Seiko Holdings Corporation, commonly known as Seiko, is a Japanese holding company that has subsidiaries which manufactures and sells watches, clocks, electronic devices, semiconductors, jewelries, and optical products.

The company was founded in 1881, when Kintarō Hattori opened a watch and jewelry shop called "K. Hattori" (Hattori Tokeiten) in the Ginza area of Tokyo, Japan. 11 years later in 1892, he began to produce clocks under the name Seikosha (Seikōsha).

In 1969, Seiko introduced the Astron, the world's first production quartz watch.

The Astron wristwatch, formally known as the Seiko Quartz-Astron 35SQ, was the world's first "quartz clock" wristwatch. It is now registered on the List of IEEE Milestones as a key advance in electrical engineering.

The Astron was unveiled in Tokyo on December 25, 1969, after ten years of research and development at Suwa Seikosha (currently named Seiko Epson), a manufacturing company of Seiko Group. 

Within one week 100 gold watches had been sold, at a retail price of 450,000 yen (US$1,250) each (at the time, equivalent to the price of a medium-sized car). Essential elements included a Y-type quartz oscillator of 8192 cps, a hybrid integrated circuit, and a phase locked ultra-small stepping motor to turn its hands. According to Seiko, Astron was accurate to ±5 seconds per month or one minute per year, and its battery life was 1 year or longer.

According to en.wikipedia