Alba Wired Delta Model AGAV700 | Image: © Seiko Corporation

Yoshinobu Kawashima is a star among Japan’s rock guitarists. He makes things that have buzz, for example, custom leather guitar straps and belts. Heavy metal buckles. Silver and gold-tone jewelry. T-shirts. And now he’s formed a duet with Alba to create a line of harmonious designs for Japanese watch fans.

Kawashima began making guitar straps seven years ago, after he realized that although guitarists invest big yen in their instruments, the straps they use are often cheap and uninspiring. Just a few years after he started, one of Japan’s top rock guitarists sang Kawashima praise by giving him the nickname “Mr. Leather.”

Not bad for someone from Nagoya, Japan’s fourth largest city. Don’t get me wrong — Nagoya is a wonderful place with a famous castle and a unique miso (fermented bean curd) flavor. But it’s no Osaka, no Tokyo. That seems just fine with Kawashima.

After studying at Nagoya University, Kawashima wanted to work in the apparel business in his home town. He found a job managing a clothing store, and specialized in displaying clothing in a way that would “stop the foot of the customer.” Kawashima did that by creating what he calls “atmosphere through balance and coordination” of the goods displayed for sale. He staged the image at the top of this story — and the one immediately below showing some of his Alba designs with one of his belts.

Alba Wired Delta Models: AGAV003 | AGAV001 | AGAV002 |
Image: © Seiko Corporation

The watches above are called Deltas after the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet. “Fourth” is a place close to Kawashima’s heart. He designs jewelry, and the watch bezels are cut to expose 12 distinct surfaces, similar to how jewels are sometimes cut to make them reflect light and sparkle. These watches feature a new lug design that swivels to make them ride comfortably on the wrist.

Kawashima worked with Alba on several different models in the past year, including one displayed in Basel, Switzerland in 2007 (pictured below). That watch features a faceted Hardlex crystal cut 12 times to resemble a diamond. It’s a limited edition of 100 units, and retails for 36,000 yen (about $300 US). Its case measures 50mm x 43mm x 15.4mm.

Alba Wired Delta Model AGBV816 | Image: © Seiko Corporation

Kawashima managed the clothing store from 1983 until he went solo and opened his own store in 1998 called Gazery Japones. The unusual name comes from Greek and Latin, with a bit of Japanese. Gazery is made up of the Greek word Gaza (gauze, gossamer, gaze), and the letters “ry,” from the Roman alphabet, which he took from the English spelling of his son’s Japanese name, Ryo. The word Japones is the Latin word for Japan. Mashed up, you get Gazery Japones.

Image: © Gazery Japones

The watches in the Alba Wired Delta line are made of stainless steel. The 1/100th second chronograph models are 49mm x 43mm x 15mm. They have quartz movements with batteries that run 3 years, and are water resistant to 100m. They range in price from 36,000 to 50,000 yen retail (about $250–$430 US dollars). Other models, featuring three hands, with solar power technology, and radio wave reception for precise daily time synchronization, retail for around $340 US.

For more information on the complete line of Alba Wired XYZ watches, including the Delta models, click here. Most of the information in this story, and some images used in this article, came from an interview in Japanese with Kawashima here. Other images came from the Gazery Japones Web site here.

Kawashima and Alba are making beautiful music together. Hope you enjoyed the tune.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 2nd, 2007 at 9:02 pm and is filed under Alba. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.