It's an incredibly rare privilege for a watchmaker to have its name associated with a piece of watchmaking history. Breguet got it with the tourbillon, Rolex with the Oyster case and Perpetual automatic movement, while Omega more recently achieved this with its popularisation of George Daniel's co-axial escapement. Grand Seiko, meanwhile, has the Spring Drive. Introduced in 2004 after a development process of 28 years, the Spring Drive combined the best of both worlds. While it has the precision of an electronic regulator, the movement is powered by a conventional mechanical winding system that needed no battery. The result was a watch with a second hand that glided, rather than ticked.