Today, Nikon is a world-renowned brand, firmly established as the market leader in optical instrumentation and the only microscope company to manufacture its own glass, ensuring the very best quality assurance throughout production.

With over 90 years of expertise in the field, Nikon has always been at the forefront of optical and technological innovation, fostering creativity and reliability as part of its global mission statement. The Nikon story began back in 1917 when three Japanese optical manufacturers merged to form Nippon Kogaku KK (“Japan Optik”), producing precision optical glass. In 1925, the brand expanded to produce the first microscope with a rotating nosepiece and interchangeable objectives – the Joico microscope.

The next decades brought considerable growth to the microscopy division, pioneering polarizing and stereo microscopes were introduced in addition to products for the increased measurement and inspection market.

In the 1970s, the CF Optical system was formed and Nikon introduced Optiphot and Labophot microscopes. In the 1980s, Nikon launched more than 80 new products and the first test tube baby in the USA (1981) was developed using a Nikon inverted Diaphot microscope. In the 1990s came the introduction of the Eclipse range which brought infinite optics. Science has developed at record speed. The dolly sheep was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell using a Nikon Diaphot microscope in the process. The new millennium saw the birth of digital imaging solutions for microscopy and Nikon once again led the market in providing superior and practical cameras for these applications. The introduction of the DS camera series and the Coolscope claimed further advances in the transmission of images worldwide. The future as always is unclear but what is evident is the rate at which changes are happening.

Applications and disciplines that were once completely separate are now coming closer together in areas such as Lab-on-Chip and Biophysics. These have led to the development of unique interdisciplinary products, including the AZ100, super-resolution systems N-SIM and N- STORM plus the confocal range of microscope systems that enable the use of ground-breaking techniques such as nanocrystal and GaAsP technology. Cell studies now require the ability to study live, in situ cellular interactions and movements where Nikon has responded with the very latest technology – the BioStation IM and CT series. Nikon has taken the challenges one step at a time and with innovative solutions helped research to introduce some truly memorable achievements.