Ryu Yamashita
Yamashita joined Seiko Watch Corporation in 2025. He has been involved with the Astron collection since joining the company. As a young designer, he continues to develop his skills and expertise. His current goal is to one day present his parents with a watch he designed himself.

Award After Award: The Key Was a Stress-Free Wearing Experience

Yamashita: Congratulations on SSH151 receiving four prestigious design awards! As someone just beginning to work more extensively on Astron designs, I’m looking forward to learning from both of you today.

Ito and Kawamura: Thanks! We’re happy to share our thoughts with you.

Yamashita: To begin with, can you explain the idea behind the Astron collection?

Ito: The Astron collection features watches equipped with GPS solar or radio-controlled solar movements. The name comes from the Quartz Astron, the world’s first quartz watch, which was introduced in 1969.

Kawamura: Astron has consistently brought new value to society. In 2012, it reemerged as the world’s first GPS solar watch, enabling it to instantly display the correct local time anywhere in the world.

Yamashita: I see it has provided meaningful social value by making highly accurate time accessible to everyone. The latest embodiment of the brand has won an exceptional number of design awards. It’s unusual for a single model to win recognition by so many design awards. What do you think explains this?

Kawamura: Looking at the judging criteria for each award, we feel the concept of ‘stress-free’ we targeted was one factor for recognition.

Yamashita: Stress-free? Can you elaborate?

Ito: Yes. We can break this down into three elements: comfort on the wrist; intuitive usability despite multiple functions; and a beauty that generates the desire to want to wear it for years to come. We wanted to achieve all of these elements at the highest level.

Yamashita: I see. I’d like to hear more about each of these points.

Lightness and Comfort on the Wrist That Defy its Bold Look

Yamashita: I’d like to start by asking about the comfort on the wrist idea.

Kawamura: Due to their structure, GPS solar watches inevitably require larger case sizes. Given that constraint, reducing weight became a key focus.

Ito: In recent years, Astron has started making active use of titanium as a case material. Titanium is significantly lighter than stainless steel, which makes even large cases surprisingly lightweight.

Yamashita: When you actually hold it in your hand, the difference between the appearance and anticipated weight and the actual weight is striking.

Kawamura: We also incorporated the Easy-adjust three-fold clasp, which allows for easy adjustment of the bracelet length, and designed the case structure to improve comfort on the wrist.

Ito: The Good Design Award gave high marks for our efforts to reduce weight and enhance wearability. Achieving both the appeal of a large boldly-styled watch and a comfortable wearing experience was exactly the challenge we pursued.

Yamashita: So the aspects recognized by the judges lined up with the characteristics you’d targeted from the beginning.

Kawamura: The German Design Award described the watch as an appealing partner. The idea that it’s something people naturally continue to wear—not just while traveling, but in their everyday lives—was another aspect that received high recognition.

More Functions, Less Confusion

Yamashita: How did you achieve the second aspect, intuitive usability despite multiple functions?

Kawamura: This was another aspect that took a great deal of time and careful consideration during the design process.

Ito: This model incorporates a wide range of information, including a chronograph function, dual-time function, date display, and day display.

Yamashita: The more information there is, the more cluttered the dial would typically become, making it harder to read.

Ito: Exactly. That’s why we gave a lot of thought to what information should get priority and how the information should be presented.

Kawamura: The dimensional indexes and the calendar display—oriented so the date and day of the week can be read upright from the front—were all created with this in mind. Through repeated adjustments to the height of the indexes and the placement of the text down to 0.01 mm, we were trying to achieve a layout that makes the hierarchy of information displayed perfectly natural.

Yamashita: So, rather than reducing the amount of information, you focused on organizing it.

Ito: Exactly. The iF Design Award gave high praise for both form and function. We believe function and design aren’t separate elements, but two parts of a single whole.

Yamashita: So it’s not designed just for aesthetics. The design also considers usability.

Solid Beauty: A Metallic Look and Vertical Design

Yamashita: Finally, I’d like to ask about the third element: a beauty that makes people want to wear it for years to come. This may be related to that topic, but I’d like to ask about something that caught my eye. Since Astron is a collection of solar-powered watches, I assume the dial can’t be made of metal. I’m guessing it requires a material that allows light to pass through.

Kawamura: That’s right.

Yamashita: And yet, the dial looks unmistakably metallic. In particular, the radial sheen of the subdials is especially beautiful. How did you do that?

Kawamura: This was one of the aspects that got special emphasis. Our design concept was to create a solid metallic look. However, to make the most of the solar function, we couldn’t simply use a conventional metal dial. To overcome this challenge, we combined a reflector with polycarbonate components to create a dial that allows light to pass through but also achieves a metallic luster.

Ito: For the reflector, we worked with the engineers to develop a specially shaped component that gives the subdials their metallic luster.

Yamashita: So these components were developed specifically for this model.

Kawamura: For this model, we adopted what is commonly known as a reverse panda design,* featuring a black dial with white subdials. The strong contrast is another element that enhances the metallic luster.
*Within our company, a watch with a white dial and black subdials is informally referred to as a panda, while the opposite combination is called a reverse panda.

Yamashita: I see. So the material constraints needed to support the solar-powered function have actually become an opportunity to create a more distinctive design.

Ito: We wanted to create a watch people could rely on day after day, one people would also want to wear and cherish for years to come. Our goal was to embody both of those qualities into one watch. The German Design Award explicitly recognized the harmony of everyday practicality and the distinctive beauty of the watch.

Yamashita: Looking at the watch as a whole, it also gives a sharp and well-organized impression.

Ito: Good observation. In fact, we placed a strong emphasis on vertical lines.

Yamashita: Vertical lines?

Ito: The arrangement of the subdials, the central stripe, and the continuous flow of the design from the case to the watch bracelet all come together to create a unified vertical composition.

Yamashita: Now that you mention it, it really does look as though there’s a single visual axis running through the entire watch.

Ito: Since this is a multifunction watch, maintaining a clear sense of order in the design is especially important. The vertical lines not only help organize the information; they express the strength and character distinctive to Astron.

Kawamura: The Red Dot Design Award praised the watch for a “striking design that emphasizes robustness and precision.” We’re delighted the judges recognized our intentions and the attention to detail underlying the design.

Where Commitment to Users Leads

Yamashita: After hearing your story, winning all four awards seems to be anything but a coincidence.

Kawamura: Thank you.

Ito: Winning awards was never our goal. Our focus has always been to create a watch that’s comfortable to wear, easy to read, and a joy to own. The awards come from our ongoing pursuit of those values.

Yamashita: Looking back, it feels like every award recognized the same underlying value from a different perspective—wearability, legibility, everyday practicality, beauty, and form.

Kawamura: Probably so. But at the heart of it all is one simple goal: to create a better experience for the user. Continuously refining both technology and design to achieve that goal is what we see as our mission as designers.

Yamashita: I hope to carry that philosophy forward as I take on the challenge of designing future Astron models. Thank you both for sharing your insights today.