Belgian watchmaker Ressence has unveiled the TYPE 9 IKE, a highly exclusive limited edition of just eight pieces created in collaboration with Japanese lacquer artist Terumasa Ikeda. Merging centuries-old Japanese decorative arts with Ressence’s unmistakably futuristic watchmaking language, the TYPE 9 IKE transforms the brand’s most minimal timepiece into a rotating cosmic tableau — a dial where past craftsmanship and contemporary mechanics exist in constant motion.
Drawing on traditional urushi lacquer and raden techniques, the TYPE 9 IKE represents a meeting point between heritage and innovation. Ikeda, who is based in Kanazawa, is known for bridging historic Japanese lacquer traditions with digital-era aesthetics. Working with urushi, mother-of-pearl, gold leaf and hinoki wood, he reinterprets classical decorative methods through a distinctly modern lens. For Ikeda, beauty resides not only in the object itself but in the invisible relationships between people, materials and space. With the TYPE 9 IKE, that philosophy finds mechanical expression — a dialogue between orbital motion and layered artisanal craft.
Unlike conventional artistic collaborations where decoration is applied onto a finished dial, the TYPE 9 IKE was conceived specifically for Ressence’s patented Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS). The watch’s convex dial is driven by the ROCS mechanism, which replaces traditional hands with continuously rotating discs that orbit in harmonious alignment.
For Ikeda, this mechanical choreography evoked planetary motion and heliocentrism — a poetic pursuit of truth through observation and precision. Here, the dial is not a static canvas but a living composition in perpetual movement.
Ultra-thin pieces of mother-of-pearl are painstakingly shaped and curved to follow the dial’s convex geometry, a demanding process that requires each fragment to be softened, gradually bent and positioned entirely by hand. The elements are then sealed beneath layers of deep black urushi lacquer, creating a surface that is at once luminous and atmospheric. Under shifting light, the raden inlays shimmer with an otherworldly quality, as if transmitting signals from a distant galaxy.
The TYPE 9 is Ressence at its most essential, displaying only hours and minutes. In the IKE edition, this minimalism serves as a deliberate frame for Ikeda’s expressive composition. The deep black architecture of the watch allows the iridescent layers of mother-of-pearl to stand in dramatic relief. Turning the timepiece over reveals Ikeda’s engraved signature on the caseback — a discreet yet meaningful mark of authorship.
At its core lies the patented ROCS 9 module, driven by the minute axle of a customised automatic base calibre. Rather than hands sweeping across a fixed dial, the entire display rotates in orbital motion, maintaining perfect alignment while ensuring intuitive legibility.
The watch is manually wound via a subtle 12-degree rotation of the caseback and set entirely through the caseback as well, preserving the clean, uninterrupted case profile and eliminating the traditional crown.
Limited to just eight pieces worldwide, the Ressence TYPE 9 IKE is priced at SGD 56,000, including tax.
