One of my favorite days on the watch media calendar every year is the Naoya Hida preview day. Every spring for the last few years, watch media types make appointments at the Armoury on the Upper East Side to get a look at the upcoming Naoya Hida releases for the year. It feels like a very old fashioned way of doing things. Yes, there’s a press release sent out ahead of time, but Naoya Hida only makes one announcement like this per year – there are no mid-cycle drops or limited editions released to coincide with some later event. Members of the Naoya Hida team are present and there to explain the collection, piece by piece.
This year, Naoya Hida will produce a total of 10 models, 7 of which are new designs. We won’t go through each one here, but rather focus on the references that are completely new and those that have the most notable upgrades.
The reference that immediately caught my eye and was easily the most unexpected of the bunch is the new NH TYPE2C-2. To this point, Naoya Hida has really been defined, in my estimation, by their dial aesthetic, which prominently features elaborate hand engravings in the dial surface. It’s a very traditional and inherently ornate way to make a dial, and the execution is always top notch. It’s a type of craft that’s a true “IYKYK” proposition, though. From a distance the handwork on these dials might not be obvious, but they really come alive under close examination, especially under a loupe.
Anyway, the TYPE2C-2 dispenses with all of this in favor of a completely new dial crafted from porcelain. The inspiration here is 19th century pocket watches, reinterpreted through the Naoya Hida lens which is focused on a strong design language rooted in the 1950s and 60s. The brand’s logo at 12:00 as well as the indices are all hand painted, and frankly we wouldn’t expect anything else given Naoya Hida’s commitment to handmade dial craft.
Like all of their watches, the TYPE2C-2 is best examined under magnification. Seeing the hand painted elements of the dial through a loupe is essential as it really helps to capture the very subtle depth in the paint and even more subtle imperfections and signs of a human touch. The fact that it’s really only under magnification that you can determine the text and indices are hand painted is a testament to their quality and the artistry of Naoya Hida’s dial suppliers.
The TYPE2C-2 is 37mm in stainless steel, and will retail for $20,600. A total of 10 pieces are expected to be produced between this year and next.
The NH TYPE1E is a refinement of Naoya Hida’s signature watch, which first appeared in 2019. The TYPE1 is not only the brand’s first watch, but a skeleton key to understanding everything that has come since. It includes all of the core elements that make these watches special: a handmade dial in German silver with beautiful engraving work, a case size squarely in the medium-small range, and design notes that are unmistakably influenced by classic midcentury dress watches by Holy Trinity maisons, especially Patek Philippe. And like the core watches from those brands, the TYPE1 doesn’t change radically from year to year. Instead, we see incremental improvements that make it feel even more like itself.
This year’s TYPE1E is officially the fifth generation of the reference, and its most critical update is a new case, which has been sized down a full millimeter from 37mm to 36mm in diameter. The crystal (a component that the Naoya Hida team never treats like an afterthought) has been reshaped and now has a more domed profile, an effort by the brand to give the watch additional depth and dimension. This has resulted in the TYPE1E’s case height increasing marginally from its predecessor, to 10.9mm (up from 9.8mm).
Naoya Hida will produce 25 TYPE1Es in 2026 and 2027, and the retail price is $19,500.
Next up, this year’s high end halo piece, the NH TYPE3B-4. Based on the brand’s TYPE3, their popular moonphase, the new TYPE3B-4 is likely the brand’s most opulent watch to date, with a fully engraved yellow gold case. This is not the first time the brand has issued an engraved case (the TYPE1 got this treatment in 2024) but this edition with the moonphase also includes gold infill on the engraved numerals, gold hands, and, of course, the gold (engraved) moonphase itself. Naoya Hida will only make two of these watches over the next two years. The retail price is set at $108,300.
Zach Kazan
2026-05-07 18:00:00