A Watch in a Joiner's Workshop
In one of the older districts of Shanghai stood the workshop of Lin Yuwei, an architect who works on traditional Chinese joinery. On the bench lay three pieces of wood joined without a single nail or drop of glue.
His visitor, the gemmologist Elena Fischer, picked them up: "Nothing is holding these together."
"They hold each other," said Yuwei. "That is the logic we call sun mao: each piece seats into the void of the other and the load is shared. Glue dries out with time; a joint does not."
Elena held out her wrist: "Then explain this one to me. This dial is stone, and it is made of four layers. In my profession, stone in a watch is bad news."
"Why?" asked Yuwei.
"Because stone breaks," said Elena. "And this is Atelier Wen's Millésime 2025 Perception Xuán, with a pietersite dial."
What Pietersite Is, and Why It Does Not Break
"Pietersite," said Elena, "is a relative of tiger's eye. Inside it are mineral needles arranged fibre by fibre; as light crosses those fibres the surface slides like silk. We call that the cat's eye effect. But this stone also has a brecciated structure, which is to say that by its nature it has already been broken and welded together again."
"And it has to be the dial of a watch," said Yuwei.
"And here is a solution that resembles your joinery," said Elena. "The dial is not one single slab of stone. It is built from four layers and the layers seat into one another. Instead of loading one thin slice of stone, they share the load. The brand itself says it took the structure from your tradition of joints."
Yuwei held the dial to the light: "So the stone is not carrying, it is being carried."
format_quote"Instead of loading one thin slice of stone, they share the load. So the stone is not carrying, it is being carried."
Lin Yuwei, architect
Case, Movement and Price
"Which steel?" asked Yuwei.
"904L," said Elena. "An alloy with more nickel and chromium than the usual 316L, which gives a deeper shine when polished. The case is forty millimetres across and nine point four thick. On top a double domed sapphire crystal with multi layer anti reflective coating, at the back a semi display sapphire caseback. Water resistant to a hundred metres."
"And inside?"
"The SL1588A calibre from Dandong Peacock, customised for the brand. Automatic, thirty two jewels, twenty eight thousand eight hundred vibrations an hour, about forty one hours of reserve and regulated to within plus or minus ten seconds a day. The price is three thousand six hundred dollars excluding taxes; the first two hundred and twenty five pieces were delivered in the second quarter of this year."
Yuwei looked for a long while, then gestured at the pieces of wood on his bench: "I understand this. Your watch is like my bench: it looks beautiful as a consequence of standing correctly."
