On May 26th, 2025, my friend Soichiro Matsuzaki, the creator of webChronos and its parent company, Chronos Japan, suddenly passed away. I learned of the news in an email I received at 11:31 AM on the 28th, two days after the incident, while I was at work. "What? No way. That can't be true," I thought. I immediately called the editorial department, but I couldn't get through to anyone there...
Portrait Photograph by Masanori Yoshie
Photographs & Text by Yasuhito Shibuya
[Article published on January 12, 2025]
A great benefactor who taught me a different perspective as an "editing idiot"
It was so unexpected, I still can't believe it. I can't help but think that if I went to a presentation for a new watch, he would just pop up and sit next to me. That's because on May 16th, 10 days before he passed away, we met and talked in exactly that way, and he asked me to write about it. He seemed really healthy at the time.
Matsuzaki was the son of a liquor store owner, but he couldn't drink a drop of alcohol, and so he didn't drink. He wasn't a villain who boasted about living an unhealthy lifestyle. He seemed healthy, but I had known for a long time that he had several illnesses. He was hospitalized regularly for tests, and apparently he was in the middle of one this time. So I assumed that he was in a "safe state for the time being." That's why it's so hard to believe that he passed away so suddenly.
Publishing advertising professionals
My friendship with Soichiro Matsuzaki, or rather Mr. Matsuzaki, dates back to the late 1990s. We probably met at a watch-related event around the time I started covering watches in earnest as an editor for Tokuma Shoten's Goods Press. At the time, we lived near Mitakadai Station and Inokashira Park Station on the Keio Inokashira Line, so we would often find Mr. Matsuzaki at a nearby restaurant on the weekends, usually Saturdays, and we would meet almost weekly to exchange information.
Matsuzaki-san was a magazine advertising salesperson for Esquire Japan (then known as the Japanese edition). He served as the head of the advertising department when the Japanese edition was first published in Japan, and when the company changed its structure to Esquire Magazine Japan, he became its president and representative director. He has had a passion for watches and shoes since then, and as an advertising salesperson, he was actively in contact with watch brands.
Matsuzaki is a self-proclaimed "professional in advertising sales," and as a literary editor who became a magazine editor, I learned so much from him about the importance of magazine advertising and advertising sales, as well as the various practical applications of the subject.
Up until the mid-1990s, there were many editors in the publishing world who had no understanding at all of how important advertising was to magazines, and who, in fact, believed that "editors don't need to know about advertising," and who wielded a false sense of privilege that "editing > advertising," carrying with them the feeling of the time that new magazines were launched to accommodate the overflowing advertising. It's hard to believe now, though.
Instead, I spoke to Matsuzaki about his "views and opinions as an editor" and "his own interests." However, unlike regular company employees like advertising salespeople, editors are all different and cannot be generalized (though this is purely my personal opinion). Essentially, each editor competes with their own unique perspective and ideas. And their sole purpose in life is to find out "unique, particularly interesting things" before others through interviews, and to "create interesting articles using those topics."
If I wasn't allowed to do that, the job of an editor would just be hard work. I think about this every time I go to work, but editing is mundane, detailed, tiresome, and inefficient. I have to read through a huge amount of material and think about how to structure the visuals. I'm constantly thinking, whether I'm on or off duty, about how to make the content more interesting and wonderful, all the time, except when I'm sleeping.
Although Matsuzaki would say things like "That's no good," he actually had a lot of respect for each of us editors. Any editor who has worked with Matsuzaki knows this very well.
Matsuzaki-san is a great benefactor who taught me, a writer who was an "editing fanatic," a different perspective. He taught me the fundamental principle that publishing is, above all, a business. I am truly grateful for how useful this was when I was working as a desk editor and deputy editor of "Goods Press" and its watch magazine, "World's Authentic Watches."
Then, in January 2003, feeling that my work at Tokuma Shoten had reached its limits, I was invited to join Esquire Magazine Japan, where Mr. Matsuzaki was president, as a contract editor. At the time, the editorial department did not have an editor with extensive experience in reporting on watches who could write a watch feature centered on tie-up articles, so they asked me to take charge of such articles.
However, after working on the spring 2003 watch and car features, I ended up disappointing Mr. Matsuzaki at the end of June for a number of reasons. I asked to be terminated from my contract and went freelance. After this, I actually ended up working as the general planning supervisor for a daily BS TV program for several years. This work was also one of the reasons I went freelance. However, after this, I ended up working on a variety of projects, mainly related to watches, as a contributing editor (external collaborating editor) for Esquire Japan.
Looking back, and as he himself has written in his essays on webChronos, Matsuzaki truly loved watches. He looked forward to going to the two major Swiss watch fairs (both at the time), commonly known as the Geneva Salon (formerly SIHH) and the Basel Fair (later Baselworld), more than anyone else. There is no one who loved watches so deeply, at least not in the world of publishing advertising sales. I can still picture in my mind the look on Matsuzaki's face when he came across a new watch at a watch fair that made him "want it." In fact, there must have been several watches he ordered on the spot and loved, such as a Rolex Submariner.
The story behind the launch of "Kronos Japan"
Matsuzaki then left Esquire Magazine Japan after it became part of the Culture Convenience Club (CCC) Group, which also owns TSUTAYA. Now free, Matsuzaki began working towards the launch of Chronos Japan, "a magazine about watches I love."
Now that Matsuzaki has passed away, it's permissible to talk about this, or perhaps it's best to do so. In fact, I was involved in the preparations for the launch of Chronos Japan. In December 2004, the year before the publication, I was present as a "personal, voluntary observer" at the partnership negotiations with the German publisher of Chronos, as a friend who accompanied them to the Chronos publisher in Ulm, Germany. The partnership negotiations were quickly concluded.
Why did he partner with Germany's Chronos? It was likely due to advice from people like Masaharu Nabata, who remains a regular contributor to the magazine, as well as his own evaluation. The German magazine Chronos had features not found in Japanese watch magazines at the time, such as rigorous evaluation articles based on wear tests, which is typical of Germany. For Matsuzaki, who had previously negotiated an extension of a partnership agreement with Esquire Japan, this was not his first time negotiating an international partnership.
It would have been possible to launch a watch magazine from scratch without any partnerships. However, Matsuzaki knew the value of Chronos's brand, just like Esquire Japan, where he served as president. Like the former Esquire Japan, only a small proportion of Chronos Japan's articles are partnership articles. The majority of articles are original to the Japanese edition. However, Matsuzaki placed importance on the value that could not be created from scratch, such as the Chronos brand and rigorous review articles. His decision was correct.
After negotiating the partnership, Matsuzaki and I visited Dresden, where the Christmas market was being held. We drove a rental car to Glashütte, where A. Lange & Söhne's headquarters was located at the time. I also remember taking a tour of the Meissen workshop.
Kronos Japan was launched in October 2005. However, I was not involved in the inaugural issue at all, nor did I contribute any articles. I only started working on or contributing to the magazine in 2010, more than five years after its launch. There's a reason for this. Matsuzaki asked me to join the editorial staff, but I declined. Instead, I recommended someone else. You might wonder why, considering I even served as an observer. But for several reasons, I felt I wasn't up to the task. I feel sorry for Matsuzaki, but I still believe that decision was the right one.
From its launch to the present, the advertising department, led by Mr. Matsuzaki, has made outstanding sales efforts. The editor-in-chief, deputy editor-in-chief, editorial staff, and excellent external writers, as well as manga artists, have all contributed to the original articles that surpass those of the German edition, thanks to the passion and hard work of the editorial staff. Thanks to the efforts of the internal staff who supported this, Chronos Japan has firmly established itself as a world-class "specialized watch magazine." The 100th issue will be published in April 2022, and the 121st issue, to be published in October 2025, will mark the 20th anniversary of its founding.
With the 20th anniversary of the magazine's founding being such a major milestone, Matsuzaki-san must have been thinking about further developments. But just before that, he suddenly passed away. He surely hadn't expected it himself and must have thought, "That's strange." I don't think even he "felt it" about it. I can't help but think that. And I'm very sorry about that.
However, it was Matsuzaki, who loved precision machinery known as watches more than anyone else, that gave birth to the wonderful magazine Chronos Japan, which has brought joy to watch enthusiasts throughout Japan, as well as those involved with watches in Japan and around the world. This fact and achievement is a monumental achievement that no one else could have achieved, and will remain in the history of Japanese watches and publishing, and it is impossible to praise it enough. Matsuzaki's passion will continue to be passed down to the staff of Simsam Media, and will continue to entertain and inspire all watch lovers.
For now, I would like to end this sentence by saying this to Mr. Matsuzaki in heaven.
"Mr. Matsuzaki, you have created a wonderful watch magazine. Thank you very much for your hard work."
