Otsuka Lotec No. 6 - unworn late 2026

Ōtsuka Lōtec No. 6

Jiro Katayama isn’t a traditional watchmaker. He’s a self-taught designer who worked with tools and cameras, and his watches show it. They look like the gauges and meters of Japan’s industrial boom, with the logic of an instrument, and he builds them in a small workshop in Toshima, in Tokyo, surrounded by the old machine tools and meters he collects. Each one starts from an idea for how to display the time, and the style follows from that.

The No. 6 is the idea that made his name. He finished the first one in 2015, and it became a hit in Japan. Orders grew until he couldn’t fill them, and he switched to a lottery to decide who could buy. The updated No. 6 came out in 2024 and won the Challenge Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève that year. It looks like an analog meter, with two fan-shaped arc scales across the dial, 0 to 60 for the minutes on top and 0 to 12 for the hours below. Two needles sweep along the arcs and snap back to the start when they reach the end, which is what retrograde means.

The type is inspired by Japanese highway signs, and the dial reads “Made by Otsuka Lotec,” “No.6 Mechanical,” “Toshima, Tokyo” and “Water-Resistant.” The 42.6mm case is brushed steel, 11.8mm thick, with exposed screws on the bezel and dial and the crown at 2 o’clock. It’s on a calf leather strap. The brand developed the retrograde mechanism with help from independent watchmaker Hajime Asaoka.

Getting one is the hard part. The No. 6 is sold only in Japan, through lotteries on the brand’s website, and you need a Japanese bank card and a Japanese address to enter and to buy. Production has stayed tiny, roughly 500 watches from the brand over nearly twenty years, and collectors overseas have been envious for years. Even people in Japan wait for the lottery.

This one is just in from Japan, unworn and in mint condition, from 2026. It comes with its original box and papers, and with the postcard that came with it: an engraved drawing of the watch, with a handwritten note in Japanese from Katayama himself.

Translated, it reads: “I was fascinated by the look and feel of control panels and instruments from a slightly older era, and that became the inspiration for the design of Unit 6. Thank you for choosing this watch. Otsuka Lotec, Jiro Katayama.”

Brand: Otsuka

Model: Lotec No. 6

Reference: Lotec No. 6

Case Material: N/A

Bracelet Type: N/A

Bracelet Material: N/A

Size: N/A

Dial Color: N/A

Bezel Material: N/A

Bezel Type: N/A

Date: 2026

Condition: Pre-owned

Included Items: Watch with original box and papers

Movement: N/A

Crystal: N/A

Water Resistance: N/A

Stock ID: 966HB