Shin Ohno is the winner of the 12th F.P. Journe Young Talent Competition. The young Japanese watchmaker clinched the prize with the Fuyu-Geshiki, a small grande et petite sonnerie tourbillon clock inspired by the winter landscape of Nagano, a northern prefecture of Japan. Made by one man with a watchmaker’s lathe, desktop CNC mill, and not a lot of sleep, the ebony-cased timepiece is one of the most impressive works produced by the competition yet.

From Nagano

Mr Ohno describes Nagano as “defined by the purity of its air, by the flow of spring water, and by melting snow”. It is also the heart of Japan’s watch industry, boasting the country’s largest movement assembly plant (Citizen’s Saku plant) and is home to Mr Ohno’s employer — Seiko Epson.

Specifically, Mr Ohno works as an engineer within the company’s watch division, but it should be noted that this timepiece is entirely unrelated to the (now discontinued) Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie and Credor Minute Repeater. Mr Ohno designed the movement from the ground up, citing the creative works of past winner Norifumi Seki and Masahiro Kikuno as key inspirations.

A closer look at the tourbillon cage. The teeth are polished to catch the light like slick stones.

While he learned how to design watch parts at his day job, it was someone else’s job to manufacture them. With the Fuyu-Geshiki, Mr Ohno had to master production as well as design. He cites his colleague, master watchmaker Ikukiyo Komatsu, as a mentor, but also attended local training programmes, cold called instructors, and even turned to YouTube to learn all the skills required.

Remarkably, Mr Ohno managed to design and realise the timepiece in only 11 months while working full time. “I woke up at 5 a.m. to work on it for two hours before going to the office, then returned to my bench from 7 p.m. until midnight every evening. All of my weekends were devoted to it as well.”

A striking start

The Fuyu-Geshiki is a clock by the traditional definition, meaning it strikes the time on each quarter hour. In grande sonnerie mode, as the French call it, it strikes the hours and quarters on each quarter. It also has a petite sonnerie mode which suppresses the hour strikes except on the new hour. Additionally, it can repeat the current quarters on its piano-wire gongs on command by depressing the crown.

The Fuyu-Geshiki’s finely adjusted and decorated movement demonstrates Mr Ohno’s skills as both an engineer and a watchmaker. The striking mechanism is modular to aid in adjustment, and automatically silences itself when the strike barrel is exhausted to prevent the watch from jamming.

The movement and strike works separated.

Equally telling is Mr Ohno’s gift as a designer — his ability to marry technical ambition with genuine beauty. The decision to model the movement after a rocky stream was inspired, and the execution rises to meet it. If the project has a flaw, it may simply be the standard it sets: with Mr Ohno now committed to independent watchmaking full time, the bar for what comes next sits remarkably high.

We congratulate Mr Ohno and look forward to what he has in store next.