The Iconic Wako Clock Tower
/The Wako clock tower has been an iconic symbol of the Ginza region in Tokyo since its initial construction. The clock tower and the Wako department store building itself have become closely associated with Ginza and have featured in many movies and television shows over the years. Due to its central location directly above the subway and a relatively large footpath area directly in front of the building the high end department store is a common meeting place for people in the area.
The initial clock tower housed a clock that was manufactured in Switzerland and imported by a Yokohama-based foreign firm (J Colomb & Co.). The clock was powered by two large cylindrical weights approximately 24cm long and 18cm in diameter that hung directly below it. These were wound up by hand where they would then slowly descend over the week providing power for both the clock, and the 1.2m bell that rang hourly and on the half hour. At the top of the tower there were four clock faces with roman numerals ensuring that the time could be seen from all directions surrounding the building, as this was the largest structure in the immediate area at the time.
Business for K. Hattori & Co. expanded rapidly at the start of the century and by 1921 the company had outgrown the existing store. The original building was demolished and a temporary store location in Ginza was established. Unfortunately in 1923 the Great Kanto Earthquake and the subsequent fire destroyed the site and the temporary store location, in addition to the warehouse and factory of the company. Plans for the Ginza location were put on hold while the company worked to bring back operations, but by 1929 the redesign of the main building restarted and had been finalized by May 1930. On 11th June 1930 construction began on the new main building.
Unfortunately while the main building was already under construction, the design of the clock tower that was intended to sit on top of the building had still not been finalized. At this time none of the proposals had received Kintaro Hattori’s approval. The architect that was tasked with completing the tower design was Mitsuo Watanabe, and he submitted many different design ideas, but none of these had made the cut as Kintaro had always envisaged this to be one of the top clock towers in the world. Becoming increasingly frustrated by the design process Mitsuo took to sleeping with a design sketchbook beside him in bed. One night he had an inspired idea and documented this immediately. The next morning he went to the offices and produced a model that was eventually accepted by Kintaro Hattori. The completed design of the clock tower was finally approved around a year after construction of the main building had commenced. The building proceeded rapidly and on June 10th 1932 an inauguration ceremony was held for the second clock tower and the new location began operation.
The design of the tower incorporates elements from the main building design with the columns and matching materials in addition to the arabesque bronze work that was used throughout the building. This arabesque design was initially suggested by Shoji Hattori, the second son of Kintaro, after he was inspired by a recent trip to France. This design is integrated into the bronze frame holding the clock.
This newly constructed tower was fitted with a clock manufactured in Germany as Seikosha did not produce large public clocks at this time. Like the first clock it was powered by a large hanging weight but instead of being hand wound this was performed by a 1/4 horsepower motor and chain assembly. The minute hand on the clock moved once every thirty seconds and always showed the correct time, as it was checked daily and adjusted by an experienced engineer as required. The new clock had only an hourly chime unlike the half hour chime that has been present on the first clock. Like the first clock the tower has four clock faces that are directed in almost a perfect north, south, east, west orientation. This direction for the clock faces can be seen on a map with the two main roads in front of the building, Chuo-dori Ave and Harumi-dori Ave., running in a north east and south west direction.
The clock faces are approximately 2.4m in diameter and are each made from a single sheet of glass at least 24mm thick that had to be imported from Belgium. The markings on the dial are etched into the outer glass surface a few millimeters and painted black. The rear of the dial is painted white allowing the clock to be illuminated internally making the time extremely legible day or night. The hour hand is 0.75m long and the minute hand is 1.17m long.[4]
During the war the building amazingly survived the bombing that destroyed many of the buildings around it, but three of the dial plates were cracked during a bombing on 27th January 1945. After the war the building was requisitioned as a military PX and did not return to operation as the Wako department store until December 1954. Wako had been established in 1947, taking over the retail division of K. Hattori & Co., Ltd., and had operated from a temporary location until the main Ginza building became available.
In 1954 on June 10th, “Time Day” in Japan, the hourly chime for the Wako clock tower was restored utilizing a mechanical disc and pipe configuration.
The clock remained in constant operation and in 1966 was upgraded to a quartz master clock from the traditional pendulum based mechanical model.[5] The installation of the Seiko produced quartz clock was completed on the 22nd of August 1966. The new clock was rated at ±0.2 per day and controlled an electrical motor mechanically linked to all four clock faces ensuring each show exactly the same time. Seiko had just started to produce quartz clocks for commercial purposes, so installing one into the Wako tower was a perfect opportunity to showcase the technology.
The importance of the new quartz Wako clock can be seen in the special awards that were chosen for the 1967 Start with Seiko promotional campaign. The top three tiers of entrants in the dealer campaign were gifted commemorative clocks that were modelled after the Wako clock tower. I have a pair of these clocks with the larger golden version having an electronic clock movement, while the smaller bronze colored clock has a traditional movement based around a mechanical alarm clock. The main tower portion of these clocks is 240mm high on the golden version and 180mm high on the bronze version. I assume that there was a silver version of these awards, but I have not seen an example of this.
The next change to the Wako clock occurred eight years later when a new high accuracy quartz clock was installed in 1974. The change to an updated clock less than a decade later is unsurprising when you consider the incredibly rapid advances that were made over that time with quartz timekeeping. During this upgrade the tower was changed to use audio recordings for the chimes and time indication.[6]
In 1983 a special New Year chime was introduced, but it was not until 1992 that the next significant upgrade occured. At this point the clock was upgraded to a higher accuracy quartz clock that was synchronized to the JJY shortwave radio signal. The chime and time indication recordings were changed from the previously used tape based system to a compact disc recording.
A decade later, in 2002, the clock was upgraded again, this time due to the fact that the JJY shortwave signal had just been discontinued and shifted to a longwave signal. In addition to the longwave signal there was also an alternative telephone based JJY signal that had the advantage of not being impacted by adverse weather conditions. This telephone signal was utilized for the synchronization of the clock.[7]
The new telephone based synchronization system proved to only be a short stopgap for the clock, when in 2004 the system was moved to a GPS based configuration. This new system used two highly accurate master clocks, one synced to the GPS clock, while the second still connected to the telephone based JJY signal as a backup. The GPS antenna for the clock can be seen on the building roof. The Wako Annex building that is just next door to the main Wako building has large Seiko Astron GPS signage that has been promoting this range of watches for the last few years.
At the same time the clock was upgraded to GPS in 2004 the hands of the clock were also replaced. These were changed to a reinforced design to help with their durability. They have a reinforcing plate that is riveted to the main hand ensuring it is able to withstand severe conditions such as typhoons with no damage. This strengthened design was put to the test in October last year when Typhoon Hagibis hit Tokyo, but the clock hands came through unscathed.
You can see from the photos that the hands have a tailless design that does not extend past the central point. This shape makes it easier to read the time, but due to the large size of the hands they are actually balanced by counter weights that are attached to the inside behind the clock face.
In 2008 the Wako building was shut for approximately 300 days, from January 13th to November 21st, while undergoing major renovations and restoration.[8] As part of these upgrades the Seiko branding was added below the clock face.
In 2009 the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry designated the Wako clock tower as part of the Heritage of Industrial Modernization, indicating the cultural importance that the structure represents.
The Wako building and clock tower has been seen as the face of the Ginza area by the public and is one of the most internationally recognized buildings in Tokyo. The iconic building and clock featured in the 1956 Toho Studios film Godzilla (ゴジラ, Gojira) and the destruction of the Wako clock tower was used in promotional images. The clock tower appears for just a few seconds in the movie, but surprisingly when looking at the clock it seems to take 15 minutes, but possibly the hands were moved by Godzilla during its destruction. The image of Godzilla destroying the tower is so iconic it was one of the key images selected by Criterion to promote the Blu-ray release of the original movie.
The connection between Godzilla and the Wako building is quite strong with it being destroyed in multiple movies and this was acknowledged for the recent Grand Seiko Godzilla SBGA405 model release. The watch featured an image of Godzilla and Wako on the case back and it also was prominently on show in the main Wako window display.
The Wako building and clock tower remain the symbol of Ginza and I look forward to being able to see the familiar building once again when it is possible to return to Japan.