Interview with Mr Shuji Takahashi (SEIKO) by yonsson.com

Well, first of all, I am very happy to say that we are receiving a lot of requests and suggestions and input from our customers. That is true. I think it is a testament that there is more awareness towards Grand Seiko and higher levels of interest towards our brand.

I think one of the... as you know, Grand Seiko's designs are very unique—meaning, I don't know if it's the right word, but it's very minimalistic. And so of course more customers want to maintain the same quality and functions, but they want to have more breadth of design options.

Currently we have an initiative. Of course, we will continue to be true to the minimal design concept we have, but maybe bring it more into the sporty side or more to the elegant side. We want to be able to offer a broader range of complication. And another area for challenge is the high-end complications.

Of course we do welcome these inputs and suggestions from our customers, but we're not just automatically going to create something that meets their request. We need to go and exceed their expectations, and that's our mission. Therefore we have to work hard, and I hope you will have high expectations for the outcome of this process.

Well, the eight-day spring drive you mentioned—of course it's not something very obvious or flashy as people might say—but we've condensed all of our best technology, all the complications, and the high-level functionality we could offer into that product. So we've maintained a minimal concept, but I believe that we've been able to make it a real product of what Grand Seiko stands for. I think that's one good example.

You visited our Suwa factory, Morioka, right? And there we have another studio—that is not a Micro Artist Studio, but it's for the high-luxury watch studio, and they are very good at making the mechanical complications. So I think we will divide and define different roles and responsibilities for different studios we currently have, and they will do what they do best.

First, I am very surprised, overwhelmed, and also very grateful that you know so much about our history. I wanted to ask—would you ever work for us?

As well as my watch manufacturer, of course, there's a lot of historical products that we can look back on and anniversary products as well. Many companies do have such anniversary products that they tap into or utilize in their activities. And one good thing is that histories that are young, did not have much history, cannot actually have these. So we consider it to be our asset. Therefore, of course, we have in the past tapped into such historical assets, and I'm sure we will continue to do so.

And of course, having such historical representation of very good products we've had in the past—this is an act of paying respect to our predecessors, our forerunners who were able to develop such wonderful products. So I think it's very meaningful to have such projects and planning. But meanwhile, if we look back on our historical products, what we challenge ourselves today is to have a modern design, a new interpretation of such wonderful historical heritage we enjoy. We have to adopt new technologies, new manufacturing methods, new materials that could be used to represent this historical item that we all value so much. So in ways of respecting the history it offers us, I think we need to have a redesigning in a modern interpretation. So that's the challenge we're faced with.

I believe you've touched upon a very important question. Of course, when you are trying to enhance your brand value, the product itself, advertising is important—but just as important is the after-service in enhancing a brand. I'm aware that brands are built based on the reputation of the customers.

I'm sure you're aware that in Sweden and Norway, our partner is handling the after-services. But when it comes to Grand Seiko on the high end, which has special mechanical systems that need special services—that's a different positioning from the after-services we currently offer.

For Grand Seiko, we currently have five or eight different locations where we provide after-services in Europe. It's UK and Netherlands, and they have the officially certified Grand Seiko staff to take care of and fix any Grand Seiko product.

When it comes to polishing, currently it's only limited to Japan. And one of the key points that we are proud of as Grand Seiko is the high quality of finishing we have in our products. Because it is our strength, we need to start considering whether it is possible to have such a polishing service [abroad].