A friend pointed these out to me recently and I took a quick liking to their designs, but was surprised to not be more familiar with the label - I've come across a few articles, but anyone here collect these?

Just curious

 

Been trying to get my hands on one but the small editions are gone in a flash! Exceptional watches!

 

They look great, up to stylistic par with some of Hajime's artisan pieces IMO; with a touch of Glashutte to them - can anyone fill me in on why the Kurono wide releases seem harder to get than the JDM 'Chrono' models - aside from much higher production numbers, I assume. The styles are noticeably different from what I've seen; can anyone comment to quality?

 

Yes
Love the design of them. They are reasonably prized for the small editions but the secondary prices are bonkers.
Grand Akane awaiting.

Best

 

Beautiful watches. Here's a good intro:

https://wornandwound.com/introducing-the-kurono-by-independent-watchmaker-hajime-asaoka/

 

I am

 

Used Chrono 1 prices are Rolexesque !
Beautiful watches but $9K+ Aud and they still move.
A very nicely finished case with a Seiko chrono movement so it will be reliable and serviceable !
Trying to get ones head around twice the original cost is the hard part.

 

Very much agreed - I'm hoping, albeit likely in vain, to snag one of their future releases. Got to see one in the metal last week (a Mori) and it was absolutely superb in design and finish.

 

I’ve been paying attention to them for about a year now. I was hesitant at first as I was just getting acquainted. In hindsight, I wish I tried to get one of the Chronograph 2’s.
I’m definitely going to try and get the next release.

 

Same here, chrono 2 sold out in 4 mins. Unfortunately the flipper market at 100% markup is the reality!

 

I saw this. I find it really disheartening in this case. Hajime seems passionate about getting his watches in the hands of watch enthusiasts, not greymarket dealers and profiteers. I believe him. He goes to great effort to thwart that Avenue of watch resale - apparently in vain.

 

Hajime can solve this by releasing more Chrono 1's or 2's.
No harm in making them a staple of the brand.
Ok they were a limited release, call them chrono 3, remove the date window and make it manual wind. Voilá we have a different watch
Lots of income for Kurono Tokyo, a happy clientele, what's not to like ?
I hope he reads this forum.

 

or the more likely thing, increase the price, like ming did.

stupid, crazy prices for a Miyota 9

 

What/who is Ming? Can you share a link?

 

https://ming.watch/

 

Aha! Thanks!

 

If the company website is to be believed (which in most cases I'd doubt, but Asaoka himself does seem fairly involved) - they are against this idea - the following is from their 'Special Allocations for Kurono Contributors' page:

"Gross Mismatch in Secondary Kurono Valuations, New Penalties

The Kurono team constantly tracks what is happening on the secondary and grey markets, and we do not like what we see. Kurono currently sells in some markets for 5x MSRP, and stabilizes at 3x MSRP in most markets. Even our accessories (boxes) are trading at 2x MSRP. We find this very unhealthy. Standard economics dictate matching supply and demand curves to reach price equilibrium but that would mean far higher prices which we will simply not do. Neither can we simply just increase launch numbers due to our limitations, which is now exacerbated by COVID disruptions. Kurono at inception was designed to deliver the exceptional at affordable prices. We will not raise prices because of a few errant traders.

Effective immediately, any identified or suspected trader will be barred from purchasing any Kurono. We know that there are a few outliers that still try to beat the system by registering alternative names and addresses. We will track and cancel such transactions even after the launch date. Such cancellations will then be subject to a restocking fee of 12.5% of the watch’s MSRP to cater to card transaction and platform costs. The extra will be donated to our selected children’s charity of the season.

The restocking penalty will be on top of all existing measure we have taken to limit the number of errant grey trading in Kurono."

The whole thing can be seen here: Special Allocations for Kurono Contributors – KURONO TOKYO

 

lol,.. and lol at them saying after they cancel what they think is somebody buying manipulated multiples they won't give you back all your money.

smells like bs to me. especially since the secondary market is propelling the brand into fomo.

 

I suppose it can be interpreted that way - given that it isn't a company designed to set sales records, I don't personally agree with the view, but everyone's opinion is their own.

I don't see any reason why an intentionally manipulated sale should be fully refunded, FWIW - I worked for a company that was doing a digital currency (crypto, and no I'm not going into which one or any of that) long before it got popular and we cancelled thousands of transactions a day that were blatant manipulation - which essentially resulted in those 'traders' not being refunded because suddenly the entire transaction didn't exist - we did it because at the time we were a private company and had a vested interest in not allowing what was essentially speculation at best and fraud at worst. I don't see how this is any different, but again that's my opinion.

 

There’s a Chrono 1 now for sale in our own private sales section

https://omegaforums.net/threads/kurono-tokyo-chronograph-1-bnib.131605/