Much like Heuer, Seiko produced deozens of different stopwatches for a range of purposes - rancing, biking, and laps - like this 1990 Seiko S031-4000 stopwatch here, with its original Seiko-signed case.
 
Seiko's stopwatches are legendary, in particular due to legendary events in 1964, which marked the emergence onto the world stage of a post-war Japan, most readily apparent in Tokyo hosting the Summer Olympics that same year.  Dark horse Seiko – despite having no prior experience in sports timing (much to Heuer’s chagrin, we're sure) – was named the official timekeeper, and began research and development in preparation for the games in 1961.

Even though head of Seiko's Watch Design Section Saburou Inoue noted his severe reluctance that Seiko could devise suitable timepieces in time for the 1964 Summer Games - only a few years away - legendary Seiko President Shoji Hattori would not be dissuaded.
 
Hattori may have been on to something, at least with the benefit of hindsight.  Seiko’s lack of experience also meant it lacked preconceived notions on how timekeeping should be conducted.  At the time, it was assumed to be human error when multiple stopwatches – used simultaneously – resulted in different times.
 
Under the hypothesis it may instead be the stopwatch itself resulting in different times, Seiko (under the watchful eye of Inoue) devised a machine to mechanically operate multiple stopwatches to be started and halted at the exact same time, which proved the hypothesis – different times resulted when the human element was eliminated.
 
After further research, Seiko devised solutions to the issue by upgrading certain parts of the stopwatch, resulting in a considerable improvement in accuracy – and importantly, reliable readings.  The Olympic Technical Committee head noted, upon the selection of Seiko as the official Olympic timekeeper, "We are not assigning official timekeeping to a Japanese manufacturer because the Olympics will be held in Tokyo, but because these are actual functional [timepieces], backed up by solid theory."
 
Now chosen as the official timekeeper of the games - the first to be held in Asia - and with a mere 17 months until the 1964 Summer Games, Seiko set to work.  Multiple teams at Seiko worked overtime to develop timekeepers for the games, with attention paid to the specialties within Seiko vis-à-vis each event to be timed – to include swimming, crew, cycling, equestrian, and even canoeing, among others.
 
Seiko was continuing to prepare itself to challenge Swiss dominance of the watch industry, via its massive investment in innovation and technology during the 1960’s and a strategic internal policy of encouragement and support of experimentation within.
 
For the 1964 Olympics, it paid dividends – Seiko, in full view of the world, had beat out Swiss manufactures for the honor of the official timekeeper and demonstrated what had been previously the exclusive right of Swiss watchmaking.  Seiko had provided the timekeeping instruments (watches, stopwatches – both large and handheld, and to include quartz chronometers) to keep, record, and display time at exceptionally high levels of accuracy.
 
Seiko would go on to be the official Olympic timekeeper in the 1972 Winter Games in Sapporo; 1992 Games in Barcelona; 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer; 1998 Games in Nagano; and 2002 Games in Salt Lake City, as well as a slew of prestigious international games between 1966 and 2013. 
 
And Seiko's innovative stopwatches paved the way.