Time Guardians - The Grammar of Design

Inspired in part by the art of gem cutting, Taro Tanaka explored the philosophy of watch design aiming to outshine the Swiss, figuratively and literally. 

As a result, his set of rules called “Grammar of Design” was born in 1962.

1) All surfaces and angles of the case, dial, hands, and hour markers needed to be flat and geometrically perfect to best reflect light.


2) Bezels were to be a simple two-dimensional polyhedral curve.

3) No visual distortion was to be tolerated from any angle, and all cases and dials should be mirror-finished.

4) All watch cases must be unique, with no more generic round case designs tolerated.