Thanks to the unique Kinetic and Spring Drive technologies and to our mastery of mechanical and solar watches, SEIKO is the world leader in energy-efficient watchmaking. By eliminating the need for battery change, watches with these technologies are more convenient to use and more friendly to the environment.

Furthermore, SEIKO was the first watchmaker to produce its own batteries for its quartz watches and then to make them mercury-free. And, at the SEIKO production facilities, environmental considerations have long been a priority, with CFC*-free manufacturing, lead-free soldering in all electronic components and an environmental audit according to ISO criteria. For all these reasons, SEIKO believes it leads the watch industry in environmental conservation and is determined to make further continuous progress towards a greener future.

A new website tells the story: Clean energy, clear thinking

A new website <www.seiko-cleanenergy.com>; opens. The site explains SEIKO’s green technologies and explains them in a way that will open some eyes towards the green dimension in watchmaking. Of course, watches are not major pollutants like cars or home appliances, but it is clear from the fast-growing sales of SEIKO’s ‘no battery change’ Solar and Kinetic watches that consumers are now taking the environment into account as they make watch choices, so the time is right to explain the facts, and this is exactly what www.seiko-cleanenergy.com seeks to do.

SEIKO and icaré 2

As part of SEIKO’s green watch initiative, SEIKO seeks to draw the world’s attention to the possibility that all kinds of products, including high precision quartz watches, can already be environmentally friendly and are produced with harmful wastes minimized.

The availability of ‘green’ technologies in new areas is vividly dramatized by the astounding achievements of ‘icaré 2’, a solar powered glider developed by Institut für Flugzeugbau at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. icaré 2 is one of the world’s most advanced gliders. Not only does it fly without the use of any fossil fuel, its self-generated solar power allows it to take off on its own, with no winch or other assistance.

SEIKO has sponsored icaré 2’s recent attempts at world record for solar-powered flights, and is proud to announce that four new world records have been set and are awaiting official ratification by the Federation. In its record-breaking flights, icaré 2 was flown by Klaus Ohlmann, a German glider pilot, who had already established several FAI* approved world records.

More flights are planned in 2011 and the team is confident that it can beat these records and set a new standard in environment-friendly flight.

With its 25-meter wings covered in solar panels, icaré 2 consumes no fossil fuel even when taking off.

www.seiko-cleanenergy.com

Over the coming months and years, SEIKO will develop this new website, adding information that will assist and inform the increasing number of watch buyers who require that there is a green dimension to every decision they make. With icaré 2, SEIKO leads the way towards a greener future.

Source: Seiko Watch Corporation

www.seikowatches.com