Some watch designers are inspired by the grand beauty and rich history of mechanical watches. But for Jiro Katayama, a Tokyo-based watch designer, it is all about the gears and pinions, elements of the industrial world where he began his career. That influence — from growing up in car-crazy Japan of the 1980s to the instruments he encountered in automotive design school and his jobs with Lexus and other Japanese automakers — helped Mr. Katayama create Otsuka Lotec watches in 2000 as part of a design business, pivoting to just watch production in 2012. During the next 10 years he made 400 watches by himself — the internal mechanisms, cases, hands and dials — but customers had to wait as long as two years for delivery.

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Persons: Jiro Katayama, —, Katayama, Otsuka Organizations: Lexus Locations: Tokyo, Japan