Buying, Selling, & Collecting: I’m Obsessed With This Japanese Microbrand

The term “microbrand” technically refers to any small independent watchmaker that’s not part of a multinational conglomerate. But in reality it has other connotations. It usually suggests a company producing casual watches at low prices, and perhaps marketing on Kickstarter or various other crowdfunding platforms. No one would really think of exquisite Naoya Hida & Co.  as the second kind of microbrand. But the Tokyo manufacture is about as micro as a brand can get. Total production is around ten pieces a year, with maybe 25 or 30 pieces produced ever. The man behind the brand, Naoya Hida himself, has quite the impressive horological background. Over the past 30 years, Hida-San has been employed at Jaeger-LeCoultre, Breguet, Vacheron Constantin, and most recently F.P. Journe and Ralph Lauren. His years of working with such storied brands helped him shape his definition of the perfect watch. In some ways, his definition is mine too. The Naoya Hida & Co. Type 1B. I discovered the brand in 2019, with the release of its first watch, the “1B” . To me, it looked like a smart reinterpretation of the classic 1950s dress watch – but my preference is for a center seconds watch, so I didn’t really contemplate a purchase. Then in April of 2020, the brand announced its “2A” model , which seized my attention. While maintaining the same sensibilities of design as its predecessor, the 2A featured a center seconds, and a dial layout that reminded me of a “sectorless” version of a sector-dial Patek Philippe Calatrava. I read all the relevant blog posts online, and also spoke about it with my good friend Mark Cho (An NH 1B owner, and the extremely tasteful proprietor of the high-end menswear boutique The Armoury.) After doing my research, I reached out to Hida-San and wired a deposit for my own watch, with delivery promised in about 10 months. Well, the watch has arrived. And it’s spectacular. The Naoya Hida & Co. Type 2A. The finishing is simply extraordinary. Even without a loupe, I can see three distinct levels in the dial. There’s a radial brushed track ring featuring precisely cut minute and five-minute indexes. Plus a slightly recessed inner ring with the hand engraved and enameled indexes, and a third recessed level in the center of the dial featuring the Naoya Hida & Co. wordmark. Most manufacturers (big and small) these days have embraced simple printed dials with at best, applied indexes. They also use decidedly modern looking sans-serif fonts on their dials, which I despise. No such problem with the NH. My vintage design sensibilities are very pleased with the details – small distinct serifs at the edges of the hand-engraved and enameled numerals. Japanese watchmaker Naoya Hida. Then there are the hands. These hands are really something. They are the perfect length – the hour and minute hands go to the edge of each layer, and the seconds hand precisely reaches the ends of the minute markers. While most are made with a combination of stamping and machining, the NH hours and minutes hands are machined from a solid block of steel, resulting in hands that are much thicker than normal. To compensate for their heft and ensure continual optimal operation, even as the power reserve winds down, they are hollowed out on the backside (something you will likely never see). The narrow concave bezel allows for a larger diameter dial – which also makes the watch appear bigger. The midcase is not particularly stylized, but it features nicely turned-down lugs with brushed sides and high polished tops. There are no chamfers or additional flourishes, but the bezel does have a sharply finished step along the edge. The 2A is not the thinnest watch by any means, but it was never intended to be. The 1930s/50s aesthetic pre-dates the advent of ultra-thin watch movements, and as such the watch is proportionately thick for its diameter. Finishing off the watch is an exquisitely machined tang buckle fitted on a nice calfskin strap in dark blue with white stitching and easy-release springbars. The buckle finishing is very Japanese, reminding me of the “Zaratsu” finishing found on Grand Seikos (and the black polished surfaces that another small Japanese brand, Kikuchi Nakagawa, is famous for). Hida-san's modified Valjoux 7750 is an unusual take on a classic movement. While there’s some controversy surrounding the selection of the Valjoux 7750 movement in such a watch, Hida-San says the choice is quite logical – a large diameter movement allows for the perfect location of the sub-seconds (for those models that don't feature the center seconds), i.e. not too far to the center of the dial, and it also gives “an improved feeling of winding the mainspring by hand.” NH removed the chronograph typically found in the 7750, and added a special component to give the movement a winding sensation similar to those found in vintage watches of the 1950s. I personally am not a collector fixated by in-house calibers, nor am I a movement snob. Sure the Patek 215PS and the Rolex 1570 movements are in-house and amazing, but small brands cannot invest in R&D to develop in house movements, nor does it make sense when there are so many great options readily available for them to use. If anything, the established and well-known robustness of movements like the 7750 make it an ideal choice for small brands like Naoya Hida. The new Type 3A. (Photo: Courtesy HODINKEE Japan) As with previous years, Hida-San just did his annual product announcement last weekend, releasing nipped-and-tucked versions of the Model 1 and 2, as the 1C and 2B.  They both feature modest refinements in dial, case, crown, and hands. The real surprise this year is the new release of the Type 3A , which is a moonphase watch featuring a beautifully hand carved solid gold moon indicator at six o’clock, and a vintage inspired dial with black enameled Roman numerals. Like the Type 1 and 2 lines, the new 3A clearly draws aesthetic inspiration from time-only watches of the 1940s to 1960s. I have no doubt that all 10 examples will be spoken for sooner than later. The author and his Type 2A. Watches are an expression of one’s individual style, and my Type 2A watch is no different. Although I haven’t put on a suit in some time, I can imagine this watch fitting perfectly under the cuff of a tailored shirt, possibly matched with a dressier alligator strap. For the time being, I’ve been enjoying it more casually, with jeans and a sweatshirt.  At first glance, from far away, one may mistake it for a vintage Vacheron manual-wind, but up close its more modern cues reveal it to be  something far more interesting. Simultaneously monochromatic and multi-toned, the dial always gives me a reason to steal a second or third glance as I check the time. It’s not over-designed. It’s not over-engineered. It just works. At approximately $20,000, the watch is certainly not cheap. And I know it’s not everyone's cup of tea. You can buy plenty of three-handers with $20k, so why would I choose this one? What’s the value proposition here? The details are where the Type 2A really shines. It’s personal. I really was drawn to the details on this watch, and the story behind Naoya Hida himself and his journey to creating his own brand. I look at the relationship between microbrands and their first customers like a patronage system – without early adopters, the brand cannot survive. (In this way, brands like NH are more like their Kickstarter brethren than they may first appear.) Also, the small production volume of Naoya Hida watches ensures that they will always be exclusive. With small refinements and changes annually, I can’t imagine NH ever producing a total volume of more than 10 to 20 pieces per year. It’s been my experience that well-made, small production watches like this do preserve value over time a bit better than their mass-produced counterparts, and I would expect the 2A to be no different. So it’s an investment, yeah, but that’s not why I bought it. The ultimate pleasure in ownership is the tactile sensation of the winding mechanism and the beauty of the watch on the wrist. This watch has those two things in spades. More than a financial investment for my own gain, my NH purchase is an investment in the brand’s longevity – and an acknowledgement that they’re making watches with an ethos aligned to my own. That, to me, is the fundamental reason to collect. Eric Ku first discovered the joys of watch collecting as a freshman at UC Berkeley in 1997. In the decades since, he has built a reputation as an expert in many aspects of horology. Eric’s most recent venture is Loupe This , an online watch auction house. He never writes about anything he’s trying to sell.Naoya Hida & Co. just released a new watch for 2021. But renowned dealer and collector Eric Ku is still enjoying the subtle wonders of last year’s model