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The Zen Cartograph watch assortment (aBlogtoWatch hands-on right here) is the bold results of what occurs when a Hong Kong-based wrist watch manufacturers ask the query, “What’s the subsequent means we are able to have fun our Chinese language tradition in a timepiece?” Undone’s design crew (which has explored all kinds of cultural themes, thus far) went straight for the normal follow of feng shui for inspiration — after which determined so as to add some enjoyable pop-culture iconography into the combo. The result’s a boldly assertive, proudly Chinese language, and visually distinctive timepiece that’s priced for the mainstream, but born from severe fanatics.
The Zen Cartograph watch dial is impressed by the philosophy of Chinese language Geomancy. In conventional feng shui, a compass-like instrument often called the Luopan is used to find out how objects in an area needs to be organized. These aware of the machine will instantly acknowledge it as the premise of the Undone Zen Cartograph watch dial, and people unfamiliar with the Luopan needs to be left curious and intrigued after seeing the concentric rings with their geomantic inscriptions printed in Chinese language.
Watchmaker Undone is not only telling a cultural story with the Zen Cartograph; it additionally gives innovation within the type of a recent new case design. Essentially the most noteworthy function of the fastidiously sculpted and polished 40mm-wide (and simply 12mm-thick) metal case is the symmetrical place of the crown on the 12 o’clock place. Contained in the watch is a Japanese-made Seiko Devices caliber VH31 quartz motion with a mechanized seconds hand.
Relatively than energy a standard hand across the dial, the sweeping seconds indicator system is used to energy the centrally mounted Yin-Yang motif disc which makes a full revolution as soon as each 60 seconds. To higher perceive the philosophy behind the Zen Cartograph and why a Yin-Yang image was used on the dial, it’s best to listen to instantly from Undone’s design division instantly. Right here is the story of imagining and creating the Zen Cartograph instantly from the Undone crew that crafted it.
Clarify what a standard feng shui luopan is, usually the way it works, and the place the inspiration to show one right into a watch dial got here from?
UNDONE DESIGN TEAM: Undone has steadily been shifting into the path of designs which can be extra pushed by tales that resonate with the human zeitgeist. Utilizing horology as a medium, we intention to carry our viewers thoughtfully curated doses of cultural, historic, and nostalgic intrigue from internationally.
Our current collaboration with famend Japanese Katazome material crafthouse Easy Union (of the Indigo Nike Air Jordan 1 Retro Hello OG fame) explored the fantastic thing about imperfection, wabi-sabi, by 200-year-old vintage Japanese material from the Meiji Period for the straps, and we additionally featured bronze not solely as a case materials but in addition as an instrument of introspection and the Buddhist sensibilities towards life, loss of life, and reincarnation.
The Undone Zen Cartograph explores the philosophy of feng shui, often known as Chinese language geomancy. It’s a conventional follow originating from historical China that research the “luckiness” and “auspiciousness” of an area, a location, or a constructing construction by the quantitative and qualitative commentary of its surroundings. “Feng” means “wind” and “shui” means “water.” It’s believed that each one issues are formed by the interaction of such pure parts and that it’s by the fragile stability of the “darkish” and “gentle” properties (“yin” and “yang”) present in these parts that “luck” is finally formed.
Undone is a proud Hong Kong-based model with robust roots in conventional Chinese language tradition. Is the Zen Cartograph the primary main product to include a fixture of conventional Chinese language tradition into Undone watches? What do you search to advertise in regards to the attract of conventional Chinese language tradition to non-Chinese language shoppers? How would you like Chinese language shoppers to react to the product?
UNDONE DESIGN TEAM: Feng shui has all the time been a topic of contemporary fascination in each the East and the West, its influences branching past archaic superstition and into enterprise technique, structure, artwork, and even vogue. So, we determined that the luopan AKA “feng shui compass,” a 3000-year-old instrument central to the follow, can be the perfect canvas by which to discover the idea.
For the reason that daybreak of time, humankind has all the time appeared to the constellations and the earthly parts for solutions. In reality, the first-ever magnetic compass, courting again to the Chinese language Han Dynasty (200 BC-1 AD), was invented not for geographical navigation, however for the aim of divination and fortune-telling.
This compass was known as the “Luo Pan” (羅盤)” or “Feng Shui Compass,” a tool consisting of a south-pointing spoon/needle made with lodestone, a type of the mineral magnetite that may be a naturally occurring magnet and aligns itself with the Earth’s magnetic discipline. Like a standard compass, a Luopan is a path finder. Nonetheless, a Luopan differs from a compass in a number of essential methods. The obvious distinction is the Feng Shui formulation embedded alongside as much as 40 concentric rings on the floor of rotatable disk often called the “Heaven Dial,” which generally sits on a picket base often called the earth plate. The heaven dial rotates freely on the earth plate. Two crimson threads known as the “Heaven Strains” run throughout the compass for the aim of observing alignment between the rings.
Discuss among the design challenges concerned in reworking a luopan right into a watch dial. How did you overcome these challenges?
UNDONE DESIGN TEAM: One of many main challenges in designing the items was discovering a means of aesthetically translating this elaborate machine onto dial type with out overshadowing its underlying philosophy with an over-literal design — therefore, as a substitute of grafting all 40 rings of the luopan onto the dial, we opted for borrowing solely those most consultant of feng shui’s basic framework: three rings used respectively for the charting of terrestrial magnetism, the alignment of governing heavenly constellations, and the 5 parts in proximity (earth, wind, hearth, wooden, and steel). The performance of a standard seconds hand was forgone and, instead, the long-lasting yin-yang image is featured, perpetually spinning within the middle, a nod to the fixed interaction between gentle and darkness that makes up the entire of actuality/time and area.
Talking as soon as once more about Chinese language tradition, let’s concentrate on vogue. How do you see parts of conventional Chinese language tradition being included in trendy vogue — each in Chinese language-speaking elements of the world and elsewhere? Clarify how the Zen Cartograph is each a horny watch and a horny vogue merchandise.
UNDONE DESIGN TEAM: In contrast to the Undone Easy Union Bronze, the Undone Zen Cartograph stands out from our earlier horological introspection on cultural intrigue within the sense that that is the primary time we experimented with a extra fashion-centric interpretation, taking liberties with integrating trendy popular culture parts — most noticeably the sci-fi narrative and iconography of the sinister secret group “Dharma Initiative” from well-liked TV collection Misplaced, in yet one more nod to popular culture fandom.
As may be seen on the futuristic laboratory-esque labels used to seal the boxtops of each unit, complemented by an accompanying “Discipline Operator’s Handbook,” the Undone Zen Cartograph is launched as a “Analysis Grade Feng Shui Mapping Instrument” — a singular vogue accent and novel collector’s merchandise we hope each specialists and strangers to the idea of feng shui can have enjoyable with.
Be taught extra in regards to the Zen Cartograph watch, or order by way of the UNDONE web site right here.
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