URUGA 42 Leather Model [UG03-CDBNWH-SSD]

A white dial hides nothing. Every index, every reflection off the clasps and every millimeter of the case profile has to hold up, which is why it suits the URUGA 42 so well.

MINASE builds this watch in Ugo-machi, Akita, in a company that began by making cutting tools and whose logo is still the step drill it once supplied for boring crown holes in watch cases. The URUGA 42 case is closed by a clamping structure: four voluminously cut clasps, elaborately faceted, hold the case and sapphire crystal together the way prongs hold a gemstone. The indices are cut on the oblique, a shape MINASE compares to the front of a kimono, so they throw wavering rather than flat light across a pale dial.

Here that dial is white, its horizontal gradation drawn from the Minase River and easiest to read on a light background as the tone deepens across the face. It is worn on a leather strap. The steel case runs 42.0 mm wide, 48.0 mm long including the lugs and 10.2 mm thick including the slightly curved crystal, with the self-winding KT7002 inside, a MINASE-finished Swiss ETA 2892 and Sellita SW300 base with a date.

Rated to 5 atm, it is built for rain, not for the water. A white dial keeps a 42 mm case looking lighter than its measurements suggest.

Perfect for: white dial watch seekers, buyers who want a legible everyday automatic, admirers of Japanese case finishing.