SEIKO is marking 100 years of watchmaking in style! The brand just opened a sleek new boutique at The Exchange TRX in Kuala Lumpur. The grand opening was a true fusion of Malaysian and Japanese cultures, featuring lively traditional performances, notable guests, and a stunning display of SEIKO’s most iconic timepieces.
To make things even more exciting, SEIKO unveiled the Power Design Project Exhibition 2024, themed “Incredibly Specialized Watches.” This exhibition showcases seven unique watch designs, each highlighting SEIKO’s forward-thinking approach.
Leading the charge is Yu Ishihara, SEIKO’s Design Director of the Design Development Team. Ishihara flew in from Japan to offer TRP readers a rare peek into the world of watchmaking—sharing insights into his creative journey, design process, and what’s next for SEIKO.
Discovering the Joy of Design
Ishihara’s passion for design has always been tied to SEIKO. “When I was still a student at Chiba University, one of the few national universities in Japan, a new industrial design course taught by SEIKO designers was established, and I remember they were the first professional designers I’ve ever met. And their fashion was very, very classy and stylish,” he recalls.
I was one of the first to take the class, and that’s when I discovered the joy of design and the fascinating intersection of industrial and fashion design, known as wearable design.
The course sparked Ishihara’s interest, setting him on a path that led straight to SEIKO where he had the opportunity to work on one of the world’s first wristwatch-style mobile phones: the WRISTOMO, during his internship there.
(Credit: Seiko Instruments Inc.)
He later kicked off his career in 2003 and was involved in everything from designing mobile phones to electric shavers and even athletic gear within the SEIKO Group.
In 2014, he finally made the jump to watch design, and he’s been creating iconic timepieces ever since.
Sculpting Timepieces
Ishihara’s design process is anything but traditional, leaning heavily on 3D modelling rather than sketches.
Personally, I rarely use hand-drawn sketches or 2D renderings,” he explains. “I often start considering designs in 3D from a very early stage because I prefer to imagine a future wristwatch in a 3D space.
This approach allows him to refine his ideas through multiple iterations in 3D printing and metal prototypes.
Describing his creative process, Ishihara says, “It might sound a bit exaggerated, but it feels somewhat like Michelangelo seeing the angel in the marble.”
He even dreams about 3D modelling, often waking up with new ideas.
“By repeating this process, I work until the design achieves balance from every angle,” he adds. The time it takes varies—”maybe one month, maybe three”—but the result is always a meticulously crafted timepiece.
(Credit: SEIKO Malaysia)
One of Ishihara’s most challenging projects is the Sunny Men wristwatch from SEIKO’s Power Design Project 2024.
This unconventional timepiece is inspired by the ancient sundial—“in a world where everyone can know the time very accurately with their smartphones, the value lies in the precision of natural time,” Ishihara explains.
The watch’s design, reminiscent of a radio telescope or astronomical sights, captures a timeless quality that blends the past with the future.
Unlike traditional watches, Sunny Men doesn’t have internal movements, so Ishihara had to devise the mechanisms and structures independently.
“I think I’ve been able to make use of all my knowledge of watch design and experience in designing various products other than watches,” he says, highlighting the complexity and innovation behind the project.
The design is timeless, making it difficult to discern whether it’s from the past or the future.
Through the Sunny Men watch, Ishihara hopes to convey a profound message. “I’d like to convey that, in a world where everyone can get very accurate time, the ambiguous time obtained from nature is also valuable,” he says.
The watch encourages wearers to feel time rather than be driven by it, offering a unique connection to the natural rhythms of the world.
The length of the shadows reminds us of the seasons, and the fact that the shadows move in the same clockwise direction as current watches reminds us of the long history between mankind and time.
Mixing Tradition with Today
With the rise of wearable smart devices, you might wonder how SEIKO’s classic style fits in. Well, according to Ishihara, it’s all about balance.
“I feel that the spread of wearable smart devices which are superior in terms of functionality has led to a demand for classic watches, such as SEIKO watches, to have a higher emotional value,” he notes.
I personally believe that the future relationship between smart wearable devices, and SEIKO watches is to coexist as an expansion of diversity rather than to forcibly merge the two, since they are products with similar appearances but very different values.
Looking ahead, Ishihara sees watch design evolving like fashion—what’s old becomes new again, with a twist. “Much like fashion, design trends in watches tend to rise and evolve in a cyclical spiral,” he explains.
Seiko boast over a century of watchmaking history and numerous heritage pieces. Therefore it is a crucial role for modern designers to take those trends that have come and gone and evolve them into contemporary products.
Ishihara says that when it comes to the future, SEIKO has a secret weapon—A diverse team of designers who share ideas and skills across generations.
From veterans to newcomers, we aim to be a team of specialists capable of producing various types of designs through the transmission of skills, culture and intergenerational communication.
As for what’s next, Ishihara is keeping it under wraps but promises some exciting surprises.
“SEIKO is currently evaluating various products that would surprise people,” he hints. So, stay tuned—SEIKO isn’t done making waves in the watch world just yet!
And if you’re wondering which SEIKO watch best represents Kuala Lumpur, Ishihara’s pick is the Prospex SNJ025, also known as the “Arnie”.
(Credit: TRP)
It’s a remake of SEIKO’s original wristwatch that Arnold Schwarzenegger wore in multiple films, including the OG Predator movie.
Kuala Lumpur, a cosmopolitan where people from different nationalities. Where a mix of history and future coexist and many languages are spoken. I feel like this iconic fusion of analogue and digital, past heritage and present technology, is a perfect match.
As SEIKO steps into its next century, it’s clear that the brand is still leading the charge in the watch world, blending the best of the past with the innovations of the future. With Ishihara and his creative colleagues at the helm, we can’t wait to see what’s next!
