Japanese Watchmaker Adapts Traditional Timepiece (original) (raw)

Fashion|Japanese Watchmaker Adapts Traditional Timepiece

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/12/fashion/japanese-watchmaker-adapts-traditional-timepiece.html

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Masahiro Kikuno, an independent Japanese watchmaker.Credit...Ko Sasaki for The New York Times

Nov. 12, 2015

MATSUDO, Japan — In a small, nondescript residential suburb about an hour outside Tokyo, Masahiro Kikuno, 32, makes watches in a tiny, one-room workshop filled with vintage tools and primitive machinery he bought from online auctions.

Stacks of watchmaking books and watch collectors’ magazines spill from packed bookshelves, and piles of notebooks storing Mr. Kikuno’s ideas and inspirations threaten to tip over at any moment.

Despite his youthful appearance and relatively short experience in the field, the watchmaker is very serious about his craft. “My goal was to be able to make a living as an independent watchmaker,” he said. “This is all I want to do from now on.”

Mr. Kikuno didn’t always know that watchmaking would be his calling. His first exposure to mechanical timepieces came during his four years in the Japan Self Defense Forces, which he joined after high school.

“One of my superiors was a fan of watches, and the first time I even knew about mechanical watches was when he showed them to me,” Mr. Kikuno said. “After that I decided I wanted to become a watchmaker, so I quit the Self Defense Forces and entered a watchmaking school in Tokyo.”

That was Hiko Mizuno College of Jewelry, and even though Mr. Kikuno completed its three-year watchmaking course, he said it still didn’t teach him how to create a timepiece.

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