Seiko: About the project
Bubbles has worked with the watch manufacturer Seiko for numerous projects, putting our language translation services to good use.
We were first contacted in 2009 to translate press releases and product launch information for high profile trade shows such as Baselworld in Switzerland, the world’s largest annual trade show for watch manufacturers.
The Bubbles team have also helped Seiko translate technical user guides for high-end multi-function watches, along with press releases, digital and print advertisements and internal sales product launch information.
Proving ourselves
Our translations span both European and non-European languages but we always make sure the same teams of translators work on Seiko’s requirements – prioritising quality of translation, alongside continuity, consistency of style and specialist preferred terminology.
This ensures the quality of the final product meets the high expectations of Seiko’s reviewers in the respective countries, so the local teams don’t need to spend as much time reviewing the translations, giving them more time for their other responsibilities.
When dealing with Seiko’s head office in Japan, we ensure the Bubbles project management team and our translators are available during Japanese office hours to liaise with and respond to questions. Going that extra mile makes sure Seiko Japan can communicate with us at their convenience and keep the translated material on-point.
A new challenge
After several years of demonstrating our proficiency for translating regular trade show material, Seiko’s head office in Japan invited Bubbles to bid for a new project: translating technical user guides into multiple worldwide languages. We successfully proved our credentials, skills and professionalism, and have been busy translating further user guides ever since.
The guides are designed for Seiko’s high-end, multifunction watches. They often include GPS, multi time zone displays, automatic time setting, solar charging and a whole range of other intricate features.
Needless to say conveying all this information to consumers results in some extremely complex user guides, consisting of up to 100 pages in each language.
The Bubbles approach
Before working with Bubbles, Seiko’s previous approach to translation involved annotating the relevant changes on the English version of an old guide in order to ‘update’ it in line with the new model. This was a time-consuming process, involving four distinct review stages and taking up to three months to complete. Even after all this, the end result was often inconsistent and difficult to follow.
Bubbles pioneered a new electronic method, which uses ‘translation memory’ to analyse new English user guides and determine which parts were new, amended or deleted. This means that old information doesn’t have to be retranslated, which significantly optimises the old process.
This new system delivers numerous advantages to Seiko:
- Reduces costs, since only the parts of the user guide that change from one model to the next need to be translated.
- Faster turnaround.
- Ensures quality, since the terminology and style remain consistent in each language.
- Further reduces time for the Seiko reviewers to review the translations.
A lasting client relationship
This system has also simplified the process by which the translated user guides are typeset. The translation and typesetting procedure we employ for the user guides means that Seiko has complete trust that each project will be managed with the utmost efficiency and to the highest quality.
Our client is free to provide Bubbles with the source material, safe in the knowledge that their dedicated project manager with us will ensure the task is completed on time, to the excellent standard of quality they expect, and with minimal involvement from the Seiko team.
