The name “Yusai” combines two characters: “Yu”, symbolizing the eternal and gentle flow of time, and “Sai”, evoking the vibrant, ever-changing nature of color. Together, they define the spirit of the Yusai Dials: surfaces that seem to breathe with light, shifting tone and depth as the environment changes. Each dial of this new Masterpiece serie is a living canvas paying tribute to nature.
Minase’s vision is to create high-end watches that pay tribute to Japanese crafts and nature. Also, when Minase’s President Suzuki Tsuyoshi met Ms. Towa Takaya and discovered her work for the first time, he immediately saw the potential for a great collaboration: “Towa Takaya’s dials are not just esthetically beautiful, they are a representation of nature’s ever-changing colors, crafted with that same nature. It is pure craftsmanship and I am proud to work with her on this new execution.”.
The Artist — Towa Takaya
Born in Tokyo in 1992, Towa Takaya is a Japanese artist whose work bridges nature and material. She creates her own pigments from soil, plants, and other natural ingredients gathered during her travels. Her paintings are an ode to nature, exploring delicate color spectrums and subtle gradations. Ms. Takaya explains: “The pieces I have created for Minase were inspired by Japan's unique craftsmanship culture and beautiful nature. I spent several months researching methods of expression to represent different aspects of nature.”
The Yusai Dials
Divido – Falling Stars and Mirage
The dial is crafted from mother-of-pearl, enhanced by an intricate layering of pigments. The surface thus shifts depending on the light, at times suggesting the soft radiance of a nebula, those clouds of gas and dust in outer space, visible in the night sky, and at others, the serenity of a snowy landscape reflecting sunlights. In harmony with Divido’s faceted case, the dial has been conceived as a living canvas of light. This refined chromatic composition offers more than aesthetic pleasure: it invites contemplation.
7 Windows – Otherwise than Being
The dial is painted with multiple layers of blue pigments, creating a sense of depth. The artist’s variation of the blue color was designed to evoke a feeling of suspension and weightlessness. The Seven Windows was the perfect model for this design with its ingenious case-in-case structure and three-dimensional indexes. Indeed, the dial seems to hover in space within the case.
5 Windows – Pluralist Garden
The dial is crafted with delicate layers of blue-green pigments and was inspired by the harmony of Japanese gardens. Yellow and blue tones mix perfectly with the green and remind the gentle waves of a pond. In Japan, windows are not only a practical way to bring light inside a room, they often offer a view on something beautiful outside like a garden, a mountain or a tree. This collection opens a poetic aperture between the inner and outer world, where craftsmanship and nature flows as one.
