A new boutique watchmaker based in Japan and born in 2005, Minase’s story began as a machining workshop and continued with making watch cases for other brands before making the leap into watchmaking and starting creating their own timepieces. Citizen is another one of the big four watch brands of Japan, a watchmaking powerhouse the world knows so well. The probably less known thing about them is their philosophy that every citizen of the world deserves to wear a high quality watch on their wrist, which is what the brand’s name stands for. Credor is a name few have heard of. But their creations are some of the best kept secrets of the Japanese watchmaking industry. The brand is actually part of Seiko, and it’s their show-off child, born in 1974 from a desire to display the best of Seiko’s craftsmanship and horology know-how.

He went on to develop an in-house tourbillon in four years. If that’s not an impressive feat, we don’t know what is. A netsuke is a miniature sculpture, originating in 17th century Japan. Initially a simply-carved button fastener on the cords of an inrō box, netsuke later developed into ornately sculpted objects of craftsmanship. Mirco is a microbrand based in Tokyo. They take their inspiration from the golden age of the 1970s, creating watches that speak of that retro aesthetic, with bold and sporty designs, but without copying any particular model. Naoya Hida has learned the trade and honed his skills working for the likes of Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre, F.P. Journe, and Breguet, before launching his own company in 2019. Naoya Hida is similar to Hajime Asaoka in that it’s a high-end independent watchmaker that brings to life excellent handcrafted timepieces in very small batches, only that it’s a lesser known name in the industry.Grand Seiko watches include some of the greatest marvels of the mechanical watch world, and are certified with a standard of precision that exceeds even the Swiss COSC in its strictness. The cases of their watches are incredibly complex and superbly finished, and house sourced Swiss made ETA movements further customized by themselves, but don’t expect their timepieces to be cheap. Their pieces aren’t by any means spectacular, but pleasant mechanical timepieces that are characterized by reliability and a beautiful simplicity. All KUOE watches are made and engineered in Japan. The brand and concept of KUOE began in 2010 when Uchimura, the designer and founder, was a university student studying language in London, England. Uchimura just so happened to enter a shop that was handling antique watches, where he saw a line-up of hand-wound watches from the 1940’s - 70’s. He was instantly drawn to them and their ability to keep time even after the rich accumulation of history in the decades that had passed.

I have long had a liking for watches with a military orientation or provenance. Think CWC, Smiths, Hamilton, IWC, Timor etc… Two things often suffer when we start dealing with more affordable watches. The first is case finishing. The second is lume. And the Kuoe Old Smith is no exception to this rule. When I asked, I was only told the lume is Swiss and “SO-2.” I’ve never heard of that but based on the results, we aren’t dealing with a Super-LumiNova equivalent here. Indulge me, though: the lume is about as bright as one might expect on the vintage watches from which the Kuoe takes its inspiration–so maybe it’s intentional! (It’s probably not.) Their inexpensive watches were also tough and resistant to the every day wear and tear, a quality much appreciated all over the world. You surely remember your first childhood watch. If you had one, it was probably a Casio. And very likely one with a calculator. Later on, everyone would want a Casio watch with a digital calendar, which the brand was the first to create. So now we have that out of the way, let’s take a closer look at the specs and details… The Royal Smith 90-008 Case They try to connect the entire country in their watchmaking process, using materials from several regions and a wide variety of crafts and specialists. The result is that their watch designs are inspired by the entirety of Japan as a country and culture, without being limited to a specific region.The name of the brand is associated with the Eastern countries, as seen from a European perspective, mostly referring to the Asian continent and the coveted treasures that used to come from there in the past. Their brand’s purpose is to create the “ideal imaginary watch” by bringing together two contradictory ideas, one being the abstractness of metal that goes beyond its functional and practical aspects, and the other being precisely the practicality of a tool watch. Japan is one of those countries that has risen to challenge the status-quo of the watchmaking industry, bringing some incredibly good mechanical timepieces to life recently. The Japanese watchmakers have started producing some of the best watches the world has ever seen, and not only that, but they’ve covered all price categories as well.

Orient is one of those big and well known Japanese watchmakers. It’s on par with the likes of Casio in terms of production capacity, only that Orient creates mechanical watches, and not digital ones. At the heart of this watch is the workhorse Seiko NH-35 and all though this movement is not from some exotic Uber brand - it justifiably has a reputation for reliability and longevity (and in my case accuracy + 2 or 3 seconds a day) The brand started from the idea of blending the future with the past, an idea reflected in their name, which is composed from mirai (future) and kako (past). Equipped with a Seiko quartz movement, the KUOE OLD SMITH / 90-001 watch is available with a choice of bar index dial or Arabic index dial.Now the Old Smith is not a Netsuke - but the finesse with which all the tiny details of dial & hands, the graceful case architecture, the fit and finish of the watch means that the Old Smith feels as if has the eye of one of those old Netsuke master craftsman has been at work here. Their collections are large and diverse, with a big focus on the vintage and the classiness that watches of the past boasted. They tend to be more conservative than other well established brands, but they do have their particularities, the little details that Orient fans are always expecting from their watches. Thank goodness I had an 18mm strap available. It’s not a popular width, given the larger sizes of modern timepieces. But my loose formula for acceptable lug width is L=[1/2(C)], where L is lug width, and C is case diameter. With a 35mm case diameter, you’re left at 17.5mm, which rounds up to 18mm. (If you want to know what case diameters work with what lug widths, it’s C=2L+/-2; 18mm lugs work well on cases sized from 34mm to 38mm.)

Kuoe comes from Kyoto and seems more grounded in the traditional, with retro inspired watch designs, pleasant aesthetics, and discreet case sizes. They source their movements from Japanese brands, and put much value on making do with everything local. Japan is not a country that you necessarily think of when it comes to boutique or micro brand watch manufacture, yet about 3 years ago Mr Kenji Uchimura launched his own micro brand watch company, with watches entirely manufactured in Japan. Besides these big prolific companies, there are plenty of smaller, independent watchmakers that have the qualities Japan is known for, like the excellent craftsmanship and the attention to detail that have made the big brands what they are today. These high quality made-in-Japan watches comes in affordable price range. The brand itself handles all business activities including design, production and sales of its watches to reduce the costs. Every KUOE watch comes with one year manufacture warranty. KUOE OLD SMITH / 90-001 The KUOE Royal Smith/90-004 watch comes with a luxurious Italian leather strap with a gloss finish. The Royal Smith/90-004 model is limited to 50 pieces of each color.In terms of movements, they do source them from the likes of Seiko and Miyota. When it comes to design, they’ve got solid choices, from automatic chronographs to solar powered pieces, Bauhaus designs, and square shaped dress watches. And the most important price is their accessibility, allowing people to enjoy unique timepieces without breaking the bank.