The Seiko Power Design Project has become one of my favourite annual events – an exhibition where Seiko’s watch designers are let loose to create non-production concept watches following their own passions and interests. After being displayed in Japan at the start of the year, the Power Design Project is making its way to London at Japan House from 27th August to 15th September. This year the theme is ‘Passionately and Obsessively Crafted Watches’.
Notably, as these are passion projects and concepts, there are no intentions to turn them into production watches. However, if a particular design does garner enough attention and interest, Seiko have been known to make production versions based on previous exhibitions. For the most part though, the show is a chance to marvel at creativity and fun designs.
Japan House London is located at 101–111 Kensington High Street, London W8 5SA and admission to the exhibit is free.
Machining Marks by Naoya Sukeda
When watch cases are carved from blocks of metal, it’s a natural part of the process that there are some machining marks left on the case which are typically removed through meticulous polishing. However, this creation pays homage to the act of creation by celebrating those machining marks in the most extreme way possible. The entire case and dial are made from a single block of steel and the uniform machining marks are exaggerated to an extreme degree. Even the hour markers and logos are machined. It makes for a cool geometric pattern in a ziggurat-like case.
Spherical Surface by Yu Ishihara
The Spherical Surface is inspired by the domed sapphire glass found on many styles of watches, a curving, spheroid lens through which we view the dial. This watch asks the question, what if the rest of the watch followed that same spherical design? As such, we have a series of concentric circles that each follow the curving arc established by the glass in the centre. More than that, each of those metallic rings is technically a different part of the watch. Immediately around the glass you have the bezel, then you have the case itself and the final ring is the crown guard.
Dial Texture by Takuya Matsumoto
Next in the Seiko Power Design Project 2026 lineup is Dial Texture. This watch is inspired by Alhambra Palace in Spain, one of the few remaining Islamic structures dating to the Medieval times. The intricate dial texture is created through embossing that’s controlled to within one-hundredth of a millimetre. While the style is inspired by Alhambra, the pattern itself reflects traditional Japanese motifs with a coursing river from 12 to 3 o’clock, the summer sun from 3 – 6, a star-filled sky from 6 – 9, and then falling snow from 9 – 12.
Manual Winding by Kento Ito
The act of manually winding a watch is celebrated as a way to form a physical and emotional bond to your watch and the Power Design Project Manual Winding takes that to the next level. It features a rotating bezel that serves as a gear that meshes with the crown at 3 o’clock, winding the watch. The gold colour and fluted design really emphasise why it’s called a crown. The dial then displays an exaggerated power reserve indicator at 9 o’clock, for which the entire handstack was moved off-centre towards 3 o’clock to give it even more space.
Bar Indices by Miho Wada
One of the most ubiquitous forms of hour marker is the bar index. A facetted rectangle that’s applied to the dial adding a layer of three-dimensionality to the display and catching the light in satisfying ways. The Bar Indices watch takes this to the extreme by making the entire dial out of these hour markers, in a geometric mosaic of different sizes. Naturally, it’s housed in a rectangle case because what is a rectangle case if not another example of a bar.
Day Indicator by Akihiro Hasegawa
Day Indicator is presented in two colourways: daytime and nighttime, paying tribute to the two primary states of the day. Obviously with a name like Day Indicator, the day indication is the central focus of the watch and it features not one but three different apertures through which you can see the day. Today’s day can be read in both English and Japanese with positive affirmations that it will be a good day and then the third window reveals tomorrow’s day in Japanese.
Hands by Yuki Omori
In Japanese watchmaking terminology, what we call hands are most often referred to as needles instead. As such, in Japan the concept of a watch’s hands are associated primarily with character watches where the needles become literal hands. As an expression of this, the Power Design Project Hands watch features Seiko’s in-house cat mascot Ten-chan (created for a specific exhibition in 2023 with hairspring whiskers) with his hands as the seconds, feet as the minutes and tail as the hours.
Check out the Seiko Power Design Project London exhibition at Japan House London, 101–111 Kensington High Street, 27th August – 15th September.
More details at Japan House.
Have a nice Seiko collection.