It Started in Tachikawa

A little bit of Henki-lore today.  Way back in 1994, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, Wendy and I were living and working in the Tokyo suburbs.  I had a quartz Tag Heuer that I had bought myself as a graduation present from the U of O a few years earlier and it was, well, "buggy".  Several battery changes later, it became clear that the watch itself was as doomed as the University of Oregon's football team of the mid-eighties, and after three solid years and one very "iffy" one, I was convinced that it was time to get an automatic watch.  Now keep in mind that I was an English teacher, not a wealthy expat so there was never a possibility of buying something at a regular retail store.  So I started poking around the local pawn shops, and found a Rado Golden Horse (I think it was golden, but maybe purple or green), in a pawn shop in Tachikawa.  It was definitely "worn" and loved, and it worked.

Courtesy

The pawn shop took my Tag Heuer in trade and I needed to come up with an additional 4,000 Yen to cover the balance.  And to be honest, I was so frustrated by the failure of the watch that I gladly made the trade, handed over the cash, and "wore it off the lot".  In my more sentimental moments, I think back on my graduation watch.  I hope that it finally got repaired and the "burned out" movement finally got replaced and maybe, just maybe, there is another English teacher who worked in the Hachioji/Tachikawa corridor who discovered it in a pawn shop window and treated themselves.  

Now my Rado was a bit smaller than this re-edition.  But it did have a beads of rice bracelet.  It had a silver dial, and the date window had an "inverted" cyclops window which I really appreciated as it made the date very, very legible.

Here are the pertinents, straight from Rado -

CASE
Thickness : 10.4 mm
Water resistance : Water-resistant 5 bar (50 m)
Crystal : Sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating
Case back : Transparent sapphire case back
Shape : Round
Case color : Light
Gender : Gents

DIAL
Dial : Colored
Date : Yes

MOVEMENT

Movement Power Reserve : up to 80 hours

BRACELET
Bracelet : Stainless steel
Bracelet reference : 07.03912

Trying to Break Stuff - Casio Day 2

The second day of our visit to Casio started out with a bus ride from our hotel in Shinjuko to the Hamura Research and Development Center which is in Hamura-shi, Tokyo-to.  Now for those unfamiliar, allow me to acquaint you with some realities about Tokyo.  It is really, really big.  How big?  Really big.  And it was sort of bringing it all back home for me as we heard military jets overhead, and it suddenly occurred to me that we must be fairly close to Yokota Air Base which is located in Fusa, and just around the corner from where I used to live in Hachioji -

That would be the blurry city name in the top position of the green sign ; )

But I am not going to waste your time traveling down my personal memory lane.  What I am going to do is share what a lot of 10 year old boys (and I suspect girls) enjoy doing - trying to break stuff!

The whole idea of the G-Shock was to make something that could not be broken (more on that tomorrow), but you can't just say something is unbreakable, you have to prove it.  And this wonderful center in the Tokyo hinterlands has created a facility where they can try to imagine every stress, situation, random bad thing that could happen to a watch, and replicate it.

The original G-Shock was born of a lot of different things - anger, loss, frustration, denial, determination, and finally triumph.  But it was a long, slow process.  The photo above is, for me at least, truly symbolic of that painful process.  Spoiler alert, the creator of the G-Shock was wearing a traditional, normal watch that fell off his wrist and was what insurance adjusters would term, a "write off".  Out of that loss, and need to build a better mouse trap, the G-Shock was born.  The single biggest item on the punch list?  Make it unbreakable.  And the notion of a ball bubbled to the surface as the ultimate shock-absorber.  The item above is part of the journey from "watch in a ball" to the G-Shock of today -

Courtesy of Casio

But needless to say, Casio did not get to have the baby without the labor.  Before we got to the "rumpus room", we got a very solid briefing about the foundation of the G-Shock within Casio.

Along with the type of visual displays that would be the envy of many other brands -

Courtesy of Casio

I draw your attention to the display above and the one below.  

Courtesy of Casio

Still think that quartz is simple, or basic, or dumb?

Think again.

Now, on to the (controlled) chaos!

First stop - the dunk booth!

No, that is not a chocolate milkshake in process, it is a custom made machine designed to test the functionality & reliability of the push pieces not only in a wet environment, but also one that has grit, debris, mud...

Courtesy of Casio

Beyond mere mud, there is also water itself in terms of depth, and Casio had just the machinery to gauge that as well -

Courtesy of Casio

Keep in mind that one of the central tenants of the G-Shock is water resistance - typically starting at 200 meters.  Well, the folks in Hamura weren't satisfied with the typical testing devices used by other watch companies.  So they use quite a few devices.

Courtesy of Casio

Safe and dry.

Courtesy of Casio

But if we get back to the birth of the G-Shock, we are reminded that this was triggered by a broken watch.

Courtesy of Casio

So if you can't gum up the pushers with silt, and you can't drown it, maybe you can break it by dropping it, or hitting against something hard?

Well...

Courtesy of Casio

not so much!

And then there is that nasty old problem of gravity.  What if you drop your watch from, say your desk or bedside table?

Courtesy of Casio

Or maybe even something a little out of the ordinary, height-wise?

Courtesy of Casio

Welcome to "Thunder Dome".  But in this instance, both watch and tester came out fine, and still ticking.  

What is particularly cool about the R&D center and the testing area is the fact that this is not standard equipment that you order from Borel.  The demands put on the G-Shock represent a level and commitment to testing that is not really found anywhere else in the watch making world.

And should you encounter Electro?

Shamelessly borrowed from the world-wide info-web

Well, the G-Shock team has you covered -

Courtesy of Casio

And I have to laugh a bit every time I see copy, marketing or pr pieces extolling how bad-ass their watches are, primarily based on size and the stature of their celebrity friends of the brand.  After an afternoon spent trying to break stuff, I can honestly say that the G-Shock is the real deal.

We wrap-up tomorrow, stay tuned!

Tokyo

As many regular readers know, I spent some very good years in the Tokyo suburbs of Kasukabe and Hachioji.  So I am always interested in events over there.

And in the "if I had a million dollars" category, Vacheron Constantin is right up there, so today it is (at least for me) a treat!

Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin

 With a brand new boutique in Tokyo's Ginza district - or as we used to refer to it:
"If you have to ask the price, you can't afford it-town", Vacheron Constantin has also thrown some special releases to help celebrate -

Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin

A new Overseas Dual Time model -

Reference             47450/B01A-9800
Special product for Vacheron Constantin Tokyo Boutique

Caliber 1222 SC
Mechanical, self-winding
26.6 mm (11 ’’’ 1⁄2) diameter
4.85 mm thick
Approximately 40 hours power reserve 4Hz (28,800 vibrations/hour)
153 components 
34 jewels

Indications 
Hours Minutes
Center seconds
Date
Power reserve
Second time zone with day/night indication

Case 
Stainless steel
42 mm diameter, 12.45 mm thick
Solid caseback with stamped “Overseas” medallion
Screwed-down crown and pushpiece
Anti-magnetic protection certified to 25,000 A/m
Water-resistance tested at a pressure of 15 bar (approx. 150 metres)

Dial 
Black opaline dial with hand-guilloché date and dual time counters 
18K white gold hour-markers with white luminescent material
18K white gold hours and minutes hands with white luminescent material 
18K 5N pink gold applied Maltese cross and 5N gold-plated pfinodal seconds hand
“LIMITED EDITION TOKYO” secret signature under the power reserve segment

Bracelet 
Stainless steel


Clasp 
Stainless steel triple-blade folding clasp 


And a special version of the Traditionnelle - Traditionnelle Tokyo Boutique

 

Courtesy of Vacheron Constantin

Reference 82172/000R-9808
Hallmark of Geneva certified timepiece
Special product for Vacheron Constantin Tokyo Boutique

Caliber 
4400 AS
Developed and manufactured by Vacheron Constantin
Mechanical, manual-winding
28.6 mm (12 ’’’ 1⁄2) diameter
2.8 mm thick
Approximately 65 hours power reserve 
4Hz (28,800 vibrations/hour)
127 components 
21 jewels

Indications 
Hours Minutes
Small seconds at 6 o’clock

Case 
18K 5N pink gold
38 mm diameter, 7.77 mm thick
Transparent sapphire crystal caseback
Water-resistance tested at a pressure of 3 bar (approx. 30 meters)

Dial 
18K gold
Hand-guilloché black dial
“LIMITED EDITION TOKYO” secret signature at 12 o’clock

Strap 
Black Mississippiensis alligator leather, hand-stitched, saddle-finish, large square scales

Clasp 
18K 5N pink gold buckle
Polished half Maltese cross-shaped

Limited edition of 20 timepieces