Mokuti — Automatic watch LWPMO

No pigment goes into this dial. The blues, violets and golds you see are light.

Mokuti is titanium damascus. Several grades of titanium are stacked, sealed in a canister under argon, taken above 900 °C and then pressed under several tonnes until they form a single block: a diffusion bond, no filler, metal against metal. The block is twisted, sliced and machined, and the layers surface as veins.

The next step gives the colours, without paint. A titanium oxide layer, a few tens of nanometres thick, is formed on the surface. Light reflected off the top of that layer and light bouncing off the metal underneath fall out of step and partly cancel each other: depending on the thickness, some wavelengths disappear and others come forward. It is the phenomenon that colours a film of petrol on a puddle. Since each grade of titanium oxidises at its own rate, every vein takes its own colour.

Diffusion bonding titanium tolerates neither oxygen nor moisture, and an entire billet can be lost in the making. The material is produced by only a handful of workshops, in small quantities, for collector knifemaking.

On the wrist the dial refuses to sit still: tilt the watch and the deep blue turns violet, the steel goes gold; flat under a lamp, the veins close up into a striated grey. The bezel is cut from the same block and takes the same colours, so the pattern does not stop at the edge of the dial. Blue leather strap.

316L stainless steel case machined from solid and closed by six screws, sapphire crystal front and back. The movement is a Miyota 8215, a Japanese automatic calibre with 21 jewels, 21,600 vibrations per hour and around 42 hours of power reserve, which any watchmaker can service.

43 mm across, 13 mm thick. The wrist photograph in the gallery is taken on a 19.5 cm wrist. Limited to 200 numbered pieces: no two Mokuti watches look alike, and the photographs show one piece, not yours.

Key specifications

• Japanese automatic movement Miyota 8215 — 21 jewels, 21,600 vibrations per hour
• Power reserve: around 42 hours — automatic and manual winding, quick date setting
• Dial, bezel and crown in Mokuti, titanium damascus — titanium grades joined by diffusion bonding
• 316L stainless steel case machined from solid, caseback secured by six screws
• Sapphire crystal front and back — movement on show
• Water resistance 5 ATM (50 m)
• Display: hours, minutes, seconds, date
• Diameter 43 mm · Thickness 13 mm
• Adjustable genuine leather strap, folding clasp
• Colours produced by an oxide layer, with no paint or coloured coating
• Limited to 200 pieces, each one numbered
• Assembled and inspected in France — 2-year legal guarantee of conformity

Care

A soft dry cloth. Never rub the coloured layer with an abrasive, a polishing paste or a household cleaner: the colour is an oxide layer a few tens of nanometres thick, and it comes off. Clean water and immediate drying are enough for a mark.

Further reading (in French): our guide to titanium damascus.