{"id":1000449,"date":"2026-09-18T12:33:30","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:33:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ohselection.com\/guides\/watchmaking-industry\/japanese-watchmaking\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T14:25:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T14:25:16","slug":"japanese-watchmaking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.ohselection.com\/en\/guides\/watchmaking-industry\/japanese-watchmaking\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Watchmaking"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBorn through technology transfers implemented by Swiss industrialists in the second half of the nineteenth century, Japanese watchmaking gradually freed itself from Swiss oversight to produce its own timepieces. Today it is divided between the two giants of the watchmaking industry<\/a>\u2014Seiko and Citizen on one side\u2014and a whole archipelago of independent workshops on the other, less well known but capable of attracting the attention of watch enthusiasts across the globe. \r\n

History of Japanese Watchmaking<\/h2>\r\nAs early as the late nineteenth century, Switzerland, through the Union Horlog\u00e8re, 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 opened itself to international trade. The first trading post was established in Yokohama in 1863. Until the mid-twentieth century, Japanese watchmakers trained in Swiss workshops according to Swiss quality standards, then returned home to provide after-sales service for major Western brands that enjoyed significant success locally, although their products served primarily as ornamental jewelry. Japanese watchmaking thus began as a commercial partner to a Switzerland eager to secure for itself a market all the more vast because, from 1873 onward, Japan adopted the division of days into 24 hours and demand for watches grew rapidly. \r\n\r\nBut the Japanese were not deceived; they understood that this technology transfer was primarily intended to establish the unilateral dominance of Swiss watchmaking. This is why local watchmakers, having themselves become experts, began to develop the national watchmaking industry. A first large-scale attempt was launched in 1891 with the founding of the Nippon Watch Manufacturing Co. manufactory, whose production ceased\u2026 four years later! This did not prevent independent makers from offering their own models produced in small quantities, such as those of Hattori Kintaro, who founded the Seikosha Clock Factory\u2014future Seiko\u2014in 1892. \r\n\r\nThe Japanese partner gradually transformed into a formidable competitor, developing first-rate manufactories in the shadow of Switzerland. Local production supplanted imports, boosted by landmark 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 simply fallen asleep\u2014and its awakening, in 1947, was symbolized by the creation of the Japan Watch Association, which led the country to launch a vast program for the worldwide export of its watches and clocks. \r\n\r\n\"\"The potential was there, but it truly exploded during the 1970s with the quartz<\/a> revolution\u2026 unleashing a tsunami that nearly drowned the competing industry entirely. By producing electronic watches based on quartz technology\u2014far cheaper to manufacture than mechanical timepieces\u2014Japan imposed its dominance across the globe and gave its watchmaking industry a leading position. An extraordinary success for a watchmaking sector that had not existed less than a century earlier. And one that literally reversed the tide: henceforth, it was the Swiss watchmaking industry that took its cue from its Japanese counterpart in the realm of electronic timepieces. \r\n\r\nIt must be noted, however, that well before the surge of quartz watches, the Japanese watchmaking industry had captured market share at the expense of the Swiss during the period between the end of the Second World War and the 1970s. Notably through mechanical watches\u2014first manual-winding, then automatic shortly thereafter\u2014of 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. \r\n\r\nIt is, moreover, toward a return to mechanical watchmaking that the Japanese industry is heading after its electronic breakthrough, following the example of the vast majority of Swiss manufacturers. The current market is divided between the general public, which leans toward quartz watches, and a community of collectors and connoisseurs, which favors high-end mechanical watches. The emblematic example has been\u2014and remains\u2014the Grand Seiko, flagship of the renowned brand since 1960. A shift toward luxury watchmaking that echoes, once again, the Swiss example, as if the history of relations between Switzerland and Japan possessed something of a perpetual motion. \r\n

\"\"Japanese Watchmakers<\/h2>\r\nJapanese watchmakers remain little known to the general public. The names that stand out are most often those of the founders of the dominant brands. Among them: \r\n