Minase

Minase began as an independent watch brand of Kyowa Co., Ltd., a Japanese precision-tool company founded by a master craftsman whose cutting tool, invented in 1964, still appears in the company logo today. In 1973 Kyowa relocated to Akita Prefecture, in northern Japan, in search of workers skilled in metalworking, and from there began supplying components — initially cases — to other watchmakers, including Orient.

The brand's name comes from Minase, the location in Akita Prefecture where, in 1988, the division dedicated to producing watch cases was born. In 1996 the company broadened its expertise to become a full-fledged watchmaker, handling design, development and manufacturing in-house, until in 2005 Kyowa decided to launch a line of watches under its own name, with the stated goal — according to the company — of "finally making the watches we would have wanted to make ourselves."

Until 2018 Minase sold almost exclusively in the Japanese domestic market, remaining a little-known name outside Japan despite the artisanal quality recognized by the most knowledgeable enthusiasts. Since then the brand has begun a tentative international expansion, with points of sale also in Bern, Paris and Abu Dhabi, while deliberately keeping production extremely limited, estimated at a few hundred pieces a year: a choice consistent with the company's repeatedly stated ambition to make watches meant to last and be repairable for over a century.