Debut of “Seiko Rondeau” at the Wako store in Ginza An adventure of gear wheels sure to delight children

Seiko Holdings Corporation (Chairman and Group CEO: Shinji Hattori, Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Japan; hereinafter referred to as “Seiko”) will place the marionette clock “Seiko Rondeau” made by Seiko Clock Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Seiko Clock”), on public display in the Wako main building (Ginza 4-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo) from December 18th.

Guided by marionettes, four gear wheels embark on an adventure. They dodge past a wave of hammers, scamper through a forest of pendulums, and when at last they reach the cuckoo-clock-like door, then the performance begins! The clock dial opens like a flower to proclaim the time.

The theme presented by Seiko Rondeau is “The gear wheels’ Adventure”.
The clock will be placed in the west side entrance lobby on the ground floor of the Wako main building, facing the Ginza 4-chome intersection. At the opening time of the Wako store (10:30 a.m.) and from approximately 1 minute before every hour (11 a.m. to 7 p.m.) the clock sounds a fanfare as a conductor marionette slowly rises up, and then a group of 7 marionettes all begin to operate various levers to guide the gear wheels on their journey.

The 4 gear wheels each in turn mount a rail and one by one they pass through a complex course of hammers, pendulums, and weights, reminiscent of the mechanisms of a traditional mechanical clock. The mechanism is designed so that the first gear wheel enters into the inside of the clock through the central cuckoo-clock-like door at the Wako store’s opening time of 10:30 a.m. and on every hour thereafter, and at the same time, the clock dial slowly opens to mark the time in an elegant display. Moreover, the decorative glass used for the weights section and the casing of the Seiko Rondeau is optical glass manufactured by Ohara Inc., which has an extremely low refraction index and high transparency.

As the number of visitors increases year by year and as Tokyo becomes the focus of ever more attention as a cosmopolitan city, to further increase the attractiveness of the Ginza district where the birthplace of Seiko and the base of Wako, and to further increase the appeal of the Seiko brand, it was decided to display Seiko Rondeau as an embodiment of the Seiko Group’s slogan—“Moving ahead. Touching hearts.”
The addition of this new attraction to the Wako main building, itself a familiar symbol of Tokyo and the Ginza district, will be a source of enjoyment for families with young children.

Since installing Japan’s first large-scale outdoor marionette clock, the Seiko Mullion Clock, in 1984, Seiko has played a major part in the history of large marionette clocks in Japan.
Also, since 1988 Seiko Clock has produced numerous marionette clocks for home use, and in 2005 Seiko Clock launched the Decor Seiko Perpetuity, which design is inspired by the world's first five-lever escapement clock (the ancient astronomical observation clock that could be considered the origin of mechanical clocks).

Title : Marionette clock Seiko Rondeau
Size: Height : 163.7 cm, width: 180 cm, depth: 75 cm
(All measurements include the stand.)
Driving mechanism: Radio-controlled quartz movement
Melody : Seiko corporate song “Moving ahead. Touching hearts.”