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Silver Reed
Silver Seiko Ltd., trading internationally as Silver Reed, was a Japanese company founded in 1952, widely known for its knitting machines and typewriters. The company, last formally headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo until its 2011 demise, is unrelated to the Seiko Group (timepiece technology).
In response to a demand for affordable domestic textile equipment following the second world war in Japan, the company was initially formed as Marukoshi Knitting Machines Ltd in 1952. It changed its name to Silver Knitting Machine Manufacturing, Ltd in 1955 when it started to sell knitting machines to the Western market. In 1966, the company became more widely known as Silver Seiko Ltd , selling its products under the Silver Reed brand name.
When they changed their is name in 1966, The company began manufacturing a line of personal manual typewriters , working with the leading industrial design firm, GK-Design Group and entering competition with Japan's two other major typewriter manufacturers, Brother and Nakajima.
With the advent of the digital revolution, the market for the company's core products shrank markedly. Sales peaked at approximately 35.7 billion yen ($1.3B, 2023) in the fiscal year ending March 1985, and declined annually until Silver Seiko declared bankruptcy in 2011 — with approximately 300 employees and 58 independent contractors (as of March 31, 2010). Silver Seiko was ultimately taken over by Lead Technos Co., Ltd. and Kashiwazaki US Tech Co., Ltd., newly established through a company split in 2011.[citation needed]
Silver Reed knitting machines have been sold under the brand name KnitMaster Empisal and Silver Reed in the United Kingdom, as KnitMaster and Singer in Australia, as Studio and Singer in Canada, and as Singer in the United States.
The company manufactured its personal manual ultra-portable and desktop typewriters, marketing them three ways: under their own Silver Reed label; marketing them as re-branded products for other typewriter companies (e.g., for Litton Industries' Royal brand); and marketing rebranded variants under the private labels of countless mass market retailers.
Silver Seiko typewriters were initially manual models and subsequently electric, electronic and daisy wheel variants. In the late 1970s, the company developed the 235-C (1979) and 255-C (1981). These were direct competitors to the IBM Selectric, an office typewriter that had at the time captured nearly 75% of an $850M market ($3.5B, 2023). The Silver Seiko model used a 'golf ball' head and ribbon interchangeable with the Selectric, but used microprocessors rather than the Selectric's difficult-to-service tilt and rotate tapes. Along with its two 'golf ball' models, the company entered the electronic printer and typewriter market with its EX- series of daisy wheel office (EX-50, 55, 66, 77, 78) and compact (EX-42, 43N, 44) electronic typewriters (1982–1984) — advertising widely, notably with the celebrity endorsement of Martina Navratilova, Sidney Sheldon and Jimmy Breslin
In the 1960s and 1970s, Silver Seiko, along with Japanese companies Brother Industries and Nakajima, were frequent targets of antidumping campaigns in the United States and Europe — for their low-priced manual typewriters. The flood of inexpensive Japanese typewriters inspired Italian manufacturer, Olivetti to design what was intended as a direct competitor, its plastic-bodied Olivetti Valentine.
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Silver Reed
Silver Seiko Ltd., trading internationally as Silver Reed, was a Japanese company founded in 1952, widely known for its knitting machines and typewriters. The company, last formally headquartered in Shinjuku, Tokyo until its 2011 demise, is unrelated to the Seiko Group (timepiece technology).
In response to a demand for affordable domestic textile equipment following the second world war in Japan, the company was initially formed as Marukoshi Knitting Machines Ltd in 1952. It changed its name to Silver Knitting Machine Manufacturing, Ltd in 1955 when it started to sell knitting machines to the Western market. In 1966, the company became more widely known as Silver Seiko Ltd , selling its products under the Silver Reed brand name.
When they changed their is name in 1966, The company began manufacturing a line of personal manual typewriters , working with the leading industrial design firm, GK-Design Group and entering competition with Japan's two other major typewriter manufacturers, Brother and Nakajima.
With the advent of the digital revolution, the market for the company's core products shrank markedly. Sales peaked at approximately 35.7 billion yen ($1.3B, 2023) in the fiscal year ending March 1985, and declined annually until Silver Seiko declared bankruptcy in 2011 — with approximately 300 employees and 58 independent contractors (as of March 31, 2010). Silver Seiko was ultimately taken over by Lead Technos Co., Ltd. and Kashiwazaki US Tech Co., Ltd., newly established through a company split in 2011.[citation needed]
Silver Reed knitting machines have been sold under the brand name KnitMaster Empisal and Silver Reed in the United Kingdom, as KnitMaster and Singer in Australia, as Studio and Singer in Canada, and as Singer in the United States.
The company manufactured its personal manual ultra-portable and desktop typewriters, marketing them three ways: under their own Silver Reed label; marketing them as re-branded products for other typewriter companies (e.g., for Litton Industries' Royal brand); and marketing rebranded variants under the private labels of countless mass market retailers.
Silver Seiko typewriters were initially manual models and subsequently electric, electronic and daisy wheel variants. In the late 1970s, the company developed the 235-C (1979) and 255-C (1981). These were direct competitors to the IBM Selectric, an office typewriter that had at the time captured nearly 75% of an $850M market ($3.5B, 2023). The Silver Seiko model used a 'golf ball' head and ribbon interchangeable with the Selectric, but used microprocessors rather than the Selectric's difficult-to-service tilt and rotate tapes. Along with its two 'golf ball' models, the company entered the electronic printer and typewriter market with its EX- series of daisy wheel office (EX-50, 55, 66, 77, 78) and compact (EX-42, 43N, 44) electronic typewriters (1982–1984) — advertising widely, notably with the celebrity endorsement of Martina Navratilova, Sidney Sheldon and Jimmy Breslin
In the 1960s and 1970s, Silver Seiko, along with Japanese companies Brother Industries and Nakajima, were frequent targets of antidumping campaigns in the United States and Europe — for their low-priced manual typewriters. The flood of inexpensive Japanese typewriters inspired Italian manufacturer, Olivetti to design what was intended as a direct competitor, its plastic-bodied Olivetti Valentine.
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