Seiko Instruments, the principle company in the Seiko Holdings Group, was founded in 1937 to manufacture watches, an extension of a family watch assembly and repair operation started in 1881. During the past seventy five years the company has evolved into an engineering and manufacturing giant that has brought precision time-keeping into the electronic age. The majority of the company's business comes from the commercialization of proprietary technologies the company originally pioneered for watch manufacturing. The diversification plan began in the late 1960's. Core competency in electronics was quickly added to those of miniaturization and precision engineering and manufacturing. And the company began to apply its expertise to the development of products in four core areas: Electronic components, consumer/business products, color graphic computer peripherals and factory automation systems.