Kikuchi and Nakagawa met in Paris in 2012. The two found that they shared a common vision of watchmaking. After Kikuchi created watches for Chronomètre and Nakagawa experienced practical watchmaking for Citizen and Precision Watch Tokyo, they decided to make watches featuring the abstractness and unreality of metal. In short, they decided to make the ideal watch.
After graduating from the University of Tokyo architecture department, Kikuchi worked at a domestic software vendor. He retired in less than two years and went to Paris to learn watchmaking. After graduating from the watchmaking School of Paris, he practiced watch repair at Antoine De Macedo Horloger. Returning to Japan, in order to make original mechanical watches, he founded a watch maison—“Chronomètre”—and created original watches. During that time, Kikuchi contributed articles on Constant Force Mechanism to Chronos Japan. After dissolving Chronomètre, he founded KIKUCHI NAKAGAWA. Kikuchi is a member of the Salon of Horological Theory.
Originally trained as a swordsmith, Nakagawa turned to watchmaking. After training in a watchmaking school, he worked for Citizen Watch Co., Ltd., which is engaged in large-scale manufacturing operations such as designing, manufacturing, and adjusting wristwatches. Nakagawa moved to Precision Watch Tokyo Co., Ltd. and engaged in the small-scale manufacturing work of an independent watchmaker. After leaving the company, he founded KIKUCHI NAKAGAWA.