Seiko x Japan House London
Celebrating watchmaking and timekeeping innovation from Japan
Japan House London has worked with Seiko to highlight Japanese forward-looking design – in particular through Seiko’s historic role as official timekeeper of the Tokyo 1964 Olympics, and through the futuristic ‘Power Design’ Projects.
Objectives
For Seiko:
- Highlight Seiko’s culture of innovation
- Emphasise the Japanese heritage of the brand
- Reach audiences with an interest in Japan more widely
For Japan House:
- Highlight Seiko’s developments as official timekeeper of the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games in Japan House London’s Tokyo 1964: Designing Tomorrow exhibition
- Demonstrate the creativity of Japanese design via the ‘Power Design Project’ display
- Achieve the organizational goal of presenting the very best of Japanese art, design, innovation and technology to UK audiences and beyond
How we worked together
Tokyo 1964: Designing Tomorrow (5 August 2021 – 7 November 2021)
Japan House London’s Tokyo 1964: Designing Tomorrow exhibition (5 August – 7 November 2021) explored the pivotal point in history of the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games for Japanese design and innovation. A key part of this story was the groundbreaking time and distance-measuring technology introduced by Seiko as official timekeeper, presenting an exciting opportunity to collaborate with Seiko UK Ltd, Japan House London’s Corporate Member.
Seiko Holdings Corporation and The Seiko Museum Ginza lent a selection of images and four precision instruments used in the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games. These exhibits helped tell the story of how Seiko became the first non-Swiss official Olympic Games timekeeper, resetting the standard for the future of timed sports via new technology including the world’s first digital quartz stop-clock, accurate to 1/100 second.
A gallery of 4 items.
Inspired by the Tokyo 1964 exhibition, Seiko Holdings Corporation created the short film ‘1964 Sports Timers,’ to which Japan House London contributed English subtitling for an even wider audience. ‘1964 Sports Timers’ was screened at both Japan House London and The Seiko Museum Ginza.
From 3 August to 7 November, the exhibits from Seiko were displayed within the Tokyo 1964 exhibition in the Lower Ground Floor Gallery. The timekeeping film was shown within Japan House London on the Ground Floor and the Lower Ground Floor Hall.
A gallery of 1 item.
‘Incredibly specialized watches from Seiko’ Power Design Project (2024 – 2025)
Over its 140-year history, Seiko has introduced specialized watch designs including dedicated divers’ watches, stopwatches for sporting events, and railroad watches. Seiko’s ‘Power Design Project’ challenged the brand’s in-house watch designers to explore the essence of watchmaking, creating differentiated concepts from their regular work.
Building on a successful collaboration on the Tokyo 1964 exhibition, the Partnerships Team agreed to present the Seiko Power Design Project at Japan House London, highlighting the brand’s design innovation. The display was a wonderful way to share fun, creative and interesting design elements from Seiko’s Japanese watchmakers and coincided with Japan House London’s Design Discoveries exhibition, adding another layer of design-related activities for visitors to explore.
For the 2024 Power Design Project, seven designers created timepieces around the theme of ‘incredibly specialized watches,’ including a watch for ‘Panda Lovers’ and a watch to help cook sukiyaki. The display was highly successful and an additional opportunity followed in 2025 to show the latest edition of the project which included a watch for ninja and a watch to help cook the perfect boiled egg. Japan House London’s Retail Team also worked together with Seiko to curate a capsule collection of watches for sale in the jewellery area of the Shop.
A gallery of 2 items.
Key outcomes – Tokyo 1964
Increased brand awareness: 28,000+ Tokyo 1964 exhibition visitors learned about Seiko’s heritage, their contribution to the Tokyo 1964 Olympic Games and the legacy of sports timekeeping
PR Coverage to a wide audience: Mentions of Seiko exhibits in a number of the 50+ pieces of media coverage on the Tokyo 1964 exhibition; two high profile pieces in the New York Times and The Guardian/Observer
Visitor comments about Tokyo 1964:
‘struck by the significant leap from analogue timekeeping technology to crystal quartz chronometry.’
‘to see a part of the ‘origins’ of the modern Seiko in our exhibition today was a wonderful surprise.’
‘the part that stood out most was the Seiko timepieces, he has a Seiko clock himself so he thought it was interesting to see them used for the first time in the Olympics.’
We were delighted by the interest in the [Tokyo 1964] exhibition and more than justified the various efforts to get the exhibits over. I particularly enjoyed reading the visitor comments and SEIKO’s part in the technological developments driven by the ’64 Games. Thank-you again Team JH London.
David Edwards, Managing Director, Seiko UK Ltd.
Key outcomes – Power Design Project
Increased brand awareness: 80,000+ visitors to Japan House London including His Majesty The Emperor of Japan
Brand creativity & innovation communication: a wonderful opportunity to share the creativity, innovation and technology of Seiko watches and makers from Japan, directly supporting Japan House London’s organizational aim
Increased new customer footfall: Visitors to the London Seiko boutique as a result of the display
It is always a pleasure to work with Seiko UK and this is a wonderful example of how working in partnership can create new opportunities to highlight Japanese design and innovation within Japan House London. These designs are fun and thoughtful and will no doubt inspire our visitors! We are very grateful for Seiko UK’s support of Japan House London as a Corporate Member since 2018.
MaryAnn Broughton, Head of Partnerships, Japan House London
About SEIKO
The Japanese-based company now known as Seiko Watch Corporation (SWC) has grown and diversified over the years but remains best known for its world-leading brands and in-house manufacturing, responsible for many ‘firsts’ in the watch industry.
Now a household name in watchmaking and timekeeping, Seiko was founded by Hattori Kintarō in 1881 as a Tokyo watch and clock repair store.
SWC is the only manufacturer with every watchmaking capability including Quartz, Kinetic, Mechanical, Spring Drive, Solar and GPS Solar, resulting in the creation of some of the world’s most innovative and desirable timepieces across a wide range of price-points.
Seiko Timing Services (STS) is recognised as a global leader in sports timing technology and, since 1985, a long established timekeeping partner to the World Athletics (formerly IAAF) which will continue until 2029.
Supported by 1 supporter.
Corporate Membership at Japan House London
Since opening in 2018, Japan House London has worked with a diverse community of corporate partners, all united in their commitment to enabling Japan House London to present the very best of Japan.
- Find out more: Read more