Hanshin Umeda brings independent watchmaker Pim Koeslag to its World Watch Day, with a ¥39.6 million watch for sale

Hanshin Umeda's main store said CVDK (Christiaan van der Klaauw) chief executive Pim Koeslag will appear in person at its annual World Watch Day event on October 10, alongside a linked sale of watches from four independent and haute-horlogerie brands topping ¥39.6 million, according to a release dated September 30.

The event runs October 10 and 11 in the ninth-floor Premium Room at Hanshin Umeda's main store, with Koeslag on site October 10 from 11am to 6pm. Hanshin Umeda describes him as one of the leading independent watchmakers of his generation, credited over his career with roughly 30 movement developments. Alongside CVDK, the sale brings together Louis Moinet, Armin Strom and Wempe, with the most expensive piece on offer — a CVDK Grand Planetarium Eccentric in 18K rose gold, 44mm — listed at ¥39,600,000. The store is also running an eight-panel exhibition tracing watchmaking history back to 14th-century astronomical clocks, built around the "10:10" hand position widely used to display a watch at its most flattering angle. Admission is free.

An in-person appearance from a working independent watchmaker, rather than a brand ambassador or a department-store buyer, goes beyond the mainstream-Swiss-maison watch fairs most Japanese department stores run; it signals how far a dept.-store watch floor is willing to go to court collectors who already know the big houses and are shopping specifically for independent and haute-horlogerie names. Pricing the headline piece at ¥39.6 million puts the sale well above typical department-store watch-floor stock, a bet that Hanshin Umeda's collector base can support prices normally associated with boutique watchmakers rather than counter sales.