Learning About Time Shapes Children’s Future: Mari Christine × Seiko Time & Timepieces School in Thailand

With the desire to bring children both universal learning about time and exciting experiences, Seiko continues to conduct the Seiko Time & Timepieces School in Japan and abroad.

In December 2025, the Seiko Time & Timepieces School was held for the first time at Ban Maelankam School in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Supporting this initiative is cross-cultural communicator Mari Christine, who has long worked in educational support with a global perspective.

Since establishing the NGO Asian Women and Children’s Network (AWC) in 1996, Mari has continuously provided learning opportunities, primarily for Thai hill tribe children and Myanmar refugees who have limited access to education.

This workshop was possible through collaboration between AWC, whose mission is “to create a society where Asian women and children can choose their own lives and live with dignity,” and Seiko’s vision of “empowering children to envision their future.” Here, we share how the Seiko Time & Timepieces School reached children in Thailand.

Spreading Knowledge About Time at Ban Maelankam School

The workshop took place at Ban Maelankam School, located in a mountainous region about a two-hour drive from Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. This was the first school building built in 1998 by AWC, which established the facility in response to local mothers’ requests for educational opportunities. Most of the children attending the school have roots in the Karen hill tribe, an ethnic minority in Thailand.

The Seiko Time & Timepieces School took place over two days at Ban Maelankam School, which currently has about 120 students from kindergarten through middle school. The first day was for 3rd to 6th graders, and the second day for 7th to 9th graders.

When the Seiko team arrived at the school on the first day, children in traditional costumes performed songs and dances at a ceremony to welcome the visitors with cheer.

The Seiko Time & Timepieces School: Learning by Seeing, Touching, and Creating

The Seiko Time & Timepieces School balances a foundation in Seiko’s experience in Japan with deep respect for local cultures and careful attention to children’s needs overseas. So far, more than 10,000 children have participated in these workshops.

The session begins by exploring the history of timekeeping, with attendees learning through video presentations how technologies for accurately measuring time were invented and how they have evolved over time.

Afterward, the children had time to observe the internal structures of Seiko mechanical watches using magnifying glasses.

For the children, handling mechanical watches was a rare opportunity—“This is my first time seeing a watch this close!” they said, their eyes lighting up.

Next came the Craftsman Experience, where they used tweezers to pick up tiny screws and insert them into 0.9mm-diameter holes. Students could be heard saying “This is hard!” throughout the classroom.

Then came the eagerly awaited sundial-making activity. With support from the Seiko team, the children assembled their sundials and added their own designs in colored pencil—each one-of-a-kind creation.

At the end of the class, everyone went outside to check how their sundials would tell time by positioning them in the sunlight and observing the shadow movement. When the children realized their sundials successfully showed the correct time, their faces lit up with smiles, and excited voices could be heard saying, “It shows the same time as the clock!”

Asked for their impressions after the workshop, the students shared comments like “I never knew measuring time had such a long history” and “I was so excited to make my own sundial.”

From the middle school workshop on the second day, more reflective thoughts emerged, such as “Time always keeps moving forward. That’s why I want to live my life valuing each moment.”

Watching over the two-day workshop was Phakamon Tantibanlue, a Ban Maelankam School graduate who now works there as a teacher. We asked for her perspective as an educator on the watch workshop.

“Our regular classes mainly rely on textbooks and videos, and since the children live in a mountainous area, they rarely have chances to handle real objects and mechanisms. So today’s experience of learning about ‘time’ while handling real watches was invaluable and stimulating for them. Seeing the children’s animated expressions today made me happy as well.”

Learning About Time Shapes Children’s Futures

Mari Christine has long been involved in supporting women’s empowerment and education around the world, including her work as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat). After observing the workshop, she shared her thoughts about this initiative.

“In addition to the educational perspective, I thought the timepiece explanations were excellently prepared. The Seiko instructors demonstrated remarkable skill, especially in how they engaged the children, which is why everyone quickly became absorbed in making their sundials.”

Mari says she has noticed something about the children at Ban Maelankam School since she first began visiting the school—that the people in this region have a different sense of time and values compared to other ethnic groups.

“Many people from minority groups go to cities for work and never return to their hometowns. In contrast, the Karen people still maintain a culture of bringing back what they’ve gained outside to their own community. This means that what they learn and experience outside doesn’t just benefit their individual success but also feeds back into their community’s future.”

She explains that the lifestyle of the Karen people, who practice agriculture and forestry and still live in harmony with nature, reflects a sense of time that Japanese people once possessed.
“They wake up when the sun rises and return home when it sets. Their sense of time, which is shaped more by Earth’s movements than by clocks and watches, may be similar to the sense that Japanese people had in the past.”

Mari says that experiencing the Karen people’s sense of time within natural rhythms has led her to reconsider how we relate to time.

The experience also made her reflect on the significance of corporate involvement in educational support.

“It’s very important for companies to engage in educational support. As communities and society improve, that value eventually circles back to benefit the companies as well. And for employees, feeling that their work is connected to society fosters pride.”

When asked what kind of future she hopes the children might pursue through the workshop’s theme of learning about time, Mari calmly responded:

“I want these children to live believing that their lives will be better tomorrow than today and better the day after tomorrow than tomorrow. Education is a powerful force for this, and receiving education means developing the ability to discern right from wrong and nurturing a sense of self-worth.

Many children probably had the opportunity to think about time for the first time today, but being on time helps people earn trust in society in the future and may expand their options for careers and lifestyles. That’s why I hope they’ll gradually apply today’s learning in their daily lives.”

Through This Activity

The Seiko Time & Timepieces School at Ban Maelankam School was not only a class that taught the history of time and how it works but also a learning experience that encouraged children to reflect on their own lives and futures.

Learning about time means discovering the breadth of the world and considering one’s own path. Each step shapes these children’s futures —and these two days left us with a sense of hope.

Writer: Mai Yoshino (Huuuu Inc.)
Photographer: Shiori Banjo
Editor: Huuuu Inc.