IN GRAND STYLE
Grand Seiko opens its first boutique in Singapore, a move that will expand its profile in the region, says Grand Seiko Asia-Pacific chairman and Seiko Watch Corporation president Akio Naito
Grand Seiko has gained significant traction since its debut last year as the only non-European brand to participate in Watches & Wonder, the largest watchmaking event in Geneva. Plans were already underway to expand its footprint into the region way before that.
This was revealed by Akio Naito, Grand Seiko Asia Pacific chairman and Seiko Watch Corporation president, on his recent trip to Singapore to officiate at the opening of Grand Seiko Asia Pacific at Marina Bay Sands last month. The opening marks a milestone for the brand as it expands its presence in the Asia Pacific region.
Speaking to Options in the VIP room at the corner of the boutique, Naito says that Grand Seiko Europe was created in 2020, at the peak of Covid-19. He says: “We made significant changes during the pandemic, and one was to open a new Grand Seiko boutique in Europe at Place Vendome, Paris. And it worked!” The opening in Europe follows closely on the heels of the US in 2018 and this year in Singapore.
The boutique in Singapore is designed to reflect Grand
Seiko’s brand philosophy, “The Nature of Time,” and its core values of takumi (Japanese for artisan) — tradition, nature and modernity. The store offered a unique experience for Grand Seiko fans, allowing them to engage more closely with the brand and discover exciting products exclusive to the boutique, such as the award-winning Kodo Constant-force Tourbillon SLGT003. The Japanese word for this timepiece is Kodo (“heartbeat”), the fundamental origin of all rhythms and its literal meaning.
As part of the grand opening celebrations for the boutique, Grand Seiko flew in from Japan the renowned taiko troupe, Kodo. Hailing from Sado Island, the troupe showcased their talents at the Digital Light Canvas at Marina Bay Sands.
Grand Seiko was born in 1960 and was part of the Seiko Watch Company until the split in 2017. The brand marked its independence with the debut of its very first movement; the Calibre 3180 was born. The movement achieved excellent accuracy, which was +12 to −3 seconds per day, equivalent to the superior grade of the chronometer standard set by the Bureaux Officiels de Contrôle de la Marche des Montres of the time. Grand Seiko is the culmination of many years of development
and was created using the company’s proprietary technologies by its watchmakers. This level of precision was made possible by using components made in-house and with the assembly and regulation of each watch.
Naito has had a long career in Seiko, holding various positions while witnessing the brand’s evolution. He joined the company in 1984 after obtaining a law degree in Japan. He served 16 years in the corporate legal department and was later appointed Seiko Australia’s
managing director.
He says: “That was my very first experience for me to manage an organisation. We had roughly 120 employees locally in Australia, and I gained management experience then. I returned to Tokyo from Australia to lead the legal department as general manager. In 2013, I became CFO of the holding company.” This was followed in 2105 by a stint in the US to develop Grand Seiko and restructure Seiko’s organisation. Naito says that it was not an easy job as, in 2016, the business
in the US was challenging as Grand Seiko was almost non-existent.
“I had to assemble a new team to be in charge of a luxury segment of our business. We leveraged social networks and cult followers in the US to raise brand awareness, and it worked. Just before the pandemic hit, I returned to Tokyo in 2019, and we established Grand Seiko Europe in 2020,” says the graduate and Fulbright scholar of Columbia University Law School in New York.
Before the doors of the Grand Seiko boutique were opened to the public, Options had an exclusive interview with Naito, where he shared the significance of having a flagship boutique in Singapore and the importance of winning a prestigious award.
Why open a boutique in Singapore?
When we were discussing where to go after New York and Paris, the obvious target was Asia. We chose Hong Kong and Singapore because these are the two major luxury watch cities. We finally decided on Singapore because of the political uncertainty in Hong Kong.
We decided to come to Singapore since we have a third-party distributor with whom we have had a very long-standing relationship for more than 50 years. Our distributor has been handling both Grand Seiko and Seiko. For the luxury segment, we needed a boutique to get closer to our consumers.
We decided to take a more hands-on approach instead of relying solely on our distributor to handle client interactions. Following extensive discussions with our distributor, we established Grand Seiko Asia Pacific in Singapore last October as a joint venture.
Online reports indicate that Grand Seiko is the only watchmaker as vertically integrated as Rolex. Do you agree?
I don’t know the details about the other European brands, but we are vertically integrated. We have in-house manufacturing and developing capabilities for materials, components, and everything else.
Will Grand Seiko be like the other luxury watch brands, where accessibility will be problematic for serious watch collectors?
I don’t foresee any difficulty in the next few years. Our new operation in Singapore has become so successful, beyond my expectations. For a very long time, the brand has been confined within the Japanese domestic market. When we started developing the overseas market, the first few years proved difficult because our focus has always been our product’s technical and technological superiority.
We are proud of our more than 100 years of watchmaking history, and Grand Seiko was always positioned as the pinnacle of all Seiko watches. When we launched Grand Seiko in the global market, we talked about the technological
advancement of the timepiece, movement, accuracy and legibility. After several years, we realised consumers in the luxury segment are interested in the brand’s technical, functional, and emotional value.
This was when we started talking about the heritage of watchmakers dedicated to pursuing fine watchmaking and the nature surrounding our studio. And all these combined, we have come to communicate — little by little — the uniqueness of a Japanese brand.
What makes Grand Seiko stand out against your competitors?
We try to communicate the uniqueness of the Japanese brand. For example, the brand philosophy of Grand Seiko is the nature of time. And nature connotes two different meanings. One is the essence of the origin of our watchmaking. We have several watchmakers who are dedicated and trained inhouse and have been working on pursuing excellent timepieces for many years. And the craftsmanship in Japan is called takumi.
That is an example of one characteristic of the brand, nature. The other nature is, of course, the beautiful, natural environment. Japan is rich in
the natural environment, we have four distinct seasons, and each season has a different landscape or colour, which inspires our designs.
Grand Seiko’s brand philosophy is behind the boutique’s new design aesthetics. Will there be more boutiques in the region using the same philosophy?
This design concept adopted for this boutique in Singapore is the very first. Previously, all our boutiques looked and felt the same, which is more dignified but slightly dark and luxurious, but it doesn’t appeal to the younger generation. Here we try to be more casual yet maintain the luxury aspect. This concept will be rolled out in our future boutiques.
The Grand Seiko Kodo Constant-force Tourbillon was awarded the Chronometry Prize at the 2022 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG). What does this mean for you?
For over 10 years, engineers worked very hard on developing Kodo. It is the very first mechanical complication model for Grand Seiko, and Grand Seiko’s DNA lies in the pursuit of accuracy. It was meant to compete against the top Swiss brands. Our engineers created a new movement design, not
because they wanted a complicated model added to the collection but a model to be born out of Grand Seiko.
It has to be consistent with the DNA of the brand and the pursuit of accuracy. Finally, our designers successfully integrated constant force and tourbillon on the same axis, which ensures the stability of the accuracy, and the jury of GPHG appreciated it.
How far do you want to take Grand Seiko? What are some strategies you’d like to implement?
Seiko has always been a mid to lower price segment outside of Japan, while Grande Seiko is positioned in the luxury segment. From a luxury standpoint, we must get closer to our customers, as customer relationships are extremely important.
Having a boutique lets us control the customer experience at each shop front. It is very important in how we project our image and communicate the brand story. We formed the GS9 Club, a membership organisation for watch enthusiasts who purchased a Grand Seiko timepiece to do this. In Singapore, we have 500 members, and in Japan, we have 40,000 members.