The new Ressence Type 9 IKEDA is what happens when ancient craft meets deep space

The new Ressence Type 9 IKEDA takes the already stripped-back Type 9 platform and launches it into full sci-fi mode.

It’s still the smallest and most wearable watch in the Antwerp outfit’s catalogue at 39mm, still powered by the brand’s patented Orbital Convex System (ROCS), still doing that hypnotic, no-hands, no-crown orbital time display that makes traditional watches look a bit Victorian. But visually? This is different gravy.

The collaboration is with Japanese lacquer artist Terumasa Ikeda, who works out of a restored machiya townhouse in Kanazawa, blending ancient techniques with designs that look like they belong in 2001: A Space Odyssey. His jumping-off point here was heliocentrism, the idea that the Sun sits at the centre of the solar system.

What you’re looking at is a dial built from layers of urushi lacquer and raden, ultra-fine mother-of-pearl inlay. Normally, raden is flat and fragile. The Type 9 dial is convex and constantly rotating. So each microscopic sliver of nacre had to be soaked and gently bent over rubber forms until it could follow the curvature without snapping. Do that dozens (hundreds) of times and you start to understand why there are only eight of these in existence.

The result is a swirling, concentric explosion of colour bursting from a central vortex. Under light, it shifts and shimmers as the entire dial rotates once per hour, with the hour disc orbiting inside it. It’s properly trippy.

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To stop it tipping into chaos, the 39mm Grade 5 titanium case has been given a stealthy black DLC coating. No crown interrupts the pebble-smooth silhouette; time setting is handled via the caseback, as per Ressence tradition.

Inside, the customised automatic calibre (built on an ETA base) drives the ROCS 9 module at 28,800 vibrations per hour, delivering a 36-hour power reserve. Hours and minutes only. Clean. Focused. No fluff.

The Type 9 IKEDA lands at £30,600. Not small change. But for something this technically bonkers and painstakingly handmade, it feels rational. Maybe.

Only eight pieces will be made. Which means if you’re even vaguely tempted, you’ll need to move quickly.

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