Tertium Quid Watch

Tertium Quid — Latin for 'a third something,' a substance distinct from two established forms — is the founding concept behind Tertium Quid Watch Tokyo, a Japanese independent brand whose stated mission is to create that third thing specifically for experienced collectors. As the brand puts it directly: you already deeply understand dress, sport, casual, and tool watches — categories that have defined the collecting hobby for generations — but Tertium Quid set out to see what lies beyond them. By synthesising the strongest elements of those traditional genres while deliberately transcending their constraints, the brand forges what it calls an entirely new class of timepiece: a singular instrument designed for collectors who believed they had already seen everything a watch could be.

That ambition is grounded in genuine expertise rather than outsider enthusiasm. Co-founder Shun Horiuchi is a collector and researcher focused primarily on Swiss and Japanese watches, and possesses what is regarded as some of Japan's most extensive personal knowledge of Jaeger-LeCoultre history; he contributes watch reviews regularly to Chronos magazine, and brings an engineering background to the brand's parts finishing, supplier negotiations, and design proposals. Co-founder Taku Yamashina is a collector centred on German watches, with a personal collection spanning current wristwatch production back through vintage watches of the 1930s–1980s to pocket watches and chronometers predating 1930; alongside his collecting, he works as an industry and company researcher and has contributed articles to Chronos on global watch industry analysis, and at Tertium Quid he oversees corporate affairs, design proposals, and supplier evaluation. Neither founder trained as a watchmaker or professional designer by trade — their qualification is decades of serious, research-grade collecting and a substantial personal network across the Japanese and Swiss watch industries, which gave the brand real credibility and access from its earliest days.

The brand's debut creation, the Model R, is a hand-wound alarm wristwatch that the brand describes as bridging the gap between historical reverence and contemporary precision. Its design is rooted in the founders' deep appreciation for authentic vintage timepieces and pocket watches, and was engineered in collaboration with one of Japan's most esteemed watch designers to translate that shared aesthetic sensibility into a fully modern object. Every Model R is assembled and regulated by a master watchmaker, with the case, hands, and other components precision-manufactured by leading Japanese suppliers — principally Matsuura Works and Takashima Sangyo — before being finished entirely by hand to meet the founders' own uncompromising standards. The 38.0mm × 11.1mm SUS316L stainless steel case carries a hand-polished mirror finish throughout, a glass snap-on caseback, and a 6.4mm crown, also hand-polished to a mirror finish; water resistance is rated for daily life only, and the brand specifically notes the watch is not water resistant while the alarm function is armed. The sapphire crystal carries double-sided anti-reflective and anti-fingerprint coating. The dial is offered in two versions — a silver sector-style dial with a fine machining texture, and a black sector-style dial finished in matte lacquer — both produced with the French dial specialist Comblémine S.A. in partnership with Matsuura Works. The hour, minute, and central seconds hands are blued and hand-polished, with the separate alarm-indicator hand hand-polished in a contrasting natural steel finish.

At its core is a heavily modified A. Schild AS1475 movement — the vintage manually wound base restored, fitted with a newly manufactured bridge, hammer, and gong, and regulated to run at 18,000 vibrations per hour with an approximate 40-hour power reserve, driving central seconds and a fully switchable on/off alarm function. The finishing applied to that movement is extensive: the hammer and gong are black-polished (Spiegelpolitur, true mirror black polish); surrounding components are hand-chamfered, hand-polished, and hairline-finished; screws and clicks are hand-polished and chamfered; the mainplate carries hand-applied perlage; the bridges are finished in a choice of sandblasting or Côtes de Genève; and the whole movement is plated in a choice of rhodium or yellow gold. The Model R ships on a French calf leather strap in an Avier-style construction — straight stitching with a seamless underside, tapering from 20mm at the lugs to 16mm at the buckle — secured by a hand-polished SUS316L stainless steel pin buckle engraved with the brand's TQW monogram, supplied by strap maker Matsushita-An. The Model R is priced at JPY 4,600,000 excluding tax — approximately USD 30,000 / EUR 25,000-28,000 depending on exchange rate — positioning this vintage-movement alarm complication to compete directly with far more industrially produced alarm watches from major maisons, on the strength of its haute horlogerie-level finishing and a genuinely scarce base calibre.