Type 3B, Steel

The Naoya Hida & Co. Type 3 was the Tokyo-based independent’s first complicated watch. The first foray landed on an incredibly characterful hand-engraved moonphase—released 2021. What remains is classic Naoya Hida—German silver engraved dial, Romans in urushi lacquer, and blued steel. 10-15 examples have been made yearly since 2022 putting the total near 50. 

The watch carries the name of a founder who is, notably, not a watchmaker. Naoya Hida was born in Kyoto in 1963 and entered the industry in 1990 when he joined a foreign watch import trading company, going independent in 2018. His three decades on the commercial side accumulated a long roster of connections—among them work for Audemars Piguet, Breguet, Daniel Roth, F.P. Journe, Harry Winston, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Roger Dubuis, Ulysse Nardin, and Vacheron Constantin. He is not a watchmaker by trade, but built an established presence in Japanese watchmaking culture through those distribution and representation roles. His contemporary manfucaturing today is handled by a small team he assembled: master watchmaker Kosuke Fujita joined in 2020, and master engraver Keisuke Kano in 2022. 

The moonphase is the reason the Type 3 exists, and it is the part most worth dwelling on. It sits at six o'clock beneath German silver & heat-blued steel hands milled from a single bar of steel, rendered in 18K yellow gold with a microbead-blasted finish. The disk is hand-engraved with a canopy of stars and an unusually expressive moon—one that appeared somewhat aggrieved in the earliest versions before softening into the benevolent, smiling face seen today. The single most distinctive engineering point is how it is set: rather than a recessed corrector pusher, Hida developed a mechanism that adjusts the moonphase directly through the crown, in the position where one would normally set the date, a genuinely clever re-engineering of the donor caliber and a small detail which collectors single out. It runs the Caliber 3021LU, based on the Valjoux 7751, stripped of its automatic and chronograph components, with a new three-quarter plate, balance bridge and winding mechanism—4Hz, 45-hour reserve. The case is third-generation, now thinner and with a more sculptural bezel. 

There is something captivating about the Type 3B that no spec sheet captures. It is the work of a man who spent three decades selling other people's watches before he built his own, and who chose, of all things, the moon as his first complication. The 3B is a late-arrived conviction of seeing dreams through, something very personal. Which is why personality is a defining trait with a personally reviewed application process in the retail side. The Type 3B is, simply, very charming. 

This Type 3B features a strong case with light even surface wear. Its dial shows no faults or patina. The watch comes with its full set, box and original strap with clasp.i

This example is modelled on an average-sized 7-inch wrist.