ONES TO WATCH - Design and Fashion Watch Fair, Tokyo

To be honest Tokyo is an amazing city; frenetic, noisy and electric in every sense and this futuristic metropolis hosted the third Design and Fashion Watch Fair at Tokyo Big Sight in Odiaba. This little known fair is quite niche but it’s a hidden gem nestled at the far end of a massive jewellery show.

Now, there’s not the spread of brands you may see in other trade shows but I’ve seen a couple of cool lines that got me very excited!

First up is Zerone, a watch company that collaborates with artists to create unusual and graphically inspired watches. There is no real sense that any of these watches come from the same stable which makes them fresh and unique. My favourite is by a Manga artist by the name of Fantasista Utamaro who combines a vintage 1960’s style watch head with a seemingly inconspicuous leather strap but with a Manga graphic print on the reverse.

Also a fave from Zerone is by the artist Sasu these beautiful watches combine the commerciality of a rubber strap watch with Sasu’s unusual petal motif set in the dial, rotating like a kaleidoscope as the seconds tick by.

Moving away from my new obsession, Eviga caught my eye with their vividly coloured aluminium cases, instantly combining two of spring’s top trends. These seriously stylish watches are actually very simple, with strong, clean lines. The Circle even has an interchangeable bezel so you can mix the colours up a bit. My favourite? The Bulletor in green, if the birthday fairy is reading this!