The ‘special’ watch that Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wore while meeting with President Yoon Seok-yeol during his visit to Korea is attracting attention.
Prime Minister Kishida had a dinner with President Yoon at the presidential residence in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul on the 7th and wore the ‘Astron GPS Solar Chronograph’ model (SBXB001) from Japan’s leading watch brand Seiko.
This watch was released in 2014 in a limited edition of 7,000 pieces and features a titanium case and ceramic bezel. The names of major cities are engraved on the bezel, so you can know the time in various countries.
It is also famous for the watch worn by the predecessor, the late Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. At the time of release, the price is 330,000 yen (approximately 3.2 million Korean won). It is said that Prime Minister Kishida has shown interest in watches for accurate time management since 2021, when he was foreign minister.
In Japan in 2021, criticism of Prime Minister Kishida’s watch, saying, “The price of the watch is too expensive to exceed 3 people’s worth of the corona disaster subsidy (100,000 yen per person)” and “It is not such a luxurious product for a watch worn by the prime minister” has been objected to.
Seiko’s predecessor was a repair shop established in Tokyo by Kintaro Hattori in 1881, and in 1969, the quartz-applied ‘Astron’ was released. The watch worn by Prime Minister Kishida this time is also a product of the Astron line.
At the time Astron was released, most watches were mechanically operated by winding the mainspring. On the other hand, quartz, which operates with electricity such as batteries, can be mass-produced, so the price is low, but the accuracy is high.
Astron was not the first quartz watch, but it increased its market share as a representative quartz product. Because of this, Swiss luxury watch brands collapsed one after another in the 1970s and 1980s, which is also called the ‘quartz wave’ in the watch industry.
Meanwhile, Seiko also manufactures Japan’s ‘Prime Minister’s Watch’ like Korea’s ‘President’s Watch’.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.