Haruo Suekichi’s watches have an antique yet futuristic look. From October 2009 to February 2010, he exhibited his watches at the Oxford Steampunk Exhibition as the only Japanese contributor. Being the leading Japanese Steampunk artist, what does he think about his work, talent, and career? As we interviewed him he shared with us the story of how his impressive timepieces came to be and let us get an idea about the man behind their creation.

●HARUO SUEKICHI
Born in Aomori prefecture, 1970. After graduating from an industrial high school, he worked at a printing company, in a wholesale store and then began his career as a watchmaker under the name, “Suekichi Haruo Ude Dokei (末吉晴男時計).” He doesn’t call himself an artist, but simply a watchmaker. All elements of his timepieces are made by hand, from the belts and frames, to even the clock hands and dial faces. Suekichi’s watches, which are “steampunk” in style, have been garnering worldwide attention. From October 2009 to February 2010, he exhibited his watches at “Steampunk” an exhibition hosted by the Museum of the History of Science, at the University of Oxford, UK. The steampunk style tries to capture a feeling of Victorian-era England and futuristic technology. His innovative, yet nostalgic creations can be found at Chikyu Saibai, in Yoyogi Uehara, Tokyo, as well as, Tabasa and Little Tabasa in Shimokitazawa.
●Official Website: http://www.eager-beavers.net/suekichi/tokei.htm

― How did you become interested in watchmaking in the first place?
I’m an industrial high school graduate and I have always loved making things, but I become a fan of watches when I was working at a gadget wholesale store. One of the store’s suppliers was a watchmaker and I used to go and watch him build watches. I wasn’t really taught how to make them, but started learning by watching and then tinkering around on my own.

― You watch and learn and boom! Became a watchmaker?
Oh, no, no. At first I just copied what they were doing, made very simple watches. I also started trying to sell them at flea markets, with no luck, though.

― Your style is known for having ‘gimmicks’ with springs and steampunk designs. How did they become this way?

It all started when a one-armed man approached me at a flea market. He asked me if I could come up with a design that he could put on with one hand. That was the first time I used springs and changed the angles of the watch face. When he put his arm down on the watch it just snapped on–he was really pleased. This chance meeting really sparked my creativity, and in a lot of ways opened up a new door for me. I began to think of fun gimmicks, strange and unusual looks, watches that were more than just instruments to tell time. The more creative I got, the more fun I had making them.

Also the word steampunk – I never even knew that word before some magazine introduced my watches as one. (laugh) Now I know that brass and leather are important features in the steampunk style, but I had started using them just because they were the best materials for making watches and were easy to use.

― Really! But even apart from Steampunk, the design and gimmicks are so unique and different. What inspires you? I’ve heard you liked Galaxy Express 999, the Sci-Fi comic books by Reiji Matsumoto. Have his comic book images influenced you?

Well, it’s true that I like his work, but a lot of that is due to the fact that they were the only comic books my father ever bought for me. They must have influenced me somehow, but I am not sure how or where in my designs. To tell you the truth, it’s not the design aspect that inspires me when I see something. I’d rather go for fun or funny things and try to express that with watches. Like when something has a funny or interesting look, I turn it into a watch. Other than that, I think of what kind of fun I can have and I create watches from my imagination. It’s more like a toy or gadget for me than a real watch.

― I always thought of your work as playful, but they actually are aimed at and based on playing. What kind of things have you dreamed up and turned into a watch?

For example, I made a watch called “Goki-jet” (a famous cockroach insecticide), and a cockroach toy jumps out of it. Or my watch that is a toy gun that can be loaded with rubber bands and fired. Recently I’ve made a watch called “CICADE”, because I had a chance to watch the birth of cicada nymphs, and I found it both beautiful and interesting. Funnier ones would be my “Haruo’s Moving Hips” (Haruo no Ugoku Koshi), which I named after Hayao Miyazaki’s famous animation Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl no Ugoku Shiro), or there is one that holds condoms that I call, “Zetsurin Suekichi”. The funny thing is that this one is being used in a TV show; a really good looking guy, the romantic lead in a love story is wearing it, and all I can think is, “When the heck is he gonna use it?”

This beautiful, artistic look on this watch is from cicada nymphs.

― Wow! You have quite an imagination…
What can I say? I’m delusional. (laugh) I want my watches to really stand out – in a way that if you wear one at a bar, people will start talking about it. I want them to be a trigger for communication.

― I see. You make a lot of other toys and gadgets besides watches too, right? Like the frog toys you make and sell at the frog festival in Nagano every year?

Yes, I make many kinds of toys, games and gadgets. Basically I make whatever I want to play with. I’ve been out to the frog festival for the last 5 or 6 years and my frogs are becoming more and more popular, they’re really hard to get now!

― How about when you were young, what type of things did you create?

Now that you’ve asked, I’m remembering that I’ve always been a bit of a tinkerer. In elementary school I was extraordinarily good at making paper airplanes. You know, the ones that turn the way you want, flip and dive, make loops. I tried to make planes that could fly differently, and to think about it now, the feeling of making paper airplanes is very similar to how I feel making watches now.

― So you were a paper airplane genius! Even when you were little, you were very creative, had a spirit of inquiry, and were crafty.

I guess. But on the other hand, I got bored of building plastic models really quickly; I don’t think I ever even completed a single one. I used to light the unfinished parts on fire and call them, “bombed combat vehicles.”

― Again, very out of the box! I think we need to put down “Please don’t try this at home?” (laugh) But seriously, for me it looks like all of your creativity, imagination, and talent is channeled into your watchmaking: from the shaping and design of brass and leather to the calligraphy on the faces-to everything! For you, what’s so special about your watches compared to more conventional ones?

What’s special; meaning how are they different? Hmm… I’d have to say that they are my meal tickets! (laugh) How can they be a meal ticket? Well, the reason is simple-they can tell time, accurately. Hmm, maybe I’m not putting it right… well, a watch is like a toy to me, but still a watch is a watch and it needs to work and be practical, unlike other toys I make. Whenever I make a watch, it carries the responsibility of ticking the right time and that responsibility is on me. That makes it work for me, not just a fun pastime.

― I think I know what you mean… Watches are the only things that are not toys or gadgets.

Well, to me, they are just toys or gadgets. (laugh)

― Yes, of course for you they are toys! But I think that kind of playful mentality is the essence of your creativity, it’s something that inevitably draws people’s attention. I mean, when I look at your watches I don’t just look, I want to know the stories behind every one of them. And, I’ve heard they’ve been hot news overseas too! How do you feel about that? I hear people from all over the world come to your shops to buy your watches.

With all the attention, nothing has really changed. I haven’t done anything differently. I just sit in my studio, making watches all day. Because I’m working away in my studio, I can’t really feel or get the sense that people outside of Japan are interested in my watches. I rarely meet them. Now, about that Oxford exhibition… that one really created sort of a buzz back with my family in Aomori. It was more like, “We’ve all heard of Oxford! So it must be really famous!” you know.

Suekichi style gadget watch, which can hold a cracker inside.

― You mean the one that was held from last October to February this year? That really was something, though. I heard it was quite a success.

See, I don’t really know that either. Heard that my father was bragging a little bit though. (laugh)

― He should! It was really big! I also hear that there are people from all over the world, wondering if you are ever going to sell your watches outside of Japan?

I would like to! I mean, I just don’t know how to. As you know, I am a very domestic sort of person and this morning I noticed that my passport had expired. (laugh)

― I like that you are so relaxed. Well, if not selling them overseas, what are your plans with your watches? Do you have some kind of goal?

The plan is not to have a plan. I’d rather focus on what I want to make now, and follow my heart.

― That sounds very natural, very much like you. Ok, the last question. Tell us 10 things about watches in general or the making of watches.

10! Wow, you really want to give me a hard time at the end, don’t you? (laugh)

Won’t be very organized, but let’s see… Well, as for watches, excuse myself for telling you this but 1) they bug me by telling the time, 2) they are something we can live without if we want to… but 3) they come in very handy when making cup-noodles!

Ok, to go on… 4) a watch is something that keeps reminding me that I have such little time for anything. Yet 5), making them or looking at them is a nice way of spending time, 6) something that is so rarely fair to everything, I mean, all those high fashion brand watches and my gadget watches have the EXACT same ability in terms of telling time. 7) Simply, they are my meal ticket, 8 ) are communication tools, 9) and my watches should be funny and make people laugh or smile.

And the last one is the most important: 10) making watches gives me the chance to think and learn about a wide range of things and this gives me wisdom. Like, I simulate how one person wears my watch and moves with it, so I think about human body: bones and arm muscles, movements of joints. I also imagine situations like “what kind of role should this watch play if a guy wearing it is on a date?” and I think about the philosophy of love and dating. Making watches lets me dream and imagine things I wouldn’t normally get to think about.

― Wow! The last one is fantastic! For a second, I have to admit, I wondered if it was going anywhere… (laugh) but it did! And it’s the perfect close of this interview! Thank you very much for today, Mr. Suekichi!

Thank you, too. Well, I hope the last 10 answers are usable in this article! (laugh)

* His side project of frog toys are going to be available at the Art Market of Sancha de Daidogei (三茶de大道芸) on October 16th-17th.　Also at Wonder Festival in February and July 2011.

* Another interview with Haruo Suekichi can be found online at CrunchGear, TechCrunch, and TechCrunch Japan.