WADOKEI REVISION

Wadokei Revision

The first Western mechanical clock/ watch was brought into Japan by a missionary in 1551.

But the concept of the "time" in Japan was different from the western one, so it was never used as a time-measurement device.

In 1603, Ieyasu Tokugawa established the Tokugawa or Edo shogunate and it was the start of 265-year peace time, which no other region in the world ever enjoyed. In such a peace period, it was natural that Japan's original yet diversified culture evolved in its own way.

One of such original cultures was the "Wa-Dokei (Japanese Clock - note that there is no big difference in Japanese between "clock" and "watch" when written)" which displays Japan's traditional way of time-measurement correctly. What is "Japan's traditional way of time-measurement"? - divide a day by day-time and night-time, and then divide further each by six (6), and each one was called "one (Japanese) hour". It shows Japanese way of life which is very close to the nature and called "temporal hour". As you can guess, the length of an "hour" changes everyday in today's concept of the time.

Each "hour" has the name of animals or number - equal to those 12 zodiac signs (Chinese astrological calendar - 6 in the day-time, and 6 in the night-time). Noon is labeled "horse" or "nine", then "sheep" or "eight", followed by "monkey" or "seven", dusk is "bird" or "six", then "dog" or "five", "boar" or "four", midnight is "rat" or "nine (again)", then "ox" or "eight", followed by "tiger" or "seven", dawn is "hare" or "six", then "dragon" or "five", followed by "snake" or "four".

This "clock" is a very interesting device in the history of the world's clock/ watch, where the device, with truly unique and original mechanism, correctly displays the constantly changing length of day-time and night-time by the seasons.

In the western culture, people adjusted their way of live to the time-telling device, but in Japan people adjusted the time-telling device to their way of life.

"Wa-Dokei" has 250 years of history during which it evolved in a very unique way, but in 1873 when the new government which decided to import and catch up the western modernization, changed the time to the western time and "Wa-Dokei" lost its purpose and ended its practical life.

After that, Japan discarded many of its own unique and original cultures and replaced them with the western ones, then succeeded as one of the most developed countries.

Now that Japan has succeeded and enjoyed its one of the top economic power and advanced materialistic life, I thought it was time to look back and to study from the origin of Japan's clock culture, and then to remember the spirit, the concept of the time passing. I thought I needed to let the world know about "Wa-Dokei" as it is the origin of today's Japan, which we have many to be proud of, and decided to make "Wa-Dokei Revision" as a wrist watch.

Many of the old "Wa-Dokei" had to be adjusted every 15 days back when they were used. "Wa-Dokei Revision" moves index automatically everyday, thus while the hand moves at the constant speed, it can display the temporal hour. The revised version can let you adjust the season by the winding crown.

This is the world's first wrist watch that can display both the time of the people who once lived with the sunrise and sunset, and the time of the modern people.

This "Wa-Dokei Revision" is the "art", which Masahiro KIKUNO can manufacture only one per year, full of passion and thoughts of the artist, just like the "Wa-Dokei" which back then had no concern about the industrialization or efficiency or optimization.

Specification:

Wadokei Revision

Size - 42mm x 34mm

Case - Oxidized bronze and stainless steel

Water resistant - 3 ATM

Movement - cal. mk15

Frequency - 28,800 vph

Number of the stones - 26

Manual winding

Temporal Hour (adjustable by replacing a cam between north latitude 51.3 and south latitude 51.3)

Twenty-four seasons display (adjustable by the crown) on the back.

Letters on the index are engraved by Mr. Keiji Kanagawa

Availability - 1 per year.

Price - JPY18,000,000 (before tax).

Index numerals, material, shape of the hands, color, engraving, pattern on the case, etc. are all open to discussion between the watchmaker and the future owner, for availability, feasibility, and price variation. We humbly ask for the half upon placing the order and the balance upon delivery.

Thank you very much and please feel free to ask me anything via email or the contact form of this website.