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Issey Miyake x SEIKO

Begun in 2001, the Issey Miyake watch project presents unique watches created through collaboration between some of the world's leading designers and Seiko Instruments. The criteria for every product developed by Issey Miyake Watch is that it must have a fresh new design, it must be an analog watch, it must be made in Japan and the designers themselves must be involved in the package design. Each unique design technique reflects the spirit of Issey Miyake.

Issey Miyake is well-known as a designer of clothing, exhibitions and fragrances. He studied at the prestigious Tama Art University in Tokyo, then moved to Paris in 1964. He graduated from the L'Ecole del la Chambre Syndicale de Haute Couture in 1966, while working for Guy Laroche and Hubert de Givenchy. He returned a few years later to Japan, after a short stint in New York with Geoffrey Bene. Issey Miyake Design Studio was born in 1971, with a first collection marrying Western cuts with Japanese fabrics. In 2005, he received the Praemium Imperiale, an international art prize awarded by the Japanese Imperial Family and, the same year, his creations were exhibited at the Center Pompidou in Paris, as part of the Big Bang exhibition. Issey Miyake is a co-director of 21_21 Design Sight, Japan's first design museum. In 2016, the largest ever retrospective of his work was organized at The National Art Center, Tokyo, celebrating 45 years of his career. 

Iwasaki Ichiro | Product designer

Iwasaki's 'f' series watches are designed to reflect the two faces of a day - the 'AM face' and the 'PM face'. The 'morning' dial is finished in fresh white with numbers 1 to 12 clearly outlined. The 'afternoon' dial is finished in brisk black with emphasis on numbers 13 to 24, telling the shift in day and time. With two faces the design caters to users as they choose according to how they spend their day. The concentric pattern on the dial makes the numbers stand out at an angle, adding depth to the expression of the two faces.

Born in Tokyo in 1965, Iwasaki began his career at the Sony Design Center, moving later to Italy where he worked at several design studios in Milan. Returning to Japan in 1995, he opened the Iwasaki Design Studio in Tokyo. Since then, he has collaborated with manufacturers both in and outside Japan, designing a diverse array of products ranging from interior goods including tableware, lighting apparatus and furniture to precision electronic devices such as digital cameras and mobile phones.

He has received numerous international awards, including Japan's Good Design Award (Gold), the iF Design Award (Gold), the Red Dot Design Award (Best of the Best) and the German Design Award (Silver). He also serves as a part-time lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts and Tama Art University.

Ichiro Iwasaki3
ISSEY MIYAKE 'f' by IWASAKI Ichiro
Ichiroconceptimages
'PIN' wall lights and SIGMA dp2 Quattro camera by IWASAKI Ichiro

Yoshioka Tokujin | Designer

Yoshioka crafts watches from a transparent glass chunk transforming them into a sculpture, an objet d’art, of light that transcends human senses. Many of Yoshioka's most prominent works have been created from glass, so it was natural choice for him to the medium for his Issey Miyake watch collection. 

Tokujin Yoshioka Inc. design studio was established in 2000. Active in the fields of design, contemporary art and architecture, Yoshioka's works are themed around nature and light. He has won many international design awards with a number of his works chosen as part of permanent collections in museums worldwide, including Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), Centre Pompidou in Paris, and Victoria and Albert Museum the in London. He was chosen by Newsweek magazine as one of the 100 Most Respected Japanese in the World.

ISSEY MIAKE watches collection by Tokujin collection at Japan House London.
ISSEY MIYAKE 'Glass Watch' by YOSHIOKA Tokujin
ISSEY MIAKE watches collection by Tokujin collection - Japan House London
ISSEY MIYAKE 'TO' by YOSHIOKA Tokujin
YOSHIOKA Tokujin collection - Japan House London
ISSEY MIYAKE 'O' (eau, French for water) by YOSHIOKA Tokujin
Yoshioka
Rainbow Church and KOU-AN Glass Tea House by Yoshioka Tokujin

Please enquire in The Shop at Japan House London about the Issey Miyake Watch 'f' collection by Iwasaki Ichiro and the 'O', 'Glass Watch' and 'TO' collections by Yoshioka Tokujin.