Ōtsuka Lōtec

Ōtsuka Lōtec is the watch brand of Jiro Katayama — a Tokyo-based automotive and product designer who, after graduating design school, worked in car design before setting up as a freelance designer creating vehicles, helmets, and household devices.

In 2008, in his mid-thirties, he happened to purchase a bench lathe at online auction and began teaching himself metal machining — realising he could not make a car on the lathe in his kitchen. 'Yes! Let's try making a watch case.' He began studying independent watchmakers around the world, researching and imitating their components, mechanisms, tools, and techniques, eventually completing his first watches. By 2012 he began selling them — all while continuing his day job as a product designer. His inspiration: the atmosphere, form, details, and textures of things (モノ/mono) — the presence of objects assembled from steel plate and cast metal rather than moulded resin; the analogue sensation of twisting a knob rather than tapping a touchscreen; the simple and warm structures that metal's robust weight inevitably imparts to human tools. 'I design watches that I would like to wear and own.' One of his watches is now a permanent exhibit at the International Watch Museum.

Current models: № 5 KAI, № 6, № 7.5, № 8 (new), and № 9. Past models: № 5 (original), № 6 (old), № 7, and № 7.5 (old).