Abstract: The paper summarized the 60 years development experiences of the seismic exploration instrument,including five development stages as the light-spot r ecording seismograph, simulated tape seismometer,digital seismometer,telemetric seismometer and full digital seismometer.The paper pointed out that four changes wer e occurred in the design of the seismic exploration instrument,from a centralized to distributed,from wire to wireless,from simulated to digital and to present high density full digital collection conception. The paper held that the national economic development would have a great requirement of energy,the appearances of the new seismic exploration method and technology and the development of the electronic technology,information technology,computer technology and other related the sciences would be the internal driving force to push the continued upgrading and generation of the seismic exploration instrument.The paper pointed out that there was a big gap betwe en the Chinese self developed seismometers and the overseas similar products.The paper estimated that a single-station, single channel,three component,full digital,GP S positioning and time service,node data acquisition,signal wireless transmission,flexible set up observation system and others would be the development tendency of t he seismometer.