In short, pointed and with the chances given by hindsight: The History of GrandSeiko.

• GrandSeiko started in 1960 with the refJ14070; basically just one watch which was oriented, influenced and inspired (some say "copied"?) from the back-then most relevant and highest-quality Japanese watch, the Citizen Super Deluxe (*klikk); now it is called GrandSeiko "First", the refJ14070 but when it was introduced it was just the GrandSeiko, as first makes just sense when there is a second or a series and I have serious doubts this was planned in 1960; instead there were several of such aristocratic labels and model-names, all created by the two competing arms (Suwa & Daini) of the Seiko Corp.: Lord, King, Cronos, Crown, Marvel & the Grand Seiko;
• in 1964 with the second Grand Seiko (ref43999) it was established as a quality-label: SEIKO-logo (!) and below the stamp GrandSeiko / GS -- something that went on, until it didnt: until GrandSeiko was switched-off in the mid '70s;
• GrandSeiko was intended to reach and compete and eventually exceed the best mechanical watches in the world back then, the Swiss (see here: "Grand Seiko was born with the determination to create watches of high precision and quality that could compete on the world stage."); and that goal (to compete at par) was reached in 1968 / 1969;
• even more: the GS Very Fine Adjusted (V.F.A.) exceeded mechanical Swiss watches in accuracy with a deviation of just 5 seconds per day or 1 minute per month (-2 to +2s, *klikk) and -- most important -- Seiko understood that they reached the end-point and excellence in mechanical watchmaking with this; that is why there was never a mechanical Superior Seiko or any other GrandSeiko-topping label for mechanical watches from Seiko;
• and there are good reasons to assume Seiko was correct: Rolex uses the Superlative Chronometer-standard (also a var of 5spd aka 1 minute per month) since 2015 as well; and the Omega Master Certification translates to the same accuracy, today; so, we are where we had been before in mechanical watchmaking during the last five decades (again here: *klikk) and with this understanding Seiko closed the GS-book in 1974 and focused on the electronic / quartz watches, exclusively;
• notabene: there were "Grand"-marked quartz-watches as well -- Seiko GrandQuartz -- but they were topped by the "Superior"-line;
• in the mid 1970s Seikos understanding was obviously that electronic watches will be THE (!) way to go into the future; and although their assumption that peak-mech was reached, seems correct, the former assumption (quartz-only) was wrong as the Swiss proved: it was not THE way to go into the future, it was ONE (!) way to go into the future -- the other was mechanical and it was Seiko itself that developed a third, a kybernetik way in between both realms with its Spring Drive;
• to make a mistake is not a problem, if you correct it; and so Seiko did an adjustment to their view: just in 1988 they re-introduced the GrandSeiko highest-quality badge, proving that the Seiko bearing it, was done to the highest standards and they did so for the electronic (quartz, cal9581 & cal9587) in 1988 and ten years later (1998) for mechanical watches as well with the cal9S; the hybrid SpringDrive arrived just a year later but was not a GS until 2004 -- keep that in mind, we will come back to that strategy of Seiko later;
• we see here what it was before: a highest-quality Seiko (now either mechanical or electronic) became a GrandSeiko, marked with the GS-symbol next to the SEIKO-application;
• that changed in 2017, when Seiko announced the split and formation of a standalone brand GrandSeiko -- so what started as a single watch, and then was a quality-stamp most of the time is now a full standalone brand offering not only mechanical but also electronic and even watches in between;
• And why? Because the wide variety of models, price- & quality-levels in the Seiko Corp required such a stamp (and now brand) to allow the easy recognition of a more expensive and higher quality product, to not mistake it for something cheap and mid-level;

There is a lot more to see in the details and in the history of the Seiko Corp and we will open that in the next publications.

Our Seikos et. al. here: *klikk.