Chitose Masuda, 40 years old, has been working for Seiko for more than 22 years and she has been a watchmaker in the prestigious Mastery Workshop, producing the complicated 9T mechanical movement and the Spring Drive movement, since 1998. She joined the company as part of the production staff and then developed an interest in watchmaking.
“I have been focused on the assembly of the 9T and the Spring Drive movement,” she says. “I am very proud of my work, because I have a great deal of responsibility. In the Mastery Workshop, a watchmaker assembles the movement from the beginning to the completion. While I am working, I like to imagine who the customer is that buys the watches I have assembled.”
Masuda is one of the few watchmakers at Seiko qualified to assemble the cutting edge Spring Drive movement. “I love that it is just simple, without a battery and with high accuracy,” she says. “I feel an emotional value in the glide motion of the Spring Drive’s second hand.”
Masuda feels that women are more suitable for watchmaking than men, because women generally have more patience and a character capable of concentrated work. “In watchmaking, there is no unfairness between men and women,” she says. “In other words, if women can become highly skilled in watchmaking, they can work with honour.”
As the leader of the Mastery Workshop, Masuda’s challenge today is to pass her experience and knowledge on to the younger generations of watchmakers. The next step, according to Masuda, is to increase the watchmaker’s responsibilities. “We need to do more in the workshop, for example, have one watchmaker assemble everything, from movement to casing,” she says. “Now, movement assembly and casing are separated. It may make the watchmakers more motivated and feel the end customer better.”
She is proud to work for Seiko, which, for her, is unique in the entire watchmaking industry. “Seiko is the only company that has mastered the four technologies of watchmaking - mechanical, quartz, kinetic and Spring Drive,” she says. (KWS)


Source: Europa Star October-November 2008 Magazine Issue