The Olympics are a spectacle beloved around the world, and the 1964 Olympic Games were no exception. Broadcast live via satellite and with some colour footage for the first time, the Summer Olympics were Japan’s chance to reintroduce itself to the world. Rapid economic, social, and technological developments had shaped the nation’s trajectory after the second world war, and being the first nation in Asia to host the Games was a grand honour that spurred further innovations that live on today. From architecture and design to engineering and transportation, these feats set the global standard for years to come.
Recording time
Preparations for the Olympics started early, and the challenges were formidable. Japanese watchmaker Seiko, for example, dispatched a research team to the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome to scout out its competition to be the official timekeeper of the Olympics. It was an ambitious endeavour: no watchmaker outside of Switzerland had ever held the title, and the team knew there was no time to waste.
The result of Seiko’s endeavours was the world’s first fully electronic timing system that could measure events from the starting pistol until the photo finish. These systems offered precision timing with a longer duration: the implementation of a “crystal chronometer” enabled the Seiko timing instruments to reliably measure the long-distance events, and precipitated what is now known as quartz technology. As of May 1963, the bid was successful: the International Olympic Committee accepted Seiko as the competition’s first official timekeepers from outside of Switzerland.
Off the back of the crystal chronometer, Seiko also produced Japan’s first wristwatch to include a built-in stopwatch function, with a precision that set the standard for years to come. Known as the Crown Chronograph, this model’s legacy lives on today: the Seiko Presage Style60s series draws inspiration from the original 1964 timepiece, creating a modern watch with a vintage feel. The Crown Chronograph’s characteristic box-shaped glass is paired with new finishing techniques to complement both the dial and the outer indexes. Nato nylon straps highlight the series’ historic heritage, and polished lugs add a visual sharpness to contrast with the watch face’s retro feel.
Lasting legacy
In the intervening years between the end of the second world war and the Olympic ceremony in October 1964, Japan had come into its own as a technological and economic powerhouse. Its cities were growing to contain a steadily rising population, and existing innovations went on to accelerate ahead of the Olympics. Many of these developments helped to shape Japan’s current reputation, including sleek bullet trains, a keen eye for design, and groundbreaking architecture. Marking the Games’ return to Tokyo this summer, London’s Japan House recently honoured this legacy with an exhibition curated by director of programming Simon Wright, titled Tokyo 1964: Designing Tomorrow.
“Japan appeared quite triumphant on this world stage when hosting the Games, it was quite an extraordinary visual spectacle,” says Wright. He points to the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, which was designed by Kenzō Tange and built in the early 1960s for the swimming, diving, and basketball events in 1964. The ribbed suspension roof was the first of its kind in the world, and has become a distinct profile among the Tokyo skyline. An accomplishment of both design and manufacturing, the Yoyogi National Gymnasium also inspired the Olympic Stadium in Munich, and is still in use for concerts, athletic competitions, and other live events.
In this summer’s Tokyo Olympics, the gymnasium was home to the handball competition, more than 50 years after it was first built. “There’s a legacy of sustainability within the architecture of the Games of 1964,” says Wright.
1964 Tokyo Olympics official poster. Photograph: Courtesy of Prince Chichibu Memorial Sports Museum
An expression of modernity
“Of course, Japan is famous for its high-speed rail network,” he adds. “In fact, the Shinkansen bullet train was actually created in 1964, and first ran a mere 10 days before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.”
The results were astonishing: the Hokkaido-Shinkansen route reduced the time it took to travel between Tokyo and Osaka to four hours – a full two hours shorter than the previous rail journeys between the two metropolises. The high-speed line was paired with a new monorail that brought visitors from overseas between the airport and the city’s centre, and expressways cut across Tokyo to help visitors and locals alike navigate the city. “There was a new expression of modernity through the transportation of passengers arriving at Haneda airport to the centre of the city,” Wright says.
Time after time
The global impact of the 1964 Olympic Games is hard to measure: it changed architecture, transportation, and even the Games themselves. “There was a design committee of young designers who would later become icons within Japan and overseas,” Wright says, noting that it was the first time an international sporting event had a unified visual brand and language. Knowing that many visitors to Tokyo would be unfamiliar with the language, the committee designed a series of pictograms for both sports and facilities, some of which were featured in the 2020 Olympic ceremony as a celebration of the legacy of the Games of 1964.
The committee also selected a font as the official typeface for the visual brand, with sleek lines and easy-to-read curves – a font that we now know as Helvetica. “It is probably one of the first major uses of the typefaces internationally,” Wright notes. “A lot of what we take for granted actually happened for the very first time in Tokyo in 1964.”
Discover the Style 60s collection
