Godzilla (1954)

Godzilla

Godzilla (Gojira), directed by Ishirō Honda from a screenplay he wrote with Takeo Murata based on a story by Shigeru Kayama, opened in Japan on November 3, 1954 through Toho. An ancient beast woken and mutated by atomic testing rises from Tokyo Bay to level Tokyo, in a film built as an explicit allegory for the atomic bombings and the recent Daigo Fukuryu Maru hydrogen-bomb testing incident; its most quoted sequence has the monster level the clock tower atop the Wako department store in Ginza, a building Seiko's founding company had operated as a retail landmark since the early 1930s. Special-effects director Eiji Tsuburaya originated the suitmation technique used to bring the creature to the screen, launching a franchise Toho has continued into the 21st century. A re-edited American version, Godzilla, King of the Monsters!, added Raymond Burr footage and reached U.S. theaters in 1956. (IMDb)

Watches

Grand Seiko Godzilla 65th Anniversary SBGA405

Official product partnership — not an in-work appearance. Grand Seiko released this Spring Drive limited edition in November 2019 to mark Godzilla's 65th anniversary, and built the piece's identity directly around this film: the exhibition caseback, designed by Shinji Higuchi (special-effects director of Shin Godzilla, 2016), is engraved with Godzilla destroying the clock tower atop Ginza's Wako department store, the same landmark-destroying moment this 1954 film is remembered for. Wako has been a Seiko retail address since the 1930s, which Grand Seiko's own announcement calls out explicitly. (Grand Seiko, Forbes)

Official partnership product · Not shown in the work