A Gathering in Retrospect: Nexus Yuyake Nami Washi

Last weekend now feels like a lingering afterglow.

Within the quiet space of Gnomon Watches at Millenia Walk, we gathered for an intimate exhibition of our latest collaboration. Friends of the brand, long time collectors, new faces discovering Hitori for the first time, and our own team stood shoulder to shoulder. Conversations moved easily between watches, art, and memory. In one corner, a live art gaming session unfolded with laughter and quiet focus. On wrists, past and present Hitori pieces caught the light. The room felt less like a launch and more like a reunion.

Before we wander through the photographs from that evening and revisit familiar faces who came to celebrate the long awaited Nexus Yuyake Nami Washi 夕焼け波, it feels right to return to the heart of the watch itself.

At its core, this piece carries a living fragment of art.

Freckled Apple’s “Sunset Waves” diptych was painted on traditional Unryu washi, where kozo fibres drift through the sheet like currents beneath a twilight sky. Her brush followed those fibres rather than resisting them. Pigment settled into their paths. Light was allowed to breathe. Instead of translating her work through scans or print, each dial was measured and cut by hand directly from the original paintings. No two are identical. Every watch holds a specific coordinate of the canvas, a quiet intersection between time and gesture. What you wear is not a reproduction but an irreplaceable fragment of the masterwork.

When the final strokes were laid and the diptych sealed, the paintings were entrusted to our artisans. The transition from canvas to dial began as an act of curation. Each sheet was studied, measured, and carefully cut. We searched for portions where rhythm, colour, and fibre aligned most naturally. In doing so, each dial retained the pulse of the artist’s first intention. Every piece carries a private history within its surface.

Preservation then required fire.

To protect the delicacy of washi for generations, each dial is layered with traditional Hitori enamel, brushed by hand and tempered in the kiln. Firing, cooling, polishing, and glazing follow in steady cycles. With each return to heat, the surface deepens. Gradually, a porcelain like gloss emerges, luminous yet restrained, as though looking through another atmosphere. Edges and apertures are refined with careful attention before the hands are finally set. The result is ethereal in appearance yet grounded in durability, a reflection of our continued study of enamel craft.

The Nexus architecture frames this living surface with clarity and restraint. A flat sapphire crystal with inner anti reflective coating allows the colours beneath to appear undisturbed. Unryu paper, with its natural transparency and drifting fibres, interacts softly with light. There is a calm strength within 雲竜紙, delicate in appearance yet rooted in centuries of craft. As light moves across the dial, the waves seem to shift with it, guided by a sensibility that embraces imperfection and quiet balance.

From the earliest conversations to the completed paintings, the collaboration unfolded over nearly a year. Patience shaped every stage. After sealing the diptych, Freckled Apple entrusted the works to us with a shared understanding that the integrity of her art would remain untouched. Each dial was cut by hand. Selection became an intuitive process, choosing fragments that carried both emotion and harmony. What emerges is not an interpretation but the work itself, preserved and worn.

The dial stands as the centrepiece. A lacquer glaze introduces softness and depth, allowing the fibres of Unryu paper to remain visible beneath a gentle sheen. The surface feels alive. Under shifting light, the colours recall the warmth of sunset without overpowering the eye. Tradition and contemporary expression meet here in quiet balance, aligned naturally with Hitori’s design language.

Applied hour markers anchor the composition with symmetry and discipline. First introduced in the Yoshino collection, their faceted forms have been refined to feel sharper and more intentional. Each index is mirror polished along its faces and sidewalls, cut with axial symmetry so that the cardinal markers share equal visual weight. Without a date window, the dial breathes freely. As light travels across the polished planes, subtle hues emerge, ensuring the surface is never static.

The Sashi Yari hands continue this dialogue of strength and grace. Inspired by the bamboo leaf shaped blades of traditional Japan, their faceted bodies carry both tension and calm. One surface reflects light with clarity, the other softens it. Cutouts at the tips introduce lightness and intention. Proportioned carefully to the markers and minute track, they move with steady confidence, allowing time to be read without distraction.

At twelve, the applied Hitori logo rests quietly. Nothing more is needed. Space is respected. The artwork remains the focus. This approach reflects our belief that form, function, and feeling must exist in quiet harmony.

Freckled Apple’s paintings echo the spirit of Japan’s seascape traditions not through direct reference but through sensitivity to mood. Rather than dramatic crests or whirlpools, she traces inward tides and softened currents. Her ocean feels like emotion translated into movement. It speaks less of spectacle and more of temperament.

Two artworks anchor this series. One explores a restrained pink light, diffused and gentle, like silk touched by evening glow. It invites stillness and reflection. The other moves through a saturated amber sunset, rich and enveloping, flowing seamlessly from sky to shore. Together they form a dialogue. Pink drifts with quiet optimism. Amber grounds with warmth and resolve. Each carries a distinct emotional register, allowing the collector to choose not only a colour but a state of mind.

A short note from our team and myself

This series of 60 pieces was never meant to be wide or loud. It was a deliberate gesture for our Hitori community, for those who have stood with us and believed in this new Nexus chapter from the beginning. To see the entire series spoken for so quickly is something we do not take lightly. We are deeply grateful.

To everyone who came for the gathering last weekend, and especially to those who travelled across borders simply to spend the evening with us, thank you. Your presence meant more than any launch metric ever could.

For those who continue to follow our artisan projects and collaborative works, please stay close. There are more quiet studies and special pieces already taking shape in our hands.

That evening at the boutique, surrounded by friends and familiar faces, it became clear that Nexus Yuyake Nami Washi 夕焼け波 is more than a watch release. It is a shared moment. A fragment of art carried forward. A sunset held gently within time.

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Field Notes No. 05