Why I Bought It: Hajime Asaoka Tsunami

This is the story of a daily-wear watch: the Tsunami by Japanese independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka How the Hajime Asaoka Tsunami fits and why I bought it In my pal Terry's taxonomy of watch collecting, the Tsunami is pretty clearly a "Patronage" watch: one that celebrates the ingenuity and hard work of a leading independent maker and supports his or her ongoing self-expression.

For better or worse, one of the big watch manufacturing groups solved the problem of the "Titanium balance" labeling for me by asserting a patent on the use of that metal for watch balances; as Asaoka was in no position to afford a fight on the topic, some time was needed while he redesigned the movement to incorporate a 15 mm steel balance Quite a bit of it including an entire year that Asaoka devoted to the design of his splendid chronograph but during which he did not make my watch - or as far as I can tell any other watch Finally, at Baselworld 2018 the moment arrived: a delightful dinner with Asaoka, Sakurai, and longtime watch pal Michael at which I was presented at last with my Tsunami - and a request.

In terms of the watch itself, I would have preferred solid external surfaces on the lugs to the pierced lugs that it actually has; this is one consequence of Asaoka making his own cases, but I might humbly suggest that going forward he consider developing the capability for internal drilling of the spring bar holes. . Source