#12. The Birth of M – M1 GREADY

I have a particular fondness for the name Master Craft.

It was the model name given to the very first watch that MINASE ever produced in earnest. Had the Master Craft M1 never been created, neither WINDOWS nor DIVIDO would have come into existence.

In 2005, in Minase, a snowy town in Akita Prefecture not unlike the Jura region of Switzerland, the Master Craft M1 was manufactured by Kyowa Seiko, a cutting tool company. This marked the birth of the MINASE brand.

Looking back at the circumstances of the time, we can begin to understand the sentiments behind the names Master Craft and MINASE.
In the 2000s, many Japanese companies were relocating their production facilities overseas, and the subcontractors who had once supported them with component manufacturing and processing saw their orders plummet.
Kyowa Seiko, like many other suppliers, was severely impacted by these trends. It’s quite possible that they, too, considered shifting production overseas.
Yet, Kyowa Seiko took a different path. Drawing on its experience as an OEM manufacturer of watch cases, the company began producing its own line of watches. As a testament to the craftsmanship and spirit of its engineers—”Look at what we can create!”—the new timepiece was given the proud model name Master Craft. It was a watch that could never be mass-produced, a watch shaped by cutting and polishing techniques mastered over years of dedication. The passion to create something by hand, something beyond imitation, evolved into the concept:
“Craftsmanship that can be talked about 100 years from now.”

This concept led to the development of MINASE’s proprietary MORE structure, inspired by traditional Japanese kumiki (interlocking woodwork). This structure made it possible to polish and repair individual case parts, enabling long-term maintenance down to the finest detail. When the Master Craft M1 was completed, the MORE structure was already fully developed—and with it, the MINASE brand began its journey.

Only 80 units of the M1 were ever produced. The case alone comprised 45 parts, the metal bracelet 150, and both the dial and indices were assembled from white mother-of-pearl components—each implementing the MORE structure. Born in obscurity in a remote mountain village of Akita, the M1 was not first introduced on television as a watch, but rather as a product designed to be repairable and long-lasting. The owner who saw that program and placed an order could hardly have imagined that MINASE would one day grow into a full-fledged watch brand.

Although only 80 units were made, the M1 gave Kyowa Seiko the hope and conviction to move forward with its watch business under the MINASE name. The model was affectionately nicknamed GREADY—a coined term combining GREAT and DYNASTY. It marked the beginning of a future illuminated by the vision of the MINASE brand.

This is an in-depth travelogue of Mr. K. Kawakami who specializes in writing reports on various factories. He takes a look at the fundamental value of MINASE, with incisive insight and observation refined over the years, as a seasoned expert on the watch industry.

K. Kawakami is a professional writer specializing in exploring diverse factories, reporting on their unique manufacturing practices in Japan and around the world. He travels to the factories of many manufacturers that operate on the principle of perfection, including watches, electrical appliances, shoes, fashion items, buildings, foods, confections, and traditional crafts.