From cameras to cars, the West has often looked to the Land of the Rising Sun for innovation. And Japan’s mammoth watchmaking industry is no exception. Heck, even the Japanese whisky industry is currently trumping the Scots at their own game.

While Swiss watchmaking has built its name on heritage, skills honed over generations and jaw-dropping aesthetics above all else, Japanese watch brands focus on life-enhancing technology and function more than lavish design.

The country has given us the likes of the mighty G-Shock, with its suite of sophisticated features and indestructible cases, and more recently Japanese brand Citizen brought satellite technology to the table. No more checking your smartphone when your plane lands and fiddling with your watch to set the time – just press a single button and it does it all for you.

And let’s not forget the introduction of quartz watches. One of watchmaking’s biggest economic upheavals, quartz took hold in the 1970s and 1980s, and the rapidly growing global demand for cheap, mass-produced Japanese quartz watches nearly rendered Swiss mechanical watches redundant.

Since almost going the way of the dinosaurs, the horological old guard has wised up, recognizing their Eastern counterparts’ relentless innovation. Seiko and its Japanese brethren now rub shoulders with top Swiss watch names each year at the Baselworld watch fair, and as far back as 2009, the mighty TAG Heuer was even forced to admit it had based one of its movements – the Calibre 1887 – on a Seiko one, albeit in heavily modified form.

The Swiss may lay claim to classical watchmaking but Japan has long been the industry’s other superpower. Here, we take a look at four key Japanese watch brands, and the timepieces that put them on the map.

Seiko

Founded: Tokyo, 1881

Price range: £80-£40,000+

Known for: Made the first quartz watch; incredible value mechanicals; Swiss-beating Grand Seiko sub-brand

The original Japanese watch brand, Seiko started life as a jewelry shop in Tokyo’s Ginza district in 1881. The name Seikosha, though – roughly “house of exquisite workmanship” in Japanese – came 11 years later before eventually being abbreviated to Seiko in 1924.