Floating Feathers

Description

The Armoury x Naoya Hida & Co. Reference Type 4A-2 Floating Feathers is the third collaboration timepiece between the two brands, drawing inspiration from nature, specifically, the intricate structure of a bird’s feather, for one of the most technically demanding dials the partnership has attempted.

The design was conceived by The Armoury’s co-founder, Mark Cho, and designer Elliot Hammer. The pair had long admired the decorative dials of the mid-twentieth century, such as Cloisonné dials depicting birds, botanicals, and scenes of natural beauty, but had never found the right moment or collaborator to revisit that tradition until Naoya Hida & Co.’s in-house engraving expertise made it possible.

The dial of the Floating Feathers is hand-engraved in Argentium silver, a silver alloy chosen for its resistance to tarnishing by Keisuke Kano, the master engraver at Naoya Hida & Co. Three feathers float across the bead-blasted dial surface, each rendered with individual barbs and the lifelike texture of a vane, brought to life by the shimmer of precisely cut, exposed silver.

Surrounding the engraved motif are 12 hand-polished 18K yellow gold minute markers, spherical globes assembled individually into the minute ring, each a small jewel of craft. The brand logos and scales are engraved by an ultra-precision micro-milling machine, ensuring legibility without intruding on the dial’s delicate composition.

The time is indicated by a pair of sharply faceted, solid 18K yellow gold hands, machined and hand-polished, with the tip of the long hand bent to align precisely with the minute scale, a deliberate contrast to the soft, organic forms of the engraved feathers below. A blued steel seconds hand with a distinctive “caviar spoon” counterweight completes the composition. The watch is fitted with a strongly domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment on both sides, reminiscent of vintage acrylic windshields.

The Floating Feathers is built on Naoya Hida’s Type 4 case: a 36mm form (42.9mm lug-to-lug, 11mm thick) inspired by 1960s watch designs, featuring shapely lyre lugs that reflect the era's refined proportions. The case is machined from 904L stainless steel, polished after machining with an ultra-high-precision micro-milling machine, and fitted with a screw-in caseback for 5 ATM water resistance. The watch is manufactured entirely in Japan. It is worn on a hand-stitched charcoal grey calf strap made by Jean Rousseau, with a 904L stainless steel pin buckle (16mm), complementing the watch’s understated elegance.

Inside the 36mm case sits the Caliber 3020CS, a hand-wound movement (30mm diameter, 5mm thick, 13¼ ligne) featuring an originally designed click-and-click spring for comfortable winding. Naoya Hida reworked the robust ETA 7750 platform into a time-only movement with center seconds, fitted with a custom-designed backplate to stabilize the movement and complement his finishing. The movement offers an approximate 45-hour power reserve, beats at 28,800 BPH (8 vibrations per second / 4 Hz), and comprises 22 jewels.

Supplied by the brand to the GPHG for its entry.