No Small Watch Should Have All This Power
The Japanese, almost cult-like watchmaker Ōtsuka Lōtec strips it all bare. Its new No. 9 may be tiny, but it packs some of the most impressive specs you’ll find in a watch, all crammed into a size that feels impossible.
Ōtsuka Lōtec built its reputation on rare, affordable watches that look more like vintage power meters than jewelry.
The new No. 9, unveiled without fanfare on Instagram, takes that philosophy to the extreme. Katayama, the brand’s founder, says the design is inspired by Japanese electrical meters. And it shows through the watch’s transparent, skeletonized case.
The No. 9 is all sharp steel edges and exposed guts. Hours flip like an old clock, minutes snap back like a wiper blade, a tourbillon spins in the corner, and once an hour a little hammer smacks a long metal gong (a sonnerie au passage) that sounds more like a shift buzzer than a church bell. It’s industrial ballet.
And then there’s the size. In the watch space, 33–35mm is already considered small. But the No. 9’s 30mm? That’s Honey, I Shrunk the Watch Case. It’s tiny. Like a track-tuned engine hiding in a grocery-getter’s body. Ridiculous, but kind of genius. The sort of feat only an indie could pull off.
From Urban Jürgensen reworking royal pocket watches to Vangaurt building spaceships for your wrist, indie brands are having all the fun, playing with what a watch can look like or even be by definition. Ōtsuka Lōtec, a Japanese microbrand that collectors drool over for its design and the flex of how hard they are to get, exists in that same space.
Even if you don’t care about the mechanics, looking inside a watch like the No. 9 is like putting your foot down in a perfectly tuned supercar.
The price also sits at supercar level. The extremely limited Ōtsuka Lōtec No. 9 is listed at $108,000, a massive leap for a brand that built its cult on watches under $3,000. Good luck getting one, as availability is still unknown.
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