The Carved Piece

“The more ambiguity there is, the more rich is the conversation…”

Nam June Paik, from the writing DNA is not racist.

The main concept of the Carved Piece is an ambiguity.

The art becomes meaningful by observers. If they look at the painting of an apple, they see an apple. If they look at the abstract painting, there is more room for imagination.

Free hand carved pattern on the silver dial represents the ambiguity and replaces geometric Guilloché patterns. I wanted observers to see different things depend on person, from this abstract dial.

I also designed random-style applied indices to emphasize the concept of ambiguity visually. They are all black polished and beveled by hand.

The structure of dial was designed based on the G.Daniels book ‘watchmaking’. The dial is consist of 5 silver plates assembled by 10 blue screws, and 12 applied indices. (27 parts total)

Features

5 silver plates, 10 blue screws, and 12 black polished indices (the dial consists of 27 parts)

The movement is modified based on Peseux 7001 manual winding movement.

An original clickspring was added for crunchy winding, most of parts were decorated by hand.

Anglage(convexed beveling) on frosted nickel silver bridges

Bridges are made of nickel silver alloy which tarnishes into warm creamy color by time

The pin buckle design inspired from ‘Swallow-tail’ shape in Korean traditional crafts.

Specifications

Dimensions

37mm diameter, 45mm lug to lug, 7.3mm thickness

Case Material

316L Stainless steel

Movement

Modified Peseux/ETA 7001 manual winding

Power Reserve

42 hours

Frequency

21’600 A/h

Price

18,000USD without tax (50% deposit)

02

About

Studio Minhoon Yoo is an independent watchmaking studio in Seoul, South Korea. Established in 2020. The goal of studio is designing and fabricating watches with originality while maintaining independence.

He was born in Busan in 1990, moved to Seoul in 2010 for his education in Art college. He received a BA in metal art & design from Hongik University in Feb 2016. He opened his workshop with his graduation, has been collecting machines and books about watchmaking.

Once he had wanted to become an artist making ‘art-furnitures’, like his seniors with successful careers in the field. He was interested in expressing his own idea, as a full time artist. But he found out the world of indie watchmaking along the way. He was fascinated by the technical aspect of watchmaking, and room for self-expression in being independent.

For him independent watchmaking is a form of art, done in a format of watch. He is starting his career as an indie watchmaker with Carved Piece project, looking forward to make more interesting watches in the future with creative concepts and ideas.