WES LANG: I think I first read an article online about Naoya Hida in 2018 or something, before he had officially launched his brand. At the time, I was writing a column for GQ and we reached out to see if we could borrow a watch to photograph, but he only had a single prototype and sadly couldn’t loan it to us. He was so nice about it. Then, in 2019, he officially launched with the Type 1B and I reached out to him through a mutual friend who knew him and was able to purchase one of the seven watches. And the Type 2A had come out around that time too, and I asked if it would be possible to purchase one of those as well — he had one, so I ordered both at the same time. making the right choice.
I was only introduced to him and his brand two summers ago. It was 2021 and I was on a trip to Japan with a mutual friend of
