Urushi Series SHIBO-URUSHI “DIVIDO ~A Sky Full of Shells” Bracelet Model [VM14-M01KA4-SSB]

Blue luminous shell is encrusted across a black board, buried under lacquer, then polished until the pieces surface again. That is the entire method behind the MINASE Urushi Series shibo-urushi dial “DIVIDO ~A Sky Full of Shells.”

Shibo-urushi is not maki-e. Maki-e draws a picture with metal powder sprinkled into wet lacquer; shibo-urushi builds a texture. Lacquer is thickened with egg white so it sets into a deliberately irregular relief, colors and nacre are laid over it, and the whole surface is finally ground flat, so the landscape emerges from inside the layers rather than sitting on them. MINASE notes plainly that the pattern differs on every dial, because each is made by hand, one at a time.

The DIVIDO case earns that abstraction. Four lugs split the upper and lower halves in a partition structure, standing above the case rather than growing out of it, a form MINASE describes as the shared wings of an origami crane. Stainless steel, 40.6 mm square and 11 mm thick with its sapphire, roughly 134 g on the MORE bracelet, whose links can be taken apart, re-polished and rebuilt. Self-winding KT7002 on a Swiss ETA 2892-A2 / Sellita SW300 base, with a date. 5 atm.

A night sky you can dismantle and service indefinitely.

Perfect for: shell and nacre inlay dials, steel bracelet art watches, buyers drawn to abstract lacquer.