, the company plans to open its first Seiko Corner in Mumbai by August.   

“We have plans to set up eight flagship mono-brand outlets in the four metros, besides Bangalore and Hyderabad in three years,” he added.    

This year a few more cities would have Seiko outlets, including Gangtok, Guwahati, Nagpur, Bhopal and Dehradun.    

“The Indian luxury watch market has an estimated market turnover of Rs 350-400 crore a year and within five years we hope to emerge as the top brand with the maximum market share,” he said.

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Seiko enhances the Arctura collection with the addition of the new G.M.T. model.

The marriage of Kinetic with a G.M.T. function makes this watch ideal for travelers. The hour hand can be set without disturbing the accuracy of the kinetic movement.

The Arctura G.M.T. features a stainless steel case, sapphire glass and has a water resistance up to 10 bar.

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The sale will leave Sanyo, which has already withdrawn from the organic light-emitting diode business and makes no cathode ray tubes or plasma panels, with no display operations.

The firms did not provide financial details of the transaction.

Some analysts said the loss-making status of the venture makes it difficult to estimate the size of the transaction, but terms of the deal could be quite unfavourable to Sanyo.

“There is a chance that Sanyo may have paid Seiko Epson to take the stake,” said Tetsuya Wadaki, an analyst from Nomura Securities Co.

“This is not a positive for Seiko Epson unless they really reshuffle and restructure the joint venture, including job cuts. They have to improve their marketing tremendously,” he said.

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Marisa Diamond, a resident of a Southern California suburb, won $5000 in a random drawing held by Seiko Watch. Ms. Diamond purchased her Seiko watch at the Jewelry Exchange, in Tustin, California.

The sweepstakes grand prize had a choice of one of the following gifts:

1. Five thousand dollars, awarded as a check; or

2. A trip for two to Hawaii or a travel voucher in the value of $5000; or

3. A home theatre system, awarded as a gift card for $5000 at a major electronics retailer.

The contest winner elected to receive the check, which was presented to her at the Jewelry Exchange corporate headquarters, in Tustin, California.

The Jewelry Exchange carries a full line of Seiko watches, as well as many other major brands. The company also specializes in the sale of loose diamonds and is the nation’s largest private direct diamond importer.

Additionally, the Jewelry Exchange is a leading jewelry manufacturer, and offers factory-direct pricing to the public, which is up to 80% below regular retail prices. Although the Jewelry Exchange does not manufacturer the watches that they sell, in keeping with their factory-direct business model, they offer them at substantial discounts.

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