Urushi Series MAKI-E “FIVE WINDOWS Mid ~Hoshimi Sakura” Leather model [VM07-CBKMA0-SSD]

Cherry blossoms are almost always shown in daylight. The MINASE Urushi Series maki-e dial titled “FIVE WINDOWS Mid ~Hoshimi Sakura” shows them after dark instead; the name means cherry blossoms viewed under the stars.

Maki-e translates as “sprinkled picture,” and that is literally the method. The motif is drawn in lacquer over a fired and polished brass base, and gold and colored powders are sprinkled into it while it is still wet. More lacquer, more drying, more polishing, over and over, until a single dial has taken several months. The technique developed uniquely in Japan across more than a thousand years, and MINASE gathers such dials under its JAPAN ART COLLECTION.

The ground here is jet-black urushi with the depth of a night sky, and the faint stars in it are worked in shell and gold, which lends a small dial a genuine sense of distance. The FIVE WINDOWS Mid case is stainless steel, 32 mm across, 40.3 mm long including its lugs, 11.6 mm thick with the sapphire. Panes set into the front, the flanks and the back admit light from several directions, so the lacquer is lit rather than merely looked at. The self-winding calibre KT8001, a Swiss ETA 2671 / Sellita SW100 base finished by MINASE, carries the date. Black leather strap, 5 atm.

Decorated by hand by a master urushi artisan and built essentially to order, no two of these dials come out alike.

Perfect for: collectors of Japanese lacquer art, night-sky dial motifs, hand-decorated urushi watches.