Taro Tanaka's mysterious mentor
One of the most famous names in Seiko history is Taro Tanaka. A legendary designer, he played a major role in Seiko's evolution and was the driving force behind Seiko's global success in the late 60's and 70's, being the first industrial design graduate hired by Seiko in 1959.
But Taro Tanaka also had a mentor, 10 years his senior in the company and product manager since 1950, who also had a major influence on Seiko throughout his career, from 1949 to the late 80s. His name was Ren Tanaka.
Credit: The Horological International Correspondance
The name probably means nothing to you, yet his impact was at least as great as that of Taro Tanaka.
I first became aware of this key player through an interview with Taro Tanaka published in the book “The History of Seiko 5 Sports Speed-Timer” by Sadao Ryugo, but the Internet was absolutely silent on the subject. In the end, to my knowledge, the only information on this Seiko monument can be found in The Horological International Correspondance.
So today, I invite you to discover the greatest achievements of Taro Tanaka's mentor.
In the early 50s, Ren Tanaka developed and named the TimeGrapher, a tool familiar to watchmakers the world over. At the time, the Swiss used an equivalent tool called the Vibrographe. Ren Tanaka's machine was a great international success, becoming one of the most important tools for any watchmaker to this day.
Just one year after joining K Hattori (now Seiko Group), Ren Tanaka became product manager, overseeing Daini and Suwa production in the decisive decade that gave rise to the still-present rivalry between these two companies, a rivalry in which he played an important role. Importantly, it was he who came up with the names King Seiko and Grand Seiko, essential symbols of this fraternal rivalry.
Credit Seiko Museum
Credit Seiko Museum
60 years on, its legacy is still relevant, since as you know, Grand Seiko is celebrated its 60th anniversary a few years ago and King Seiko is having a come-back, with the launch of the KS1969 a few days ago.
In 1961, he marketed a product that may seem anecdotal, but which in the end represented the visionary side of its creator: Disney Time.
At the time, watches were overwhelmingly reserved for adults, but Ren Tanaka had the idea of “planting the seed” of Seiko in the minds of younger children by making watches for them. So he targeted children aged 4 or 5, visiting schools to better understand their tastes. He then traveled to Los Angeles to meet Roy Disney, Walt Disney's brother and President of Walt Disney Productions, to negotiate the use of the name and the most iconic Disney characters.
Roy Disney - Credit chroniquedisney.fr
When color TV made its appearance in Japan in 1960, people were struck by the bright colors. So Ren Tanaka's priority was to achieve the same color rendering on the watch dials, which still had to be very affordable. The first generation of Disney Time watches were equipped with paper dials.
Credit Seiko Museum
The watches were marketed in 1961, with a lot of work done on the packaging to appeal to children, at a price of ¥1950 (equivalent to less than US$30 today). They were an immediate success in playgrounds, and the Disney Time range continued into the 1980s.
Credit: The Horological International Correspondance
This example, which may seem insignificant at first glance, clearly shows that Ren Tanaka is a product manager with a vision, someone who can think outside the box to propose very interesting watches and make real advances in marketing.
But one of Ren Tanaka's most memorable achievements was surely designing the Seiko logo in the late '50s. It was he who created the brand's mythical typography, still used today on the billions of dials produced over the past 60 years by the Tokyo-based firm, and on all their communications. The brand's visual identity was virtually non-existent at the time, and it was when he saw the American Airline's that he decided to create a logo for Seiko. It was also he who, with Shoji Hattori's approval, chose the brand's signature blue for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, thus completing Seiko's visual identity.
The Seiko logo and color are, according to Ren Tanaka himself, two of his three greatest successes. The third, and by no means least, is the creation of the Seiko 5.
It's important to understand that in those days, Seiko operated very differently from today. The idea was to say “how can we sell what we make”, which explains why the sales department was hierarchically above the product planning department, to the extent that a sales manager could decide whether or not a product appeared in the catalog without informing the designers or product managers. But Ren Tanaka decided to completely change the company's mindset by reversing things: it was now necessary to design products that sell, and therefore to put the emphasis on marketing. He developed a passion for marketing and began to study it by immersing himself in Western books, since marketing was not a highly developed discipline in Japan at the time.
This was the inspiration for the Seiko Five, launched in 1963.
Credit: www.plus9time.com
The design was entrusted to Taro Tanaka and “the rest is history” as we say. The success was incredible, giving birth to a range of watches that was absolutely emblematic for Seiko, and was one of the essential determinants of Seiko's success in the 60s and 70s.
Just as with Grand Seiko, just as with the brand's visual identity, its heritage has continued to this day, with the Seiko 5 Sports range renewed a few years ago and being an huge global success.
One of the other key events in Seiko's history in the 60s was their participation in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics as official timekeepers, a story partly told in the article “How Seiko entered the exclusive club of sports chronometry”.
The manufacture of large clocks was the responsibility of Seikosha Clock Factory, chronographs and time-measuring instruments for swimming were made by Daini Seikosha, the famous Crystal Chronometer quartz chronographs are manufactured by Suwa and the three factories shared the production of printer chronographs. And, as you've already guessed, the conductor behind the scenes directing all this effort to bring sports timekeeping into a new era was none other than Ren Tanaka.
Credit www.plus9time.com
His experience in directing such projects led him to head the team in charge of products for the Osaka International Exhibition in 1970. He also led the Suwa and Daini teams in the development of chronometry solutions for the Sapporo Winter Games in 1972, two important events in Seiko's history, cementing their success in the 1960s in the wake of quartz's historic turnaround.
Credit: www.plus9time.com
His visionary nature, excellent leadership and many qualities as a product manager convinced Seiko CEO Shoji Hattori to entrust him with increasingly important projects for the group.
In 1976, Ren Tanaka organized the development of the Customer Service Department, whose importance he emphasized by insisting that after-sales service should also be seen as pre-sales service, consolidating a brand's reputation and reassuring the customer - further proof, if any were needed, of his understanding of the market and marketing.
Focusing on the individual is not part of Japanese culture, and I think this explains why, even today, many of the names of the men and women who shaped Seiko's history remain unknown to the general public. I was stunned to discover the astounding silence surrounding such an important person as Ren Tanaka. It's a privilege to be able to put this name in the spotlight so that he can be recognized for his innovations and the indelible mark he has left on Seiko's history.