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Seiko's watch division nearly doubled its quarterly profit, and prices aren't coming down

Seiko's watch segment nearly doubled its operating profit in the June quarter, the group lifted both its forecast and its dividend, and a weak yen only accounts for a slice of it.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 2 min read · 11 August 2026

Seiko's watch segment took 63 billion yen in the three months to 30 June, up from 47 billion in the same quarter last year. That is watches on their own, and it is now 64 per cent of everything Seiko Group does. A lot of the company is riding on the thing you wear.

The numbers come from Seiko Group Corporation's own filing on 7 August and the slide deck that followed on 10 August. Both are in English and both are free to download, so there is no reading of tea leaves involved.

Profit ran at twice the pace of sales

Net sales for the quarter came in at 99.1 billion yen, up 28.5 per cent. Operating profit was 15.4 billion, up 88.8 per cent. Ordinary profit was 16.5 billion, up 94.3 per cent. Profit attributable to owners of the parent was 11.2 billion, up 76.3 per cent.

When profit moves at twice the speed of sales, margin is doing the lifting, and the margin lines say exactly that. Gross margin went from 46.3 to 48.2 per cent. Operating margin went from 10.6 to 15.6. Seiko sold more and kept more of each sale.

The yen is a passenger, not the driver

Seiko puts the currency effect at roughly 3.8 billion yen of the 22 billion rise in sales, and roughly 1.3 billion of the 7.3 billion rise in operating profit. The dollar averaged 159.6 yen across the quarter against 144.6 a year earlier, a 10.4 per cent move. Take the currency out and most of the growth is still sitting there.

Seiko credits the watch business and its device solutions arm, and the segment table backs it up. Watch operating profit went from 7.5 billion yen to 13.3 billion.

The tariff refund barely registers

One slide flags an expected US tariff refund of about 2.2 billion yen across the full year, of which roughly 0.5 billion landed in this quarter. Handy money, and nowhere near enough to account for a 7.3 billion yen improvement in operating profit.

375 billion yen, and 105 yen a share

Seiko raised its full-year forecast to 31 March 2027 to 375 billion yen of net sales, 17 billion above where it sat, and 41 billion yen of operating profit, up 7.5 billion. The annual dividend forecast went up by 15 yen to 105 yen a share, split evenly between the interim and year-end payments.

Nobody lifts a dividend forecast one quarter into the year unless they are fairly relaxed about the other three.

What it means for the price of your next Seiko

Seiko has been putting prices up for years and enthusiasts have been loud about it the whole way. A gross margin climbing from 46.3 to 48.2 per cent while sales rose 28.5 per cent says those complaints have cost the company nothing at all.

So do not sit on your hands waiting for the correction. Nothing in this filing gives Seiko a reason to change course, and the next price list will almost certainly read like the last few.