URUGA 31 Rubber Model [UG02-RWHNIB-SSD]

White rubber, ice blue dial, mirror-polished steel clasps. The URUGA 31 in this combination is the brightest thing MINASE makes.

It works because the dial and the strap are close in tone, which lets the case do the separating. The bezel is divided into four elaborately faceted clamps that hold case and crystal together, cut with enough volume to catch light on their own, and hand-polished so the mirrored faces stay flat and the edges between them stay sharp.

Behind them, the horizontal gradation pattern that runs through the whole URUGA line, taken from the glittering surface of the Minase River in Akita. The hour indices are cut on a slant, borrowed from the crossed front of a kimono, so they never all catch the light at once.

The steel case is 31 mm across, 39 mm long and 9.9 mm thick, which keeps a bright watch from becoming a loud one. The self-winding KT8001 with date is built on a Swiss ETA 2671 and Sellita SW100 base and finished in MINASE's own workshop. Rated 5 atm for splashes and rain.

Perfect for: white strap summer watches, light-toned dial and strap pairings, small automatic watches with polished detail.