Automotive culture was forever changed when when Initial D launched in July of 1995. To mark the seminal touge manga’s 30th anniversary, author Shuichi Shigeno and publisher Kodansha have teamed up with renowned watchmaker Seiko for a limited edition timepiece. Its design features several notable design cues from Takumi Fujiwara’s tofu delivery Toyota AE86.
Right of the bat there’s the “panda” two-tone on the watch’s face, denoting the white and black paint job of the Hachiroku. The Fujiwara Tofu logo is located at the 4 o’clock position. The 6 o’clock second hand subdial is marked by the letter “D” as depicted in the Initial D logo, which has a dual meaning in “drift” and “dream”.
Both the stopwatch subdial at the 9 o’clock position and the 24-hour subdial at the 3 o’clock position have been styled to resemble the AE86’s gauges. Tick marks along the bottom are darker since the car did not have them on the instrument cluster, and the one on the right has a subtle high-beam indicator embedded within. Each index and both hands are coated with Lumibrite and glow in the dark.
The watch is limited to 1995 units. On the back, below the etched Initial D logo is an engraved serial number indicating the production sequence of the watch. Whomever gets 0086 will be one lucky customer. Each one comes in a box with the AE86’s panda stripe and the Initial D logo on the cover. The piece costs ¥65,780, or approximately $445 USD. Orders for the first issue scheduled for December delivery are already closed. The second issue scheduled for January 2026 is still available, but only in Japan.
