Yu Andoh is a Japanese designer with a Finnish brand and a unique approach to building a watch brand. When I reviewed AndoAndoAndo‘s first release, the A1, back in 2022, I praised its offbeat design and Andoh’s idea to make the watch accessible to modders. That choice spawned a host of increasingly creative variants from both DIYers and official collaborations. In the past 4 years, AndoAndoAndo has expanded its line with several new watches, and for this review, I have the wildest of the bunch, the Vinyl Record Watch ($531).
The Vinyl Record came to me in an unusual fashion. You see, when I was lining up vendors for the most recent District Time show, I knew a few would be splitting display space. Just days before the event, I learned that AndoAndoAndo would be among them. On the day of, I discovered that Crystal of Misamé and Luonto Watches would represent the brand. Shortly after, a friend showed me the Miaemé Chameleon Vinyl Record collaboration watch he had just purchased and mentioned that the designer lived right in my home base of Alexandria, Virginia. Naturally, I needed to meet her.
Crystal met Andoh while teaching English in Japan, and they have remained friends ever since. One day, he reached out and asked if she had ever considered designing a watch. She had not, but was game to try. While she owned a few watches, including a cherished Rado, she was not yet a part of the watch-collecting community. That soon changed.
She adopted the Misamé pseudonym and eventually established the Luonto Watch label (note that her collaborations are listed under both names on the website). She jumped into her first project with Swallow the Moon, a 34mm women’s watch with a two-tone case and a pastel color palette, powered by a Miyota 6P24 quartz. For the dial, she drew upon themes rooted in nature and the imagery of the swallow logo.
Bouyed by this success, she took on the Vinyl Record collaboration, which is the watch that caught my friend’s attention at the show. For this project, she was excited to do a unisex piece, and Andoh encouraged her to go for it and have fun, as he quite clearly had when he drew up the original.
The Vinyl Record was inspired by the Technics SL-1200 turntable, and frankly, the theme is hard to miss. Its stainless steel case is a 41 x 36mm rectangle with 22mm lugs, a record-album dial, and a tonearm minute hand. The logo on the central disk of the record label marks the hours. A tiny disc at the very center rotates with the seconds.
Flipping the watch over, you will discover the central case is a 36mm square extended by two massive crown guards that flank a volume knob crown.
Inside is a Miyota 9039 automatic, struggling to convey the time. This is no fault of the movement, but a function of the exceptionally small hour indicator, dogleg minute hand, and a chapter index styled to look like the strobe dot pattern we ancient folk once used to adjust a turntable’s belt speed. Given that, the usual specs about smoothness, accuracy, and power reserve become superfluous. The unit’s most important feature is its thin profile.
Andoh freely admits that this watch is not about telling time so much as making a statement. It is a common trope in our community that men justify watches as tools, but in reality, they serve as jewelry. The Vinyl Record is just a bit more upfront about it.
As far as statement pieces go, this one is quite wearable, as the 36mm length keeps it well within reach of all but the tiniest wrists, and at 10.7mm thick, it slides easily under a shirt cuff. My 6.75″ wrist carried it without complaint. It has sapphire crystals front and rear. The well-guarded crown is a push-pull. As you might imagine, water resistance is a modest 50m.
Crystal took Andoh’s creation and drew on David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust era for further inspiration, choosing a gold PVD case, a sky-blue record, an aqua label, and red accents for the text, chapter ring, and strap. If you know the “Life on Mars” video, you’ll see it all reflected here. An Aladdin Sane lightning bolt decorates the seconds disk. Note the inscription on the label “Designed in ALX and HEL” for Alexandria and Helsinki. At $531, it promptly sold out, although sufficient interest may inspire a second batch.
With two collaborations under her belt, Crystal moved on to the Vinyl Record Quartz, equipped with a smooth Seiko VH31. This edition comes with a lower price tag ($348) and a more somber black case with an oxblood disk reminiscent of the premium Japanese red vinyl prized by LP collectors.
Crystal has found the microbrand watch community to be welcoming and supportive. She has now begun her inevitable descent into watch nerdery, and I, for one, could not be happier. Every industry needs fresh ideas from new blood, and I love the fact that Crystal entered the space with few preconceived notions. What’s next? She shared some ideas, but I’ll never tell. Suffice it to say that she will continue to explore organic themes, and she promises to take them in unexpected directions.
“To me, the worst outcome is something bland,” Crystal explained. “The Chameleon was not for everyone – it got a couple looks at the show,” she said, mimicking a displeased side-eye, “but I’d rather take a chance and get a genuine reaction – good or bad – than make something that doesn’t try to inspire joy.”
That’s the kind of energy that drives the microbrand watch world. I’m looking forward to where Luonto Watch and AndoAndoAndo will take us next. In the meantime, visit andoandoando.com for more information or to order a Vinyl Record Watch of your own.
