The artistry on the watch is rendered in a variety of techniques, requiring over a thousand hours of work. Voutilainen had previously informed me that one of the biggest issues with a project like this is the need to finish the watch as close to perfect as possible before sending parts across the world and back, and hoping that nothing happens in transit or, even worse, during construction.
The dial features hundreds of hand-cut shell pieces, including green turban and abalone, sorted by color, gleam, and shape. Kitamura Studio then used these pieces and hand-cut materials, such as fine gold, platinum, and colored lacquer, densely inlaid across urushi lacquer, applied layer over layer, with each piece hand-polished between layers for an amazing shine. There’s also a deep, lacquered sky that shifts in the light between vivid blue with white clouds in direct sunlight and a deep, star-filled night sky in the shade. How they did it is a closely held secret not shared by the studio.
