We have covered the Asaoka Project Tsunami in detail earlier. The first pieces were very Art Deco in style. Hajime Asaoka released a new update to the dial. Now in a resplendent brown and black, with detailing with a less Art Deco vibe, but one thoroughly more modern. And certainly one of the heart stopping beauties from this Baselworld 2019.
As we have already reviewed the watch, please refer to our original review for the base details.
Here will only note differences in our opinion to the original, and show the photographs of the magnificent new piece.
All details of the watch remains the same. The dial is the major change. And what a change. The dial is now in a two tone black and brown, with large, Art Deco styled Arabic numerals. A railway track marks the minutes.
The new dial is also designed and made by Asaoka. The black part is lacquer with UV absorbing material and brown part is copper plated.The printing is in Japanese urushi printed by Asaoka. See this earlier article detailing his technique. The use of Urushi means that the color will remain unchanged indefinitely.
Please note that the dial is for the unique piece and the color for the series production is not been decided. Asaoka is thinking the color could be white and gray or silver and gray. But we think the black and brown works superbly.
The case is subtly changed. Still 37mm in diameter, the case side is now highly polished for a more dressy outlook. This also requires also more work than the conventional Tsunami. And most important change is that the case back is now screw-back and the gap of case-back and case is on the side of the case instead of back. That is better for water resistance.
The movement remains unchanged. The huge balance wheel, running at 18,000 bph still takes dominant position from the case back. The finishing is exquisite, as is always the case with Asaoka.
Price: JPY 4,200,000 for SS case.
Photo notes: All photographs were taken with the Leica SL (Type 601) with APO-Macro-Elmarit-TL 1:2.8/60mm ASPH. Lighting is by a Profoto Compact 600 flash firing into a reflecting umbrella and a Canon EX580 as a fill light 180 degrees opposite. The watch is kept within a white soft box to further diffuse the light. Exif data is kept intact on the photographs.
