Lemnos
Designer clocks from Takaoka, Toyama — Japanese copperware casting tradition meets world-class design.
Takata Lemnos Inc. was founded in 1947 in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture — a city with a 400-year tradition of copperware and metal casting that produces 95% of Japan's Buddhist altar bells and a significant share of its decorative metalwork. Building on this casting heritage, Lemnos produces wall clocks, table clocks and alarm clocks in collaboration with world-renowned designers including Riki Watanabe (RIKI CLOCK) and other recipients of Japan's Good Design Award. Lemnos clocks are characterized by sweep (silent) movement, minimalist aesthetics, and the quality of materials and assembly possible only in a traditional Japanese metalwork manufacturing environment.
PROFILE Company & Brand Story
Takata Lemnos was founded in 1947 in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture. Takaoka is one of Japan's most historically significant metalworking cities — its copperware and casting tradition stretches back 400 years, to when the Kaga Domain established the city's metalwork industry under formal patronage. Today, Takaoka produces approximately 95% of Japan's Buddhist altar bells, along with significant quantities of Japan's decorative metalwork, industrial castings and precision components.
The company began as a manufacturer of clock cases and clock components, leveraging Takaoka's casting and metal finishing expertise. Over the decades, Takata Lemnos developed from a component supplier into a fully integrated clock brand — designing, manufacturing and marketing finished clocks under the Lemnos name, with an explicit focus on design collaboration with established designers and architects.
The RIKI CLOCK, designed by Riki Watanabe — one of Japan's most respected industrial designers — became Lemnos's landmark product. Its spare, geometric form and clean typographic numerals are immediately recognizable: a clock that communicates the time with absolute economy of means. RIKI CLOCK has received the Good Design Award and is in the permanent collections of design museums. It continues to be produced in Takaoka.
Lemnos operates a philosophy of ongoing designer collaboration, partnering with architects, industrial designers and craft artists to develop limited and permanent collection pieces. The brand's product range includes wall clocks, pendulum clocks, table clocks and alarm clocks — each developed with a specific designer and a specific aesthetic intention. Many designs have received Japan's Good Design Award.
A consistent element across the Lemnos line is silent "sweep" movement — quartz clock movements designed so the second hand moves in a continuous glide rather than a tick-tock click. This detail, invisible in a product description, transforms the experience of living with a Lemnos clock in a quiet room. Assembly and quality inspection are carried out in Toyama, combining the designer's vision with the manufacturing standards of Japan's oldest metalworking city.
Takaoka copperware casting — 400 years of Japanese metalwork tradition
Lemnos is based in Takaoka, Toyama, a city whose metalworking tradition was established 400 years ago. Takaoka produces 95% of Japan's Buddhist altar bells and is home to the casting expertise, finishing craft and artisan knowledge that Lemnos applies to clock manufacturing.
Designer collaboration — Riki Watanabe, Good Design Award winners
Lemnos develops clocks in collaboration with established designers and architects. The RIKI CLOCK by Riki Watanabe — spare, geometric, instantly legible — is Lemnos's most recognized product. Multiple Lemnos clocks have received Japan's Good Design Award. New designer collaborations continue to expand the collection.
Sweep movement — silent, continuous second hand
Lemnos clocks use quartz sweep movements: the second hand moves in a continuous glide rather than a tick-tock click. In a quiet room — a bedroom, study or living room — this makes the difference between a clock that is audible and one that is simply present. Assembly and inspection are carried out in Toyama.
PRODUCTS Featured Products & Services
Lemnos RIKI CLOCK — Wall Clock by Riki Watanabe, Made in Japan
The landmark Lemnos clock by designer Riki Watanabe. Spare geometric form, clean numeral typography, silent sweep movement. Good Design Award winner. Available in wall and table versions, multiple sizes.
View DetailsLemnos Campagne — Wall Clock, Made in Japan
A rustic-refined wall clock with a handmade paper face and natural wood elements. Silent sweep movement. A Lemnos collaboration piece that blends Japanese craft material — paper and wood — with precise clock mechanics.
View DetailsLemnos CARVED — Wooden Wall Clock, Made in Japan
A wall clock with a carved wooden face — numerals and hour markers are recessed into the wood surface. Three-dimensional texture visible at different light angles. Silent sweep movement. Natural material, precise manufacture.
View DetailsLemnos fun pun clock — Colorful Wall Clock for Children's Rooms
A cheerful, bold-face wall clock designed to teach children to read analog time. Large, clear numeral typography with color-coded hour and minute arcs. Silent sweep movement. A Good Design Award-winning children's product from Lemnos.
View DetailsMEDIA Media, Awards & Initiatives
- Lemnos's RIKI CLOCK is recognized in design museum collections and is consistently cited by Japanese and international design publications as a landmark example of spare, functional industrial design produced in a traditional Japanese craft manufacturing environment.
- Lemnos has received multiple Good Design Awards across its clock line, and is regularly featured by interior and design media as one of Japan's most consistently design-focused clock brands.