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PS-1400 Electronic Start Sound Generator

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The PS-1400 is an electronic starting device for competitive swimming made by Seiko Time Creation Inc. of Tokyo. It generates the start tone and an alarm tone electronically and sends a start signal to the printing timer, so that the tone the athletes hear and the pulse that starts the race clock come from the same trigger rather than from a microphone picking up a gunshot.12 Unlike the company’s portable Electronic Starting System, it is sold as swimming equipment and is certified for the sport: Seiko states that it conforms to World Aquatics rules and is certified Class AA and Class A by the Japan Swimming Federation.31 This article is a starting point; the start-systems overview covers the shared background that applies to every starter.

Naming and product line

The product’s name differs between Seiko’s Japanese and English material, and the model number is the only stable identifier. In Japanese it is 電子式スタート音発生装置, “electronic start sound generator”, the name used on the Japanese product page and throughout the company’s swimming catalogue. On Seiko’s English swimming pages the same PS-1400 is labelled an “Electronic Starting System”, which is also the English name the company gives its unrelated portable PS-110J.124

The PS-1300 is the discontinued predecessor, replaced by this unit between February and May 2026. It shared the main unit’s DC 12 V 17 Ah sealed lead-acid battery, its 264 by 203 by 390 mm case and its approximate 14.5 kg weight, and the same aluminium pistol; before it came the much larger PS-1200.56 Two further starting products appear in the PS-110J manual, which lists the equipment that unit is not compatible with: a PS-1300B electronic start sound generator, whose pistol is the strobe-equipped PF-125J, and a PS-200B start signal generator, whose pistol is the PS-210S.7

Seiko markets the starter as one part of a certified system rather than as a stand-alone unit. The catalogue applies the same pair of compliance lines, World Aquatics rules and Japan Swimming Federation Class AA and Class A, to the starting block, the backstroke ledge, the lane box, the AQUA-type touch plate and the PT-9000 printing timer.3

Design and hardware

The main unit sits on the deck rather than being carried by hand. It measures 264 W × 203 H × 390 D mm excluding protrusions, weighs about 14.5 kg, and runs from a small sealed lead-acid battery of DC 12 V and 17 Ah. The catalogue notes that a splash-proof cover is supplied, a difference from the portable PS-110J, whose manual states that neither its pistol nor its speaker box is drip-proof.37

The starter holds a pistol and a separate starter box. The pistol is aluminium, 210 W × 40 H × 145 D mm, and weighs about 0.4 kg without its batteries and cord, running on two AA cells; those figures match the ones Seiko gives for the PS-78 pistol supplied with the portable system, which it specifies more precisely at 410 g, though the company does not give the PS-1400 pistol a part number of its own.4 Seiko places the strobe on top of the pistol, which it describes as an easily viewable position.23 The starter box measures 183 W × 62 H × 150 D mm and weighs about 1.3 kg.2 Catalogue photographs show the pistol supplied with a headset microphone on a coiled cable, so the starter’s commands and the start tone are given through the same equipment.3

Operation

Pulling the trigger generates the start sound and sends the start signal. Seiko states that the start signal reaches the printing timer at the same time as the sound is produced, and that two start sounds are selectable, an imitation gunshot and a beep.21 The unit also produces an alarm tone, used for recalls.3

Seiko’s stated reason for the design is that no propellant is involved, so there are no misfires and no smoke, which it contrasts with a blank-cartridge pistol.31

The claim that the tone and the timer pulse are simultaneous is the manufacturer’s. World Aquatics rules do not put it in those terms; they require that automatic officiating equipment be activated by the starter, and that the timer be initiated manually by the starter.8 What the rules do require in the terms that matter here is that the starter have a microphone for oral commands, that a pistol, if used, be used with a transducer, and that both be connected to loudspeakers at each starting block so the commands and the starting signal are heard equally and simultaneously by every athlete.8

Audio

The main unit carries its own front-mounted speaker. For wider coverage Seiko sells a speaker expansion box, listed on its website as the SPE-1300, though the catalogue names it only as スピーカ拡張ボックス with no model number.93 It is a stainless-steel cabinet with a yellow baked finish measuring 450 W × 740 H × 470 D mm excluding protrusions, weighing about 35 kg alone and about 50 kg with the generator mounted on it. Four speakers are fitted, two to each side, and Seiko states that this gives maximum volume over a range of more than 270 degrees. The cabinet doubles as the trolley the generator rides on, and Seiko notes it can also be used with the earlier PS-1300.9

Seiko does not publish an output wattage, a sound pressure level, an impedance, a driver count for the main unit, or a number of speaker outputs for the PS-1400. The catalogue and the product pages give the physical and power specifications only.

Getting the start signal to each athlete at the block is a separate matter from the generator’s own speakers. Seiko’s English page for the SB-400 starting block lists a built-in speaker as an option alongside the backstroke ledge; the Japanese catalogue’s starting-block entry does not mention one.103 That option is how the system meets the per-block loudspeaker requirement described in the start-systems overview.

Connections

The generator sits at the head of a wired chain that ends at the printing timer. The pistol and headset connect to the main unit by cable, and the main unit sends the start signal onward to the timer.31 Seiko’s Japanese material names that timer the PT-9000, which replaced the PT-8000 in the same 2026 refresh that replaced the PS-1300 with this starter.6 The English swimming pages still list a PT-8000X instead, a number that appears nowhere in the current Japanese material and whose 400-race memory matches neither the PT-9000 nor the PT-8000, both of which Seiko gives as 600 races. It is not simply the English name for the same machine.11121314 The PT-9000 is the only printing timer in the current catalogue.3 The timer is rated for up to 10 lanes, resolves finishes to a hundredth of a second, and can measure reaction time at the start.13

Seiko’s own figures for the PT-9000 are not consistent. Its product page repeats the case dimensions given on the PT-8000 page, W474 × H136 × D328 mm, where the catalogue gives the newer timer as W480 × H142 × D334 mm; both put the weight at about 8.0 kg. The catalogue is the more recent document and the one specific to this system, so it is preferred here.13143

The lane signals travel separately. A lane box is installed for each lane, connecting that lane’s starting block and touch plate and passing to the printing timer both the instant the swimmer leaves the block and the instant the touch plate is touched.3 Signal and power distribution between the equipment runs through connector boxes that Seiko builds to suit the competition and the facility.3

Seiko does not publish the connector types or pin assignments for the PS-1400, and the catalogue’s system illustration is pictorial rather than a labelled block diagram, so the wiring is documented only at the level described above.

Starts for deaf and hard-of-hearing swimmers

Seiko sells a light-stimulus start signal system, 光刺激スタート合図システム, for competitions involving athletes with disabilities. It receives a start signal interlocked with the printing timer and presents it on display boards, flash lights and start lamps, and it can also be operated manually. For an eight-lane pool the configuration is two display boards, one control panel, four flash lights, sixteen start lamps, two batteries and a cable set. The display boards carry legends reading “Take your marks” and “Start”.153

Its certification differs from the rest of the system. Seiko lists it as Japan Swimming Federation Class A only, with no World Aquatics compliance line, where the starter, the blocks, the lane boxes and the timer all carry both.3 That is consistent with the rules themselves: the World Aquatics swimming regulations do not provide for a visual start signal, and the provision sits instead in World Para Swimming rule 11.1.6, which requires a strobe or starting light for athletes with a hearing impairment and allows a team leader to request additional arm signals from the starter.16

The approach long predates the current product. A 1992 Seiko patent for a swimming race timing system describes a loudspeaker built into the starting block together with visual start indication for swimmers with a hearing impairment, using ready and start lamps, a character panel reading READY and GO, and strobe flash lamps placed in front of and behind the swimmer at both the blocks and the turning end.17 The patent is assigned to Seiko Instruments Inc., a separate company within the Seiko group from the manufacturer of this equipment.1718

Specifications

Main unit:

Part numberPS-1400
PowerSmall sealed lead-acid battery, DC 12 V, 17 Ah (the Ah rating is given in the catalogue, not on the product page)
Dimensions264 W × 203 H × 390 D mm (excluding protrusions)
WeightApprox. 14.5 kg
Weather protectionSplash-proof cover supplied
Start soundsTwo, selectable
CertificationsWorld Aquatics rules; Japan Swimming Federation Class AA and Class A

Pistol and starter box:

PistolStarter box
PowerDC 3 V (2 × AA dry cells)(from main unit)
MaterialAluminiumNot published
Dimensions210 W × 40 H × 145 D mm183 W × 62 H × 150 D mm
WeightApprox. 410 g (excluding cells and cable)Approx. 1.3 kg
FlashStrobe mounted on top(none)

Speaker expansion box:

Part numberSPE-1300 (website); unnumbered in the catalogue
MaterialStainless steel, yellow baked finish
SpeakersFour, two per side; more than 270° coverage
Dimensions450 W × 740 H × 470 D mm (excluding protrusions)
WeightApprox. 35 kg; approx. 50 kg with a generator mounted
CompatibilityPS-1400 and PS-1300

Seiko does not publish an output wattage, sound pressure level, speaker-output count, connector type, operating temperature range or battery runtime for the PS-1400. Those rows are omitted here rather than estimated.

In competition

The Japan Swimming Federation lists Seiko on its own sponsor page as an official timekeeping partner.19 Seiko goes further, describing itself as the sole such partner and dating the relationship to 2003, neither of which the federation’s page states, and says it provides timing support for the Japan Swimming Championships, the National Sports Festival, the national high school and junior high school championships, the intercollegiate championships, the JOC Junior Olympic Cup and the Japan Open.320

Outside Japan the record is thinner. Seiko timed the swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, the only edition it is known to have timed, and the touchpads malfunctioned repeatedly over the eight days of competition. Times had to be corrected from backup timing or video evidence, and the system recorded an early take-off of minus 0.06 s that disqualified the United States women’s 4 × 200 m freestyle relay on a successful British protest. The disqualification stood, and the governing body, then FINA, instead awarded the United States a second set of gold medals without changing the official result. It defended the equipment and said swimmers had to strike the pads in the right way, then signed a three-event deal with Swiss Timing covering the 2002 world short-course championships in Moscow and the 2003 and 2005 championships in Barcelona and Montreal.2122 Omega has been an official partner of World Aquatics since 1973, and timed the 2023 championships when they returned to Fukuoka.2324

The Seiko vendor page sets this alongside the company’s much better documented record in athletics timing.

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. Seiko Time Creation, 電子式スタート音発生装置 PS-1400 (Japanese product page). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. Seiko Time Creation, Electronic Starting System PS-1400 (English product page). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Seiko Time Creation, Swimming Systems Catalogue (December 2025), pp. 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17

  4. Seiko Time Creation, Electronic Starting System PS-110J (the same English name applied to the portable system; it numbers the pistol PS-78 and gives it as 410 g). ↩ ↩2

  5. Seiko Time Creation, PS-1300 (discontinued-product listing). ↩

  6. Internet Archive, Seiko swimming products index, 10 May 2026 snapshot (PS-1400 and PT-9000 in place of the PS-1300 and PT-8000 listed on 10 February 2026). ↩ ↩2

  7. Seiko Time Creation, Electronic Starting System PS-110J Operating Manual (document I-7813-3), section 2-1 (incompatible pistols and generators). ↩ ↩2

  8. World Aquatics, Competition Regulations (Part Two: Swimming Rules), articles 15.16.1.1, 15.16.2.1, and 15.16.3 (starting devices). ↩ ↩2

  9. Seiko Time Creation, スピーカー拡張ボックス SPE-1300 (its loaded-weight note names the PS-1300 where the catalogue names the PS-1400). ↩ ↩2

  10. Seiko Time Creation, Starting Block SB-400 (built-in speaker listed as an option). ↩

  11. Seiko Time Creation, swimming products (English index naming the PT-8000X alongside the current PS-1400). ↩

  12. Seiko Time Creation, Printing Timer PT-8000X (English page; 400 races, and “In accordance with FINA Rules”). ↩

  13. Seiko Time Creation, 競泳用自動審判計時装置 PT-9000 (600 races, and the PT-8000’s case dimensions). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Seiko Time Creation, PT-8000 (discontinued listing; 600 races, W474×H136×D328mm). ↩ ↩2

  15. Seiko Time Creation, 光刺激スタート合図システム［聴覚障害者用］. ↩

  16. World Para Swimming, Rules and Regulations (February 2026), rule 11.1.6. ↩

  17. Google Patents, EP0557888B1, Timing system for swimming race (Seiko Instruments; inventor Hiroshi Tanaka; priority 1992, granted 1997). ↩ ↩2

  18. Google Patents, US5349569A, Timing system for swimming race (the United States equivalent, granted 1994). ↩

  19. Japan Swimming Federation, スポンサー (listing Seiko as 公式計時パートナー, official timekeeping partner). ↩

  20. Seiko, History of Seiko and sports (dating the Japan Swimming Federation partnership to 2003). ↩

  21. Swimming World, FINA Knocks USA As “Sore Losers”; Time Runs Out for Seiko (28 July 2001). ↩

  22. Wikipedia, Swimming at the 2001 World Aquatics Championships. ↩

  23. World Aquatics, Omega (“OMEGA has been an official partner of FINA since 1973”). ↩

  24. Worldtempus, Omega at the World Aquatics Championships Fukuoka 2023. ↩

Last updated July 27, 2026.