Dress watches and tool watches: Enjoying the balance between beauty and timelessness
In fact, watches are not the main focus of Daisuke Eguchi's style. Rather, he sees them as an accent.
“My style is relatively casual. I like to wear things like military pants with a Cartier Tank. I want to lightly subvert the rules of dress, like Andy Warhol or Muhammad Ali.”
There are also clear standards for size.
"The basic rule is 35mm or less. Ideally, I'd like a 33mm automatic watch, modeled after the Calatrava, a watch that was released in 1932 and is synonymous with luxury watches. Small, thin watches are precisely designed and have the same sense of precision as works of art."
A symbol of this is the Cartier Tank Reverso, which has a reversible dial. When he first saw it, he felt that "I'll never come across a watch that surpasses this." About 70% of his collection is dress watches, and the remaining 30% are sports or digital watches. He sometimes deliberately sets aside days when he doesn't wear a watch, in order to find a balance within himself.
"I like dress watches, but I always end up with a lot of gold cases. So I also wear sports and digital watches. I enjoy the difference between the craftsmanship of a small, thin dress watch and the functionality and versatility of a tool watch."
His passion for tool watches is largely due to the influence of his father, who made a living restoring cars.
"Ever since I was little, my father would often talk about Giugiaro. So I was very happy when I got my hands on a Seiko digital chronograph designed by Giugiaro, which was released in 1983. I'm also attracted to mechanical designs.
And if I were to choose in the context of sports watches, my favorite would be the Rolex Explorer I. Of course, their other models are masterpieces, but I think the essence of Rolex lies in the perfection of the Oyster case. This is the model that best lets you feel the beauty of the ordinary.
When wearing a watch, he never forgets to wear jewelry. He wears a trio of gold, silver, and black, which he changes depending on the outfit he's wearing that day. He often wears Cartier's Nouvelle Vague. He says, "Eyeglasses are just like jewelry," and he alternates between gold and silver frames of the same design. Having previously made Native American jewelry, he also treats folk art accessories such as Touareg silver with equal respect.
"Watches are items that tend to make you look wealthy, but I don't want to show it that way. My father's repair shop was covered in oil, but when I grew up and saw classic cars in a museum, I realized that the same object can change greatly depending on how it's displayed. It's the same with watches. I realized that values reside in how you display them. Displaying watches like in a gallery in my shop and the style I wear them in are both an extension of "how I want them to look."
