Ginza to Nakano: Watch Shopping Tokyo in 48 Hours
By @midlifecrisiswatches·
It's rare that I get home from a trip, personal or business, and immediately want to go back, let alone get back on an airplane and travel 18 hours. Well, Japan was amazing and I'm ready to go back yesterday.
I headed to Tokyo on business but arrived 72 hours early and spent the first 48 hours completely immersed in Tokyo watch culture. I didn't have time to leave the city, but I went all around Tokyo. I'm sharing some of my experiences and learnings in hopes that it might help you on an upcoming trip. I don't claim to know everything and I certainly did not go everywhere, but I covered some good ground.
Prior to going, I researched as much as I could. I watched almost every video on YouTube and funnily, only found Alberto Maria Bergo after I had gotten home, but he's posted some great watch shopping guides.
I knew there were going to be two main places to visit: Ginza (luxury shopping stores) and Nakano Broadway (huge mall with many stores). There were plenty of places in and around these two spots, but these were the two centers where I spent my time.
I first went to Ginza, a short taxi ride from my hotel. I got dropped off at the Grand Seiko Boutique on the main road in Ginza and then walked all around from there. At that boutique, I learned that Grand Seiko created a Ginza-only Limited Edition Golden Snow (SBGA503), and I came back at the end of the day after walking around to purchase it. It was a perfect memento to encapsulate my trip: an iconic brand from Japan, a Ginza limited edition, and absolutely beautiful.
A few stores that I visited in Ginza (there were many more):
Watchnian (many stores throughout Tokyo)
Ginza Rasin (stores throughout Tokyo)
Grand Seiko
Ginza Evance
IWC Boutique
Citizen Flagship Store
The Hour Glass Ginza
Zenith Boutique
Audemars Piguet Boutique
Omega
オメガブティック銀座本店 (many brands)
Shellman Watch & Jewelry
As you can see, there was no lack of stores, all within a 10-minute walking distance from one another. You'll find that most of the stores in Ginza are luxury stores, and since this is the luxury shopping district, it's fairly proper and nice. I found the staff extremely attentive and helpful, and while I spoke English, language was usually not a barrier. I did find ChatGPT helpful for translating when I needed it.
I went from Ginza to Nakano Broadway, knowing that I was going from luxury to an indoor (and outdoor) shopping mall, with a variety of stores ranging from comics and collectible figurines to stores that carry $100,000+ watches. I do not quite know how to describe Nakano Broadway other than a dark shopping mall built in the 1980s with a lot of people and feels dirtier than it actually is.
Within Nakano Broadway, I walked all over, multiple times, and went 2-3x over the course of my trip. It was easy to take a taxi to and from Nakano Broadway. I was surprised to see the variety of shops: a high-end watch store right next to a store that sells comic books, and just down the hall, a store that sells puppies (yes, for real).
With that said, once inside the watch stores, they were pretty awesome and I enjoyed the "treasure" hunt aspect of it all.
Some of the stores I went to:
Watchnian Nakano
Time Walker
Renzu
Jack Road & Betty
Fire Kids
Time Zone
Belle Monde
Kamekichi (I spent a lot of time here, very successful!)
Goodwatch78
Moon Bridge
Daikokuya
The good news is that you can visit any and all of these shops in the same place. There are probably a bunch of other shops to go visit as well. I have to say that I had a fantastic experience at Kamekichi. I bought an H. Moser & Cie and a Girard-Perregaux while there.
The store that gets a lot of influencer love is Jack Road & Betty, which is actually a few shops next to each other, but candidly, I didn't find it overly interesting and found the line to wait for help to be over the top. I think I waited 45 minutes to see some vintage pieces, only to find out that the watch I wanted to inquire about had been sold/reserved in the 45 minutes I was waiting. I guess it's not the store's fault, but it was the longest wait of any of the shops.
All around Tokyo, there are watch shops everywhere, including large department stores. I found some awesome Grand Seiko watches at the department stores.
The store I really enjoyed and would absolutely go back to was the closest one to my hotel in Shinjuku, GMT Watch Shop. The presentation was excellent, the variety was fantastic, and it was the only shop where I saw Laurent Ferrier, Pequignet, and a handful of other brands. I took some videos while in the shop as it was almost comedic to see 25 Rolex No-Date Submariners in a row, then 25 Rolex GMT Master Pepsis, and so on. If you think watches are hard to find, just go to Japan and you'll find them all. I ended up picking up a Tudor Heritage Chronograph and a Pequignet Concord Titanium at GMT Watch Shop. I could have done a lot more shopping there but was at my limit.
Photography by @midlifecrisiswatches · © 2026 · All rights reserved
Since the rest of my trip was going to be mostly business, I wanted to mail home the boxes and papers. I had brought a watch box from home for the watches themselves to travel with me but didn't want to travel with boxes and papers. I asked my hotel if they would mail them back, but they declined (which shocked me). They sent me to a local MailboxesEtc type place. I went there, and unfortunately for me, the young lady working the counter did not speak any English, but ChatGPT was the perfect translator. I had to fill out a ton of forms. Luckily, I took pictures of them and had them translated by ChatGPT, and the watch boxes arrived home before I got back from the trip. Good thing I warned my wife that I had purchased some watches, or she would have been shocked.
Some thoughts and learnings from the trip:
I never felt unsafe during the trip. I often had shopping bags with watches and never feared for safety. I was traveling by myself too. I did take taxis for this reason and avoided public transit (however, many tell me that's safe too).
Everyone was respectful. I always treat everyone with respect, but I found Japanese culture to be extremely respectful. I always felt welcomed. I made sure to dress appropriately and was always taken seriously.
Watches displayed beautifully. Shopping the secondary market in Japan is night and day compared to shopping on 47th Street in New York City. In Japan, watches aren't treated as commodities and thrown on top of each other. They are displayed beautifully and carefully, with genuine pride. I never saw watches "stacked" on top of each other like you do on 47th Street.
Eating and drinking. I didn't know much about Japanese culture, but you rarely see anyone eating or drinking on the street. I thought I would have a coffee between stores as I walked, but apparently that's a no-no. If you do eat outside, you do so by the vending machines on the side streets. There's virtually no trash because of this. The city is really clean.
Negotiating. There was no real negotiating in the main stores. If you were using cash, then you may have been able to knock a few bucks off, but the price you see is pretty much the price you pay. No haggling. I found prices to be 10-30% less than US-based pricing. While I was there, $6,000 USD was very close to 1,000,000 JPY, which made the rough math easy in my head.
Rolex. AP. Rolex. Patek. Rolex. If you are looking for Rolex, you are in luck. There is a lot of Rolex in Japan. I found lots of AP and Patek as well. I guess this is the general market and they are just satisfying demand. There were some great Grand Seikos and lots of Omega. Other brands were available, but these were the main brands. Shockingly, I saw very few of the Japanese microbrands such as Kurono, Lotec, or similar.
Second-hand watches. In all of my research pre-trip, I learned that the Japanese take care of their watches immaculately, so the general second-hand watch in Japan is usually in better condition than the ones in the USA. The Japanese take pride in caring for their timepieces (and anything, really), so you should feel comfortable purchasing a watch in the markets.
This was a fantastic trip. I'd go back tomorrow if I could. I'd like to bring my wife next time and visit other parts of the country, but rest assured, we'll be back to Tokyo to do some watch shopping.
