“Zen garden” and “light and shadow.”

The Zen Garden, also known as the Japanese Rock Garden or Dry Landscape, represent landscapes and flowing water by using the shadows and unevenness that are formed by carefully placed rocks and sand, and by creating three-dimensional wave formations. This is one of the Japanese cultural techniques that is also evident in our theme this time, “light and shadow.”

The layout of such parts as the indexes and window frame applied on the dial, and the subtle intagliated patterns on the dial surface, seem to resemble the integrated stone and sand pattern correlations found in traditional Japanese rock gardens.

Furthermore, the round open window that has been opened in the dial lets you see inside and view the pulsating of the mechanical movement.

This, literally, is a “window” and, not unlike the round window in a traditional Japanese tea room, lets you see beyond the dial and right into the heart of the watch movement as scenery beyond the window. The round window in the tea room, depending how it is opened, can alter the scenery and enable you to enjoy the shadows of the tree branches projected onto the closed portion of the “shoji”, the paper screen that covers the window.

The movement, gleaming from the reflected light entering from the front, and the movement that appears as a silhouette due to the permeating light from the back, display views of the inner parts of the watch that change in a variety of ways depending on how the “window” is designed.

Design encompasses both the “logical” and the “unexpected.”

The aim of the Presage collection is to be particular about mechanical watchmaking, to incorporate Japanese aesthetic sense, to maintain a dedicated pursuit of the true Japanese craftsmanship that underlies Japan’s approach to manufacturing, and to make these attributes available to the peoples of the world in the form of a watch.

This “craftsmanship” applies not only to the inner mechanical workings of the watch, but extends to the watch dial and exterior elements as well. The surfaces of the dials of the Presage employ true professional techniques of Japanese craftsmanship, with an “enamel” finish and an “urushi” lacquer coating, “urushi” being a type of lacquer processed from the sap of the Japanese lacquer tree. On the surface of the dial, in addition to a deep gloss, subtle shadows reside, traces of the craftsmen’s handiwork that mesmerize our eyes and hearts.

It is very difficult to mass produce these handcrafted elements, and highly sophisticated techniques are essential to ensure that quality is maintained and deviation is carefully controlled. Even if the watches are made by the same craftsman, there are never any two watches that are exactly equal. The unexpected does happen on occasion, things that the designer had never envisioned. When the test product is ready, there are numerous occasions when the results are quite different from what was expected by the designer.

However, once the decision has been made to incorporate these kinds of handcrafted elements, unexpected results and quality deviations all become part of the overall design. No matter how much deliberation and logical calculation is done, unexpected incidents and subtle fluctuations will occur. Even if that is the case, we proceed with the design logically while taking them into account. Along with these kinds of repetition of the logical and the unexpected as well as trial and error testing that is always ongoing, the designers finally come up with an ideal design.