In the first installment of our threepart series in partnership with Grand Seiko, we meet master watchmaker Yoshifusa Nakazawa.

One of the most essential characteristics of Grand Seiko watches, is that whether quartz, mechanical, or Spring Drive, each is assembled by a single watchmaker. At the Shinshu Watch Studio, a master is in residence: Yoshifusa Nakazawa, who is the master craftsman at the Micro Artist Studio. This small workshop is where the most complex, as well as the most technically and aesthetically sophisticated, Spring Drive watches are handfinished and hand assembled, by a small team led by Nakazawa (who is training a single apprentice in the painstakingly acquired skills he possesses).

Though very few Spring Drive minute repeaters, sonneries, and Eichi watches are made each year, the philosophy expressed by Nakazawa in the creation of these timepieces illuminates the special properties of Spring Drive as a whole, as both a technically unique and distinctly Japanese approach to the art of watchmaking.

For the full story, go to https://www.hodinkee.com/articles/ins...