Hodinkee
Introducing: The Seiko Panda Watch That Stole The Show In 2024 Is Finally Here
What We Know Seiko has unveiled two limited-edition chronographs born from its power design project, a long-running internal design initiative that encourages designers to explore ideas beyond the constraints of commercial product development. The new watches are based on A Watch Exclusively for Panda Lovers, one of seven concept pieces presented at the 2024 Incredibly Specialized Watch Exhibition, where designers were challenged to create watches tailored to extraordinarily specific audiences. Among the seven concepts, none generated quite as much excitement as the panda watch. Nearly three years after its debut as a one-off exhibition piece, it has now become a production model—remarkably faithful to the original concept. The original "A Watch Exclusively for Panda Lovers" was displayed at the 2024 Incredibly Specialized Watch Exhibition. Original design sketches from the exhibition. The watch was designed by Kiyotaka Sakai, a member of Seiko's product design team who also works on Grand Seiko's Evolution 9 Collection. His starting point was a deceptively simple question: Is a watch called "Panda" really seen as a panda in anyone's eyes? The idea draws on the Japanese concept of mitate—finding unexpected visual associations between seemingly unrelated objects. While collectors have long referred to black-and-white chronographs as "panda dials," Sakai wondered what a watch would look like if it were designed not to resemble a panda dial, but an actual panda. The answe...
