Born from technology transfers initiated by Swiss industrialists in the second half of the 19th century, Japanese watchmaking gradually freed itself from Swiss tutelage to produce its own timepieces. Today, it is divided between the two giants of the watchmaking industry, Seiko and Citizen, on one side, and an entire archipelago of independent workshops on the other, less known but capable of attracting the attention of watch enthusiasts worldwide.
History of Japanese Watchmaking
From the late 19th century, Switzerland, through the Watchmaking Union, organized a transfer of its expertise in clocks and watches to Japan, where a market was developing. And for good reason: after centuries of isolationism, the archipelago was opening up to international trade. The first trading post was established in Yokohama in 1863. Until the mid-20th century, Japanese watchmakers settled in Swiss workshops where they were trained according to Swiss quality standards, before returning home to provide after-sales service for major Western brands, which enjoyed significant success there, although their products primarily served as ceremonial jewelry. Japanese watchmaking thus began as a commercial partner of a Switzerland eager to claim an even vaster market, especially since, from 1873, Japan adopted the 24-hour day system, and the demand for watches grew rapidly.
However, the Japanese were not fooled; they knew that the primary goal of this technological transfer was the unilateral domination of Swiss watchmaking. This is why local watchmakers, having become experts themselves, began to develop the national watchmaking industry. A first major attempt was launched in 1891 with the founding of the Nippon Watch Manufacturing Co., whose production ceased… four years later! This did not prevent independent watchmakers from offering their own models produced in small quantities, such as those by Hattori Kintaro, who founded the Seikosha Clock Factory, the future Seiko, in 1892.
The Japanese partner gradually transformed into a strong competitor, developing first-rate manufactures in the shadow of Switzerland. Local production supplanted imports, boosted by significant innovations such as Seiko’s first wristwatch in 1913. The devastation of the Second World War brought this industrial evolution to a halt. But Japanese watchmaking was not dead; it had merely fallen asleep; and its awakening, in 1947, was symbolized by the creation of the Japanese Watchmaking Association, which led the country to launch a vast global export program for its watches and clocks.
The potential was there, but it truly exploded during the 1970s with the quartz revolution… and unleashed a tsunami that nearly completely drowned the competing industry. By producing electronic watches based on quartz technology, which were much cheaper to manufacture than mechanical timepieces, Japan asserted its dominance worldwide and gave its watchmaking industry a leading position. An extraordinary success for a watchmaking industry that had barely existed a century earlier. And it literally turned the tide: now, it is the Swiss watchmaking industry that takes inspiration from its Japanese counterpart in terms of electronic timepieces.
It should be noted, however, that long before the surge of quartz watches, the Japanese watchmaking industry had gained market share at the expense of the Swiss, during the period between the end of the Second World War and the 1970s. This was notably thanks to mechanical watches, initially hand-wound and then automatic some time later, of a quality equal to or even superior to Swiss production (for example, in terms of water resistance), and at prices with which Swiss workshops could not hope to compete.
Indeed, Japanese watchmaking is now moving towards a return to mechanical movements after its electronic breakthrough, much like the vast majority of Swiss manufacturers. The current market is divided between the general public, who lean towards quartz watches, and a community of collectors and aesthetes, who favor high-end mechanical watches. The emblematic example has been – and remains – the Grand Seiko, the flagship of the famous brand since 1960. This shift towards luxury watchmaking echoes, once again, the Swiss example, as if the history of relations between Switzerland and Japan had something of a perpetual motion.
Japanese Watchmakers
Japanese watchmakers remain largely unknown to the general public. The names that stand out are most often those of the founders of the dominant brands. These include:
Hattori Kintaro
Kono Shohei
Yosaburo Nakajima
Hajime Asaoka
Masahiro Kikuno
Major Japanese Brands
The two giants of Japanese watchmaking emerged from the significant transfer of expertise that began in the late 19th century between Switzerland and the Land of the Rising Sun. At the time, local watchmakers were primarily importers of Swiss brands, which they helped establish in the country: Omega, Tissot, Zenith. Then, gradually, watchmakers developed their own timepieces, following the example of Hattori Kintaro, who would become a heavyweight in Japanese watchmaking with the Seiko brand. The same applies to its main competitor, the other dominant figure in the sector: Citizen Watch Co., founded in 1918.
The strength of Japanese brands lies in their ambition in research & development. Among Seiko’s creations, we can mention: the quartz watch in 1969 (the Astron), the LCD screen for watches in 1973, the first watch using a micro-alternator in 1988, the Spring Drive movement in 1999, and the first watch incorporating GPS in 2012. While less innovative, its rival Citizen can still boast the invention of Eco-Drive, a system integrated into its timepieces that converts light into energy and stores it in a lithium-ion battery, allowing it to recharge itself.
In 1971, a third major player joined the duo: that was the year calculator manufacturer Casio launched its first electronic watch models, which met with great success. Today, Casio, like its competitors, is moving upmarket towards more luxurious timepieces, while remaining in the electronic domain.
The other segment of Japanese watchmaking is occupied by independent creators who are increasingly gaining recognition from the Swiss, such as Hajime Asaoka (a former student of Philippe Dufour) or Masahiro Kikuno (a member of the Académie horlogère des créateurs indépendants).
