Putting Some Steam Back into Steampunk
This week, we're revisiting an old friend, Japanese Steampunk watchmaker, Sueyoshi Haruo (also referred to as Haruo Suekichi), featured nearly a decade ago on The Watchismo Times blog. Having created thousands of custom built Steampunk watches, all nearly one of a kind and with completely hilarious mechanical functions like flapping leather dragon wings to celebratory noisemakers and hidden compartments for obscure objects. Here are a few of his most recent creations...
![Sueyoshi Haruo Sideview Wood](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S1_large.jpg?v=1591316873)
Many of his designs feature side-viewing displays but these also showcase cases carved of wood.
![Sueyoshi Haruo Wood Sideview Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/s1_1_large.jpg?v=1591316917)
The mixed media of his contraptions personify the Steampunk aesthetic and for those of you living under a rock for the past decade; it's a subgenre of speculative Science Fiction. The term denotes works set in a world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century, and often set in Victorian era England. Incorporating retro-futurism styles of fictional technological inventions like those found in the works of H. G. Wells. Summed up, it's a modern world of today if electricity or electronics had never been realized.
![Sueyoshi Haruo Dual Display](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S2_large.jpg?v=1591316959)
Many of the timepieces feature multiple displays on, above or to the side.
![](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/haruosuekichi02_large.jpg?v=1591317224)
Caught somewhere between sadistic torture devices and timepieces, these artisinal watches are prolifically original, fantastically bizarre.
![Sueyoshi Haruo Dragon Wings Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S5_large.jpg?v=1591317027)
These watches with wings actually mechanically flap away, I've seen them working! Why you ask? How dare you...
![Sueyoshi Haruo Winged Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S15_large.jpg?v=1591317088)
![Sueyoshi Haruo Sideview Organic](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S6_large.jpg?v=1591317266)
More of the quintessential sideviewing watches, some more organically designed, others pure Steampunk utilitarianism.
![Sueyoshi Haruo Side-viewing Steampunk Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S9_large.jpg?v=1591317314)
![Sueyoshi Haruo Steampunk Watches](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S3_120c515a-9a37-4e42-be72-9c92b0887da2_large.jpg?v=1591317372)
![Sueyoshi Haruo Steampunk Timepiece](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S14_large.jpg?v=1591317406)
![Steampunk Watches](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S10_large.jpg?v=1591317148)
![Steampunk Timepiece](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S8_large.jpg?v=1591317487)
![Double Barrel Compartment Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S11_large.jpg?v=1591317542)
![Celebratory Noisemaker Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S13_large.jpg?v=1591317587)
![Sueyoshi Haruo Steampunk Designs](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/buddy1_large.jpg?v=1591317639)
![Hidden Compartment Watch](http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0074/5432/6835/files/S12_large.jpg?v=1591317709)
Excerpts from a an interview with Sueyoshi Haruo:
"I started to work in a toy store, as a salesman. Across from the toy store was a watchmaker, and he would sometimes come over during work hours, and we became friends. I asked him if he could teach me how to make watches, and... [nods]."
"So did your watches start out as unique as they are now, or have you built up to this level of weird?"
"In the beginning, they were pretty simple, a strange drawing maybe, but that's about it. But at the flea market, a one-armed man came up to me. And he said to me, well, with only my left arm, I can't put on a watch. Wow, I thought, he's right...I wonder if I could make a watch like that? So I made - and you can see one upstairs in the showcase - I made a watch that you put your wrist in it and it shuts around your wrist."
"In the beginning, they were pretty simple, a strange drawing maybe, but that's about it. But at the flea market, a one-armed man came up to me. And he said to me, well, with only my left arm, I can't put on a watch. Wow, I thought, he's right...I wonder if I could make a watch like that? So I made - and you can see one upstairs in the showcase - I made a watch that you put your wrist in it and it shuts around your wrist."
Find other Steampunk inspired watches at Watches.com
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