What is a Seiko Kinetic watch?

A Seiko Kinetic watch is not the same as a Seiko Automatic watch.

'Kinetic' is Seiko's name for a category of watches that differ from standard quartz watches in that they never need a battery change. That's because a Kinetic watch generates its own electrical power. It uses the simple motion of the wearer's arm to create electricity to run the watch.

A Seiko Kinetic watch has the same, extremely high accuracy as a standard quartz watch, accurate to within 15 seconds per month. Both use a paper-thin piece of synthetic quartz crystal as an oscillator in the watch movement.

Kinetic represents the newest, most technologically advanced energy generation and storage technology available for watches. It has three major advantages over standard quartz technology.

For most people, the greatest advantage is convenience. The biggest problem with standard quartz watches is that the battery runs down every few years and the watch stops. That's a nuisance because to get the watch running again you have to take it to a jeweller or watch repair centre and have the battery replaced. 

That never happens with a Kinetic watch. Worn regularly, a Kinetic watch will never stop; it continually generates and stores electricity. Consequently, it is virtually maintenance free. Since the battery never needs to be changed, there's little need to open the case. That eliminates problems that can occur when the case is opened, like dust or dirt getting into the mechanism or damage to the water-resistant seal when a battery is changed...

Finally, Kinetic is the only quartz watch technology that generates its own electric power. Solar watches, for example, which Seiko also manufactures, use an older technology, which relies on an external source - the sun or artificial light - to power the watch. Without an external light source, solar watches can't work. Kinetic watches rely only on their own inner, independent power source that works rain or shine.

Seiko Kinetic watches create electricity from simple arm movements through an engineering feat that many people consider the greatest advance in quartz watch technology since Seiko launched the world's first quartz in 1969.

What Seiko has done is, in effect, to install a miniature power plant in each Kinetic watch. The wearer's arm movement causes an oscillating weight to rotate. Gear trains transfer this movement to the rotor, whose spinning generates voltage across a coil block. That's electricity. The electrical current is stored in a tiny component called the ESU ('electrical storage unit') and is released when needed to power the watch.
Electricity stored in the ESU powers the watch even when it is not worn.

A Seiko Kinetic watch stores energy in a Kinetic Electricity Storage System that is unique to Seiko. Some Kinetic models have a power reserve indicator on the dial. To check how long the watch can operate on its current charge, wait until the second hand reaches the 12 o'clock position and push the button located at 2 o'clock on the watch case. The second hand moves along the scale and stops at the number of hours of power remaining. The second hand automatically resumes normal operation in 30 seconds or less.