Always amazing from a technical and aesthetic point of view, luxury watches can sometimes even be veritable works of art. This is the case with the stunning Hisui watch created by master watchmaker Kari Voutlinainen together with Kitamura Tatsuo, one of Japan’s leading lacquer artists.
The hand-assembled dial is a stunning work comprised of myriad small pieces of gold and shell set in lacquer. Not surprisingly, it required an astounding amount of time to complete – more than a thousand man hours were dedicated to its creation, using such materials as Kinpun (gold dust), Jyunkin-itakane (gold leaf), Yakou-gai (shell of great green turban), and Awabi-gai (abalone shell from New Zealand).
The timepiece has a 39 mm platinum case which houses a manual wind caliber oerating at 18,000 vph, with a direct impulse double escapement wheel system.
Hisui was inspired by emerald and jade precious stones (which is where its name actually comes from). It was the winner of the “Artistic Crafts” category at the 2014 Geneva Watchmaking Grand Prix last month (considered “the Oscars” of fine watchmaking). The one-of-a-kind timepiece is priced at CHF225,000 (about $233,000).
[Perpetuelle]
