Grand Seiko’s Awesome April Fool’s Day Campaign: The Ninja Grand Seiko Watch

The concept of April Fool’s Day is starting to grow among companies in Japan.

And for Seiko’s luxury line of watches, Grand Seiko, the company decided to pull off a fascinating April Fool’s Day promotion on their website and a YouTube video for “Ninja Grand Seiko”.

The company had artist Shinkawa Yoji (known for the artwork for the “Metal Gear” games and “Zone of Enders” games), create an image of a ninja (kunoichi) sporting the Ninja Grand Seiko watch.

Shinkawa said, “As a lifelong fan of Grand Seiko, I was extremely pleased to be asked to take part in this project. For the creation of this image, I tried to imagine Grand Seiko’s traditional values combined with Spring Drive’s mechanical components and the spirit of the Ninja”.

Even quite a bit of work went into the April Fool’s Day commercial and watch design, showcasing a men’s Spring Drive and women’s mechanical Grand Seiko kunoichi watch.

Even great planning in the website April Fool’s Day ad copy: “Glide motion hands and smooth edges to the case.The second hand moves in perfect glide motion, calming your spirit and focusing you on the goal ahead. The case is polished by hand with a special Zaratsu technique that creates “shuriken-like” sharp edges with a smooth-to-the  -touch softness. Fear not; your watch will never accidentally scratch or hurt anyone”.

Suffice to say, it was a hilarious, yet awesome April Fool’s Day promotion for Grand Seiko!  But yet managing to promote their “Spring Drive” technology at the same time.

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