FIVE WINDOWS Mid Leather model [VM07-C14SD]

MINASE began making its own leather straps in 2014, thirteen years after it started building its own bracelets. Both decisions came from the same place: if a case is going to be finished by hand, the thing attaching it to a wrist should not be an afterthought.

The FIVE WINDOWS Mid is the compact member of MINASE’s Windows family, launched in 2017. Its name is descriptive rather than poetic. Sapphire panes in the case sides, a sapphire display back and the front crystal let light into the case from several directions, so the dial is lit from more than one angle at a time. The concept MINASE cites is a yukimi shoji, the snow-viewing screen that frames a garden from inside a room.

Reference VM07-C14SD is the FIVE WINDOWS Mid on leather, roughly 66.3 g, with a case 32 mm wide, 40.3 mm long and 11.6 mm thick including the crystal. The self-winding caliber KT8001 with date sits inside, a Swiss ETA 2671 / Sellita SW100 base finished by MINASE. Water resistance is 5 atm.

The most comfortable way into this case shape, and the least formal.

Perfect for: leather strap Japanese watches, everyday compact automatics, watches with a display caseback.