Haruo Suekichi

Haruo Suekichi has made thousands of watches, each with an individual name.  And to think it all started with a one-armed man at a flea market in Japan.


Chief Magazine: So first of all, where are you from?

Suekichi: That would be...Aomori.

Oh, that's like...[Draws banana shape and points to very top]...here, on Japan's main island?

Yea, Hokkaido [Island] is above [the banana], and yea, there, at the top.

And it snows...

A LOT.

Were you into snowboarding or skiing, then?

Snowboarding? Nah, I can't do anything that has to do with sliding.  When I was a kid, if it snowed a lot, and I went out to play, I had to shovel, and then there would always be more snow, and that, well, it wasn't playing really, it turned into work. [laughs]

[laughs] What about other hobbies, as a kid?

When I was a kid...um...lets see...I guess the one that stands out is making stuff...out of clay, or building models, yea, basically anything making stuff.

Like Gundam models?

Yea, plan models and so on. Of course, if I got something like that from, say, my dad, I didn't make it like I was supposed to. If I had a battleship model, I might throw a Gundam guy's foot on there... even if I started out following directions properly; I always ended up taking a side track to... somewhere.

You'd throw out the directions?

Yea, sometimes right from the start. [laughs]

So when did you start getting interested in making watches?

Well I moved to Tokyo when I changed jobs... first I was working at a print shop. I did blue.

Blue?

Yes, I did the blue color printing.  Then my back went bad, and I started to work in a toy store, as a salesman. Across from the toy store was a watchmaker, and he would sometimes come over during work hours, and we became friends. I asked him if he could teach me how to make watches, and... [nods].

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Oh, so you never went to school specifically to learn how to make watches?

No, no, I went as far as high school.

So you were like an apprentice? That's very cool...

Yes, well, in the end, I made very strange watches so he threw me out.

So before working at the toy store, you didn't have any knowledge or interest in watch making?

Yeah, that's right. And then...at first, I was just playing around, and all of a sudden I had made thirty watches. So I thought, hey, maybe I should see if I can sell these.  So I took them around to many different shops, showed them around, hoping a shop might buy them wholesale...and I didn't sell a single one!  What should I do, I thought.  The watchmaker told me - cause he was my master -

[Not understanding the word "master" in Japanese] What does that mean?

Like in Star Wars, you know Obi-Wan Kenobi and...

Oh, right! Master and apprentice. You don't see that sort of relationship so much these days, with there being specialized schools for everything.

Yea...like even now, we don't talk anymore, but he sees my work and has to recognize what I've accomplished, and I, when I see his work, I respect it and realize I need to keep working hard.  So even without talking, there's a relationship there.

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So your work was too unique to be sold wholesale?

Yes, right, yes... so I didn't sell a single one, and my master told me, well, if you don't sell them, you won't make any money, so find some way to sell them.  So I went to a flea market with my watches, and there on the first day, I sold seven! So I thought, wow this is really great! So I had until the next Saturday, the next flea market day, to create new ones... and that's how it started, I made watches during the week and sold them at the flea market.

So did your watches start out as unique as they are now, or have you built up to this level of weird?

In the beginning, they were pretty simple, a strange drawing maybe, but that's about it.  But at the flea market, a one-armed man came up to me. And he said to me, well, with only my left arm, I can't put on a watch. Wow, I thought, he's right...I wonder if I could make a watch like that? So I made - and you can see one upstairs in the showcase - I made a watch that you put your wrist in it and it shuts around your wrist.

And then from there I kept having more ideas, more "gimmick" ideas, and it was very interesting to me, so I kept doing it...like for example, I thought it would be good if you could use a watch on your thumb, here instead of here, on an angle close to the base of your thumb instead of flat on your wrist, so if your sleeve comes down, you can

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still see the time, or riding a bike, it would be easy to see. Even if you have your arm way out above you for some reason, you can still see the time.

So at first, these sort of off-the-wall ideas were based on functionality? A watch for a one-armed man, a watch you can see easily while riding a bike...

Have you ever made a watch where you think, Oh, this is too out there, this is too hard for people to wear?

Um, yea! Every time! [laughs] Every time, every time...I make a watch, look at it, and think nobody will want to wear this. But, but, I think my customers, they understand that this is part of it, they say, it's interesting, so it's fine.

So how long does it take to make a watch?

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Hmm...well...if things are going my way, if I'm having a good day, one in 24 hours...one in one day.

From design to finished product?

Yes, all the way to creating the leather straps. Well, say I am making six copies of the same design, then, in one week, I will create and design and finish in that one week. I think about the week and work out a schedule to fit.

When you are making a watch, then, do you work focused on one design at a time, or do ideas sometimes pop in your head for other watches?

Oh, if I'm working on one watch, like this one [points to his current work in progress] and I get an idea, I'll stop what I'm doing, you know, like, get tired of it, and turn over here, to the side, and draw out an idea...that happens sometimes when I'm reading the
newspaper, or watching baseball..[laughs]

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[laughs] So where did you get the inspiration for your current watch, Fly Me To The Moon? [Fly Me to the Moon is a watch that uses layers of glass and drawings to create shortened perspective, with two black cats on a fence in the foreground, city buildings in the middle, and a crescent moon in the back.]

Well, way back when, when I was making normal watches, the watch face numbers...     I couldn't really make it interesting, because at first I only knew how to play with the drawing, not the watch itself [takes out a book of snapshots of his watches] These are pictures from ten years, but here's one where I started to play a bit with creating

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perspective, and I guess I returned to that idea this time...

And what about the city drawing, is that from an actual place?

Well, I guess it's a jumble of city images, from old picture books I remember, or from Thailand, where I just was...

When I looked on your site, I saw a watch called Daddy-Finger, which I thought was really interesting...but because I can't read Japanese very well, at first I thought it said Dali-Finger, and I thought perhaps you were doing a take on his melting clocks...   I reread it and realized I was wrong, but do you have any artists that you particularly like or are inspired by?

No... I worked at a print shop right? Doing blue color and then at a toyshop...I don't really know anything about artists and art... I'm not really familiar with it. I simply make what I want to make, and there are people who want to buy my work, and so I can make a living.  There are some, I guess, artists that I respect, like Sakabashira Imiji, a manga artist [shows me a page of a very convoluted, detailed comic book], this sort of things gives me ideas...

Looking online, it seems like there's a name for each one... do you name all your watches?

Oh the names? [laughs] Well, really, I used to not want to have any names. If I use names, people who see a watch they like, they may have some image of it in their minds, but if I have a name for it, especially a strange name, it will restrict their imagination.  So I didn't want names, but really, it's a business, and when it came time to actually sell a watch, in Japan, we write everything on paper, and if I just wrote "watch", well, I'd never know which one! [laughs] So then I had no choice.

And do you remember all those names?

Oh, no, I can't even remember the watch I made three days ago.

Online, it seems like each watch has a profile or little story... do you write that once and then forget about it?

Yea, that's right...you know, I use a lot of aluminum in my work, and you know, all that metal is entering my body little by little, maybe I swallow some, and it gets stuck on my brain, so my head is getting weird so I forget some things almost instantly.

What about the watch you made called, Michael Knows Before? Do you remember why you called it that?

Oh, yes, well...that one...I think I created it without having a thought in my head, and then when I thought, oh I guess it needs a name, I thought, it kind of looks like a strange nose...and you know, Michael Jackson's nose is always changing so...

MICHAEL'S NOSE BEFORE?

Yea, that's right. Michael's Nose Before. [Looking very puzzled while we hit the floor laughing]

Okay, okay...well how about the one called "For Winter"? It's so much simpler than your other designs, very elegant...

Well, For Winter...it's all white, so when you just look at it, you can't even see the hands, but if you look close, you can see little white hands moving and white numbers, and little flakes of snow turning around...it's all white, so it's hard to see. In Japan, if you make a Christmas themed thing, it gets sold up until Christmas, but afterwards nobody wants to buy it, so I wanted to make something with an image of winter that wasn't specifically Christmas.  Also, it's not a normal wristwatch, it's meant to be a pocket watch, and the reason for that is...Do you know the writer O'Henry?  He wrote a story called "The Gift of the Magi". It's a story about a husband and a wife.  They are poor, but the husband sells his pocket watch to be able to buy her a comb, and the wife sells her hair in order to buy a chain for his watch. For both of them, it seems in vain, but they had thought about each other, sacrificed for each other...I think it's a beautiful story, and I wanted to make a watch for the story.  The husband, his pocket watch was initially attached with leather because he didn't have a chain, and so I decided to make a pocket watch like that, along with an implied theme of Christmas.

What about Daddy-Finger? What's the story behind that one? I read that you meant for it to be very practical to have a watch on your thumb, but after making it turned out to be a very difficult watch to wear.

[laughs] I thought having the watch on the side would be good, but it required a loop to be made to attach to the wrist, but then, moving the wrist around becomes very difficult, and so I made another part for the joint of the thumb, thinking oh, yea, this'll make it much easier! But, yea, after making it, I realized it was even harder to wear!

There was also mention of a watch similar to that one called Papa-finger. Do you always make series of watches?

It depends on demand, really...in this case I think I made four or five different variations...and the names...in Japanese, we called the thumb the father finger, the pointer the mother finger, older brother, older sister, and youngest child, so...

So that's where Papa and Daddy-finger came from.... Why is it that you often use English for your names?

Well, Japanese people think English is cool.  If I named it "father finger" in Japanese, maybe Japanese would find it kind of... off, not cool.

So Japanese really think English is cool?  I guess if they hear a name like Daddy-finger, they can create a vague image from the name...

Yeah...Although I guess all in Japanese would be easier to understand!

So these watches seem almost like your friends...are you ever sad to see them go?

Hmmm... In the beginning, with watches that I had worked hard to make, I think I might have been a bit of sad.  But now, ideas are always coming to me, and I want to sell the ones I'm making so I can move on, and in this way I keep making more and more new ones.  And once they are made, well, if they're just there, like this [points to a finished watch], they don't have any meaning, you see?  Watches aren't anything before they're on someone's arm.  So I am happy once they are bought, once their life begins.  I mean, I only have two arms, you know? I can't wear them all! So it's better if someone else has them...

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So how long have you been making watches?

In the beginning, with the flea market, my main work was still the toy store, so I made watches and sold them at the flea market only on my free time, but if you start from there...I guess it's been 12 or 13 years.

How many watches have you made in total?

Wow...ok, well I've never kept count, so this is really rough but...probably 6 or 7000? Around there...

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That's amazing!! So really, from 12 years ago, you've been making watches every single day?

Well, pretty much...but also, recently, it's more complex, and it really takes a full day to make one, but the ones I made in the beginning were really simple, so I could make around 30 in a day.

So how does your process work, from when you first have an idea to when you have a finished piece? Do you make detailed sketches first, or go about it once you have the materials in hand?

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Well, for example...[pulls out a little notepad with rough drawings of watches]...like this little drawing of a woman I saw, she was wearing a baby sling that crossed over her breasts, like this...it was really sexy, and I wondered if I could somehow use the shape in a watch...and this one, well I've already made this, but it's a sketch for the watch that pops out a menthol inhaler when you pull this ring, so in the drawing...like, thinking about it, wherever you put the ring it'll be in the way, but I tried to figure out the best place for it...and let's see...

So you take one of these drawings and then you start using actual materials?

Yea, and just like when I was making plan models and not looking at the directions, in the end it's sometimes totally different...first I draw something out, and then I start to make it, thinking it will look like that, and then the finished piece is sometimes fairly changed.  I don't really know until I've made it.

The people that see your work...do you think it takes time for people to get used to your aesthetic, or do they immediately appreciate it?

Recently, well, no, in the beginning, ten years ago, people kind of thought the watches were just weird, they kind of stayed back.  For the most part, people didn't stop to look.  But now, recently, the number of people in Japan who understand these kinds of jokes and ideas has grown. Now people come to see them just because they hear that they are strange.  I think sort of uncertain things make people curious...you know...does this watch really work?? But hell, I'll buy it! [laughs]

[laughs] So people as a whole got used to your work over time?

Yea, and you know, if you have on one of my watches, and you go out drinking or whatever, or you go out with your friends, people ask about it.  There's a chance of meeting people, there's a chance of communicating...so when you have on one of my watches, it's an easy way to start talking with people, and then it requires an explanation, and so through my watch you can sort of expand your network of people. It's a social tool!  People wearing my watches might meet a lot of people, and then those people might talk about it...and so in that way, too, people wearing my watches have sort of introduced them to other people and so on, and I kind of think, maybe that's helping me sell watches too? Word of mouth...

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Is it possible to also buy your watches in other countries right now?

A while back, I was dealing wholesale with one place in France, but that deal is no longer around, so...and then, New York, I'd like to sell in New York, but I went there a few years back on vacation, and brought some of my watches to show around to galleries, and they all said no. But I also went around to New York hardware stores, and to places that sell clockwork, like the inside moving parts of watches, and no matter where I went, they really liked the watches.

And, I remember, I went in to one store and showed them a watch, trying to ask if they had that kind of material for sale, and the guy says to me, "Oh fuck you! Come on!" and I was like, "Huh? 'Fuck you'?" And then he turns to his friend and say, "Look at this fucking crazy watch this mother fucker made!" And I was like, "Why are they calling me a mother fucker?"  But really, they had bad mouths but they were super, super nice. He asked me, that guy, to please always buy from him if I was in New York making watches.  They're a bit like the people of Asakusa in Tokyo, them, too...they're not very polite but...there are many of those sort of material shops in that somewhat poorer, old-town area, and they say, "Oh, look, the porker's back again"  but they are very nice.  Yea, in New York, when I was looking for the clockwork store, I asked someone for directions, and they were like, "Yea, c'mon Jap" or something like that but then they were very helpful and walked with me a bit to show me the way, and I was like, thank you, thank you.

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So right now, you do have your website, but it's all in Japanese, so non-Japanese would have a hard time...

I mean, I have thought it would be great to sell in New York, but right now, they're only available in Japan.

Would you like to introduce your watches to other countries then?

Yes, I am definitely interested in that...the thing is, dealing with taxes and so on would be a lot of work, so perhaps ideally, I would sell my watches wholesale to a Japanese company and they could handle the transactions more effectively.

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If I do it myself, the shipping fees alone would mean I wouldn't really make any profit at all...

Have you thought about creating your website in English?

That's an idea...you know the mark Nike? Nike shoes...what are you wearing, Puma?

Err, no, these are fakes.

Well, anyway, the president of Nike...him, does he actually have one of my watches? Well, anyway, I met him once, and he bought one of my works. So I thought maybe they could do well in America, because he liked them...

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I definitely think you would be able to find people who'd want to buy them!

But they are a little expensive...they're about 10,000 yen, so how much would it be in New York, it'd be a little over $100, wouldn't it?

If it was around 10,000 yen, then it would be around - using the current exchange rate, anyway - about $90.  Damn, that's cheap!

Really? Well, if it's a more complex 'gimmick' model, it'd be more expensive; they go up to around 20,000 yen, so...$180? Around there?

Yea, yea, oh, there's definitely people that would want them!

Really? Oh, man, now I really wanna go to New York! [laughs]

[laughs] So what about other countries, like in Europe?

Oh, from my side, Europe would be great, but you know, places like Switzerland or France...they've got a long history of watch making, and I show them my watches, they call them toys.

You mean they're snobby?

Well, it's okay to call them toys, I mean, I don't mind them being called toys, but they wonder maybe, can you sell a toy like this for $180? Probably not...

But in Japan, over the years, your watches have gotten popular, haven't they?

I don't know if you could say popular...I guess I have built up a sort of core base of fans, but I wouldn't say popular...okay, maybe a little popular...but it's hard for me to say that, you know! [laughs]

[laughs] Well, all right, let's turn back to the watches...would you consider yourself to be a creative watchmaker, or an artist using the medium of timepieces?

Wow, what an interesting question.  Well, since I was a little kid I was never good at studying...my head just didn't work like that, and school, I went to a technical school, not a very good one...didn't study art. Once I started working with watches, and started thinking about time, the concept of time, I started studying lots of things, like how people think, and sixth sense, and anything dealing with the flow of time... all of that stayed in my head. So, what we call time, um, let's see, so in one day there are only 24 hours, but how you spend that time is what makes it important, and how I can show that sort of time, flexible time on a watch... So maybe it would be better to make things that aren't watches, because looking at a watch can be a bummer.  When you're at a bar, you chill out, and suddenly you look at a clock and realize it's time for last train.  In Japan we call that unrefined time. Time in a clock is regimented, "real", but when you are drinking, having a good time, during that space of time, you forget about "real" time...and then you suddenly see a clock and think, 'oh, shit, got work tomorrow' and so on... If I was drinking in a bar, instead of seeing a regular clock with hands and numbers, if it was a whisky bottle that worked like an hourglass, going down with the hour, that would be more fun, to replace a watch with that.  If you think about it that way, if we didn't need watches and time, I wouldn't make watches, but we do need them, so at least I can try and do it in a fun and interesting way.

On your profile, you said, you don't like the idea of time constantly flowing or the idea of it stopping. Instead, you like to make fun of it. So how would YOU define time?

Oh, I've been thinking about it forever but I don't really know yet...fun, interesting time runs away so quickly, you think, it's been an hour? How did that happen? An hour was so short...right? But if you're doing tedious work, work you don't like, you think, ah man, it's still not over, it's still not over...
 
So time, is, people's memory, the past...because we have memories that follow one after the other, we have a concept of time's progress.  The accumulation of those memories is time...I think.  For example, these types of watches, my watches, that are interesting beyond just telling time...like, you might think, "Oh, two hours ago, my watch was blinking and making noise" - if you have a watch like that - then you can sort of make a mark on time, make a mark in the progress of time with a memory, and have a better recollection of what happened between - how much time has passed - between the last time you looked at your watch and now.  The progress of time and memories are like a path you go along, and certain memories stand out as markers...that's kind of how I think of time, I guess, how I look at time...

Some people say you can tell a lot about a man by his clothes or his shoes. Some say it's his watch. What do you think?

Oh, look at a person and understand them by their outward appearance, their clothes or shoes or watch? I don't know...I mean, I worked at a print shop doing blue color, I don't think I look at people - I don't look at a person, like, I don't look at your shoes and think, oh she must do boxing [zee sporting boxer-style boots]... I mean, everybody wears things for different reasons...maybe it's cuz my head's not on all that straight, but I don't think I can conceive that strong of an image from what someone is wearing...

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Would you say that you can say something about the people that would want to wear your watches? Or, on your profile you kinda made fun of Rolex watches, what about people who wear really expensive watches?

Hmm, well, those really expensive watches are really well made, you know, that's a reason to have them, I mean, I wouldn't mind having one!  But these watches, my silly watches, people that are willing to buy one of these for, say, $180, their hearts must be at ease, or maybe, open, unprejudiced...I mean they must be people who have very interesting thoughts...

What else characterizes the type of person you think buys your watches?  

Yea, definitely quirky people, people who like jokes and making fun...  People with my watches are outgoing...people who like talking, communicating with other people...I think all in all they're a pretty interesting group!

So I heard you made a Christmas tree a few years ago in the same style as your watches, can you tell me about that?

Well, it was about 6 meters high, and there was a light on the top, in the inside, and hang on...I need to draw it out...so here's the shape of the Christmas tree, and then it was lit up by this inner light, and this inner light had a shadow on the ground underneath the tree, and that shadow was a clock.

Wow, that sounds amazing!

Yea, unfortunately, the light was sort of weak, and it was a bit difficult to see the clock working...

What did people around think of it? And where is it now?

Oh, it's all back to scraps now...you know Hallmark? Right...so the Japan Hallmark Company held a party, and asked me to make it.  I think they thought it was cool...

How did you get connected with Hallmark?

I didn't have a direct connection with them, but a designer friend of mine who works there put them and me together.

Do you have any watch design that you think is really strange, or that you think is different than the others, that really stands out?

Among my watches? I like things that are complex but well organized, logical...for example, cell phones.  Cell phones, everything jammed together, they can be credit cards [in Japan, this is true!!], clocks, schedulers, memos, phone, e-mail, internet, you can do all that, it's amazing.  But then you don't need a watch anymore, you don't need a notebook, you don't need anything. And then regular objects that used to be useful become sort of boring.  So for me, for my watches, I seem to make things with unnecessary functions, but if it is well put together, that makes me very happy. If I look up in the showroom, the ones that are like that stand out. Like the moon watch I showed you earlier...the ones that have these gimmicks well put together, they can do more than just tell time, but they're not as serious-minded as cell phones. [laughs]

When you say "gimmick", what do you mean? In English, it can have a negative meaning, but often when an English word is used in Japanese, its meaning changes.  When I look at your watches, I don't think of them as "gimmicky", they're a little bit more than that, aren't they?

Well, my work isn't heavy! It's light stuff, really, at heart.

I think the amount of work and thought you put in your work makes the word "gimmick" seems a little bit too light.

Well, thank you very much.  Hmm, yea, English is tough...well, Japanese is hard too! When I was in New York, and when those guys said "Fuck you" and "mother fucker" to me, at first I said "Fuck you!" back, but you know, they were being casual with me, because they liked me, and I realized they were actually nice.  And my teacher, he used to call me, "idiot", but it was in a kind way.  And maybe, it's kind of like, you know, Japanese are always humble, putting down their own work, you know, even when they're proud of it...in school and so on, saying, "Oh, I wrote this poor little foolish paper", whereas foreigners, if they are proud of something, they will say, "Look at this great paper I wrote!" So maybe, in the same way, I thought using a phrase like "gimmick watches" would be a good way to not boast about my work.

How was the reaction to your work in France?

Well, in France, I sold my watches through a friend...and in France they were in a watch shop, but they didn't all sell, and well, it seems that they became his personal collection.

Are there quite a few foreigners who buy your work?

Um, well, when I went to Thailand, there was a Volvo - you know the car - a Volvo publicist who bought one of my watches...but let's see, in Japan, yea, there are some, I guess a few that come by the shop and buy something...

What were you doing in Thailand?

Oh, I was there for a music festival. I heard about it on the radio. I love radios. I have radios all over here [gestures around to several dirty little radios peeking out from the mayhem] The festival was great.  There was blues, rock, pop, everything.  It was a lot of fun! There were musicians from all over Asia.

Well, thank you so much for everything! As a final question, can you tell me about a time when you were gonna die, or maybe the most embarrassing thing that's ever happened to you?

Ooooooooooooo.....hmmmmmmm.....a time when I was afraid for my life...well, there must have been a time, there must have been a lot of times, I think...driving and so on...but you know, I'm a really forgetful person, so maybe, even if my life was in danger, it's always turned out OK, so then I don't think about it anymore.

There was a time when I was a kid that apparently I was really sick, in the hospital for a while, but I don't remember that either! And as you can see, I got pretty tall and kinda chubby so! [laughs]

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[laughs] Guess that turned out OK too!

Yea. And for the most embarrassing...generally speaking, I'm always doing embarrassing things without meaning to, so I don't really think about it anymore.  Yea...it's hard to pick one that stands out, but here's one...  I had to go the bathroom, and i went to a public bathroom, and I had to do No. 2., and I swear I locked the door!! So you know, I had my pants around my ankles, and sat down, and just then I hear a knock on the door, and a guy asks, "Is there anybody in there?" And so I went to knock back, to let him know I was in there, and when I knocked, the door slowly swings open on its hinges [laughs] He was like what the....?!?!! And I was like "Ooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhh!!" And then because it opened outwards, I couldn't close it, so I had to ask him to close it.

[laughing] I guess he figured out someone was in there.

Yea, it was pretty clear. I didn't really want to come out after that though!

Website

Japanese only, sorry!

Photos

Jun Zee Myers

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