What was it about sazaré - a watch brand committed to Japanese manufacturing and to simplicity as a contemporary tool - that convinced Director Takayuki Minami, a self-confessed watch skeptic?
To begin with, I don't like watches. I often don't wear one at all, and I especially dislike watches that are overly decorative or busy. But when I was shown a sazaré watch for the first time, my immediate reaction was that it was extremely simple and genuinely cool. What stood out most was the dial: no logo at all, just a modern graphic. Everything about it felt stripped of excess. That thorough minimalism really appealed to me.
With many overseas design-driven watch brands, the cases are often made quite cheaply. sazaré, on the other hand, uses a forming method called cold forging for the case. The metal is pressed in a mold, annealed, pressed again, annealed again - this process is repeated many times, resulting in a case made with the same rigor as a traditional classic watch. It's based on Japan's straightforward, honest approach to manufacturing, with craftspeople carefully building each piece. Because of that, it isn't simply a watch made minimalist by removing elements; it's a "watch as a contemporary tool," grounded in traditional details and proper construction.
Even the outer box is made properly by a box manufacturer in Shizuoka. The color and texture are designed to evoke sazare-ishi - the small stones from which the brand takes its name - giving it a stone-like appearance. What impressed me was that this level of care extended beyond the product itself. Everything was considered as a whole, and the overall standard of craftsmanship was very high. That's what made me want to collaborate.
This special model, which has been developed since the Spring & Summer 2020 season, unifies the dial and strap in an inorganic gray that reflects Graphpaper's worldview. The standard sazaré model comes with a white dial and black leather strap, but on my wrist it felt too small - it didn't sit right. I thought a NATO strap might work better, so I swapped it for a gray NATO strap for myself, and it looked great. That's why we decided to include both straps as a special specification, allowing the wearer to choose between leather and NATO. I have thick wrists, so the leather doesn't really work for me, but if you want a cleaner, more refined look, you can switch to the leather strap depending on your outfit. The Graphpaper logo is engraved only on the case back, and each piece is individually numbered in production order. Since the model is limited to 150 units per season, the first run was numbered 1 to 150, and this time it runs from 151 to 300. Every watch is effectively a one-of-a-kind piece.
Personally, I think the best watches are those anyone can wear - designs that don't interfere with clothing. The only watch I own is a vintage Omega, and even that has a brand mark on the dial, which honestly I could do without. I like watches that don't assert themselves and don't stand out. In that sense, a sazaré watch - with nothing on the dial but numerals, indices, and hands - fits perfectly with Graphpaper's concept.
