AHCI member, Masahiro Kikuno's Basel model and his
new offering.
I had a wonderful evening with a young
(just turned 30) AHCI member (no longer a "candidate") looking at and
discussing what he presented at the last Basel as well as his new
offering.
His policy and philosophy is clear and
straightforward.
"I stick to as much 'hand-made' as
possible. That is how the watchmakers in the old time were
doing and achieved a lot and that is how mechanical watches
have evolved. The innovations which aimed for the "efficient"
way of making watches with the latest machines and materials have
already been realized and achieved by the quartz watches. When
I think of the reasons why the mechanical watches did come back to the
main stream watch market as more and more people want them, it is very
natural for me as a watchmaker to also come back to as much 'hand-made'
as possible, like the way it has been since the invention of the watch."
Interesting thought process and I am impressed with
such a high ideal from a very young watchmaker. Sure, I admit
that I tend to expect accuracy from mechanical watches first, but I
understand his way of thinking as well. He, of course,
realizes how important the accuracy is for the watch lovers as
well. There may be a lot of disagreeing opinion and he would
be happy to listen to such criticism as well.
Now on
to his watches....
1.
Orizuru (Paper Crane)
( en.wikipedia.org
)
Anodized Aluminum case.
And this
"round window in the square wall" is inspired by the traditional
Japanese room.....
The upper pusher is for Automata and
chiming (only for the hour)
This "Orizuru (paper crane)" are of
course made by hand.
How he made this "pattern" on the
dial:
The technique is traditional Japanese "Mokume-Gane (
en.wikipedia.org
)". Takes many hours to create such pattern (piling up 24 thin
metal sheet which consists of copper, red copper, and Shibuichi alloy
(75% copper and 25% silver) - eight for each, and press it hard, then
make a hole with drill and then again press it thinner and
thinner.....). There can be no identical pattern.
The uniqueness of this traditional "Mokume-Gane" methos is to
use totally different types of alloy or metals, not only the steels. And
press the pile of such variety of metal
sheets, having punched some holes to make the pattern appear....
Now here and see how the Crane behaves
when the pusher is pressed (sorry for the ambient
noise).
He admits
that the sound is too low and the crane does not go back to where it is
supposed to be. The gong is the cage of the crane and the
hammer bangs it from outside. It is also designed so that the
crane look down in AM and look up in PM - that function works
well. But still he admits that there was the design flaw and
he knows what was wrong.
Having said that, he says this is not
for sale and he will put in the shelf for a while as he now focuses on
other things. One is to make smaller version of "Wa-Dokei" by
which he was nominated for the "candidate" for AHCI membership, and he
is also working on the next watch, which is more practical and appealing
to the broader audience. See next.
2. Unnamed (Kikuno
#2)
This is the prototype of his next
offering. Still prototype, so please understand that it will
still take time to complete.
He will offer this with only in the
bronze case - changes color as it is used and time passes.
Interesting idea.
The same dial pattern
"Mokume-Gane".
Hands, index can be customized to
certain extent. This prototype, made for himself, is equipped
with lumi on the hands and every other index dots as he wanted lumi
hands watch. Blue hands are of course true blued hands made
manually.
43mm.
He is now
working on improving the accuracy by modifying the hair
spring. Putting a small weight on the 5th or 6th loop of the
hair spring - this is the theory found and implemented by SEIKO
(patented) long time ago. Hair spring is, no matter how well
it is coiled, Breguet or Flat, NOT perfectly center-balance and SEIKO
engineers long time ago found that by putting a small "counterweight",
it can be made center-balance, and thus vastly improve the position
difference. The theory says, "at 220 degrees rotation, the
effect of the 'unbalance' of the hair spring is eliminated and that is
where how the 'counter-weight' should be put on can be
determined. It is used in 4S79 Chronometer and several other
GS level movements. Less knowledgeable street watchmakers
often mistakes such small counterweight as "dust" on the hair spring and
takes and throws away - A BIG MISTAKE!
4S79
Chronometer's hair spring - photo courtesy of Mr. Ohira of
SII.
Interesting offering and I will follow
up as it makes progress.
Thank you, Mr.
Kikuno, for sharing this new model with PPro
first.
Please also read the article on NY
Times about him here:
www.nytimes.com
Best,
Ken
This message has been edited by KIH on 2013-10-01 09:59:12