Hajime Asaoka revives forgotten Japanese brand Takano

Laura McCreddie-Doak

In some corners of the internet, it has been called the “phantom watch manufacturer”, probably because, as a standalone brand, it has existed for just four years and eleven months. Or maybe because its identity is tied up with Ricoh, a brand whose red, squashed Helvetica logo is more associated with cameras, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. We’re talking about Takano, the watch brand that has just been revived by celebrated watchmaker of the Japanese independent scene Hajime Asaoka. Asaoka, who is also a member of the AHCI, taught himself to make watches. He founded Tokyo Watch Precision and, under that umbrella, makes watches under his own name as well as overseeing the more accessibly priced marque Kurono, on which he works with fellow independent watchmaker Jiro Katayama of Otsuka Lotec.

As with most Japanese watch brands, Takano’s history is a tangle of company names, but it definitely starts with Ricoh, which was founded in 1936 as Riken Kankoshi Co. Ltd but later changed its name. The origins of Takano, however, go back to Takano Seimitsu Kogyo, set up in 1938, but tracing its roots back to 1899, when it was known as Takano Clock Manufacturing, a business set up by Takano Kotaro in Nagoya to make wall clocks. A separate company was then set up in 1913, called Takano Metal Manufacturing, producing table clocks. When Kotaro died, his son merged the two companies, and diversified into making precision instruments for the Japanese military, during which time the watch side of the business was shelved.

The end of the Korean war in 1956 gave the Japanese watch industry a boost. Rather than emulating Swiss or other overseas brands, names such as Seiko, and also Takano, started to work on their own movements, using the Swiss ebauches as a guide. With the military no longer needing precision instruments, Takano began making watches again. Its first watch, launched in 1957, was powered by a German movement from Durow (an abbreviation of Deutsche Uhren-Roh-Werke), which was founded in 1933 in Pforzheim by the owner of watch brand Laco. Takano even had enough clout at this stage to embark on a joint venture with Hamilton to produce the US brand, under licence, for the Japanese market.

By 1959, Takano had developed its own movement, which it launched in the Chateau collection, pairing with other names such as Nouvel and Deluxe to delineate different lines within the core range. It was an elegant three-hander, and at 3.5mm the thinnest Japanese wristwatch at the time. Somewhat surprisingly, it was the women’s watches that were the real standouts, with designs featuring what appeared to be scalloped bezels and interesting rectangular cases reminiscent of a cross between a Longines DolceVita and a non-flippable Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso.

Despite these launches, the accounts ledger was telling a different story. Sales were slow, and competition was fierce from the likes of Seiko and Citizen. Then, in September of 1959, the IseWan typhoon hit. Also known as Typhoon Vera, this intense tropical cyclone wreaked havoc on a country still recovering from WWII. For Takano, it caused ¥110M in damage and halted production for a month. By 1961, Takano was insolvent, and just a year later, president of Riken Optical Company (predecessor of Ricoh) Kiyoshi Ichimura, took over as president of Takano and merged it as Ricoh Tokei, which then became Ricoh Elemex in 1986 – the maker of those interactive whiteboards that still exists today.

The Takano name appeared twice more on watches in 1988 and 2018, when Ricoh brought out 60th and 80th anniversary editions, and now it is being revived by Asaoka. The new Chateau is vintage-inspired rather than a direct reissue of the 1959 original. Rather than a gold case and elongated triangular indices, it has a Zaratsu-polished steel case, the option of a black or white dial, dot and line indices, and Asaoka’s signature skyscraper silhouette hands. The logo has been modernised, though the original, with its Starship Enterprise-esque silhouette above it, is now on the caseback. The movement is a modified Miyota, which has been adjusted by Tokyo Tokai Seimitsu Kogyo, allowing it to be chronometer-certified by the prestigious Besançon Observatory. The observatory tests finished watches, as opposed to COSC, which only certifies movements, and Takano is the first Japanese watch brand to pass its stringent tests.

In a cultural climate that seems to have its focus on Japan, and a watch community that is hungry for anything new coming out of this horologically fertile country, reviving a watch brand that has almost mythical status can only be a good thing. Takano is getting a second shot at fame here, and given that Asaoka has proved he knows what people want from a watch, this time it might be a phenomenon rather than a phantom.