Buy Seiko: Spring Drive

: The first prototype in 1982 ran for only four hours. A second attempt in 1993 achieved about 24 hours but was still commercially unviable.

In , a young engineer named Yoshikazu Akahane joined Seiko just as the "Quartz Crisis" was peaking. While Seiko had pioneered the quartz watch (the Seiko Astron) in 1969, Akahane dreamed of a "total watch"—one with the high accuracy of quartz but powered entirely by the wearer, with no battery. buy seiko spring drive

: In 1997 , a new low-power integrated circuit (the SOI-IC) finally allowed the watch to consume less power than it produced. : The first prototype in 1982 ran for only four hours

Making this "braking" system work without a battery was thought to be impossible. with no battery. : In 1997