Hajime Asaoka

Hajime Asaoka was born in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan; his exact birth date is not documented in public sources, and even the birth year is not independently confirmed beyond an approximate age mentioned in an undated Phillips feature. He studied design, not horology, graduating from the Design Department of the Undergraduate School of Fine Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1990, with a focus on industrial design and additional study in graphic design. In 1992 he opened the Hajime Asaoka Design Office. He has no formal training in watchmaking: he taught himself by reading horological literature, including George Daniels's "Watchmaking," and did not attend a watchmaking school, apprentice at a Japanese watch manufacturer, or train in Switzerland.

He made his debut as an independent watchmaker in 2005. Around 2009, roughly four years later, he completed the Tourbillon #1 prototype, an in-house tourbillon movement. He is documented as a member of the Academie Horlogere des Createurs Independants (AHCI), the Swiss-based body of independent watchmakers, since 2015. In 2013 he collaborated with artist Takashi Murakami on a tourbillon titled "Death Takes No Bribe," slated to premiere at the AHCI's watch fair in Basel. He went on to found Kurono Tokyo, an accessible sub-brand of mechanical wristwatches priced in the low thousands of dollars, which built a large following and continues to release new models. He continues to work in Tokyo.

Specialist watch press has consistently placed Asaoka at the center of Japan's independent watchmaking scene. Oracle of Time has written that "Hajime Asaoka is renowned for his exquisite craftsmanship and Art Deco-infused avant-garde designs," adding that "Asaoka-san remains arguably the most influential living Japanese independent watchmaker." Phillips, in its "Indie Insider" feature, called him "a 57-year-old man who is arguably the most influential living watchmaker in Japan working under their own name." His AHCI membership, documented since 2015, and the 2020 GPHG finalist selection of two Kurono Tokyo watches designed under his direction, the Chronograph 1 and the Anniversary Green "Mori," reinforce a critical consensus built on self-taught technical achievement rather than institutional pedigree.

Asaoka's work trades across two distinct tiers. His own-name, high-horology pieces, made in extremely small numbers, are the ones that reach auction at six-figure prices. Per Phillips's own past-lots listings, his three highest recorded results are the Tourbillon PURA (USD 361,950), the Tourbillon #1 (CHF 304,800), and the Project-T Tourbillon (HKD 1,905,000), all sold through Phillips; exact sale dates and locations for these lots are not published in the sources reviewed, though the currencies point to sales in New York, Geneva, and Hong Kong respectively. His watches have also appeared in Phillips's TOKI sale, a themed auction dedicated to Japanese watch collecting. Separately, Kurono Tokyo, the accessible sub-brand he founded, sells new pieces directly, with 2026 releases such as the Special Projects 37mm Inseki priced at USD 1,850 before VAT and duties, a segment collectors should not confuse with the market for his own-name pieces.

There is no catalogue raisonne for Asaoka's work, and no major museum collection holding his watches has been documented in public sources, so provenance rests heavily on his own atelier, his AHCI standing, and Kurono Tokyo's own documentation practices, such as the brand's notes on individually inspected meteorite dials. His public auction history is thin, limited mostly to a small number of Phillips results, so any single sale can move the apparent price level more than it would for a maker with deeper trading history. Collectors should also keep his two markets separate: the six-figure results attached to his own-name high-horology pieces are not representative of Kurono Tokyo, which remains an accessible, direct-to-buyer line priced in the low thousands of dollars.