The Origins and History of the Japanese Watch Industry

The Origins and History of the Japanese Watch Industry
By John P Stevens

Since the ancient times, the concept of time has been existent in one way or another. It is a fact that clocks and watches were developed much later, but the people in the ancient times have always used some phenomenon to measure and keep track of time. In ancient times, there has been everything from hourglasses and water clocks to fire clocks and sundials.

Watches were made in Japan in different forms, before watch making became an industry. According to the Chronicles of Japan, it was in 671 that the Emperor Tenchi produced a water clock. As far as the watch industry in Japan is concerned, it goes back to the time of arrival of Christianity. This happened in the mid sixteenth century.

The first mechanical clock is believed to have been made in Japan in 1551. This is the oldest clock to have existed, and it was a given to a feudal lord of Japan as a gift from a Spanish missionary. After this clock, more mechanical clocks followed. This is believed to be the start of clock and watch-making in Japan as an industry.

This was called as the Pre-Edo period, in which the Japanese learnt from the Christian missionaries not only the art of making watches and clocks, but also organs as well as astronomical equipment. The Edo Era followed the Pre-Edo era, and in this period, the Japanese produced many unique ornamental clocks.

This period lasted from 1603 to 1868. The clocks in this period were truly Japanese because the traditional Japanese time system had been incorporated in these watches. In the Japanese time system, the day was divided into night-time and daytime, and each of these was further divided into six segments.

There were many master clock and watchmakers in the Edo Era. The clocks in this era consisted of wall clocks as well as those that were spring driven and could be placed on cabinets or shelves. By this time, the production of clocks with complex functions had started. These included calendars, chimes and alarms.

1868 to 1945 was the period of the birth as well as growth of the modern watch and clock making industry. This era is known in history as the Early Meiji Era. The start of this modern era was when the manufacture of wall clocks started in 1875. It was in 1894 that Osaka, which was a Japanese company, started making pocket watches, with the assistance of equipment and engineers from the US.

By the end of this era, there were more than twenty factories in Japan that were making more than 3.8 million timepieces on an annual basis. From that time till the end of the World War II, pocket watches were manufactured by Japan and were widely used.

The Japanese watch industry had support from the government, and a private sector institute was established that constantly worked on the improvement of domestic watches. In the 1920s, the manufacture of wristwatches was started by the Japanese; and, instead of a necessity, wristwatches became a symbol of fashion and still remain to be so.