Akihiko Kuroda

Flash Surface Form

Metal band watches are typically composed of separate parts for the watch body and the band, and their designs are often distinct. However, this model features a thin metal plate band that covers the watch body, resulting in a unique design. By constructing it from a single solid metal plate, it achieves a completely flush surface with no recesses or protrusions, providing a smooth feel to the touch. To further emphasize this design, a vivid red polyurethane material continuously outlines the outer edge, highlighting the sense of unity between the case and the band. The red polyurethane accent is not only a design element but also serves a functional purpose by protecting the areas that come into contact with the skin, making this model a true fusion of technology and beauty. In addition, the solid metal plate exterior is under tension on the outside, creating a space between the wrist and the watch, which provides a new level of comfort and a visually stress-free wearing experience. For time display, instead of the conventional flat digital display, a pseudo-three-dimensional representation is used, achieving a digital expression that conveys a sense of advanced innovation.

Seamless Minimal

Titanium, one of the most skin-friendly metals for the human body, achieves a high level of 'warmth'—the very essence of its gentleness—through a simple, smooth, and pleasantly soft form that you can feel instantly. Furthermore, the design is stripped of all excess to maximize the other key feature of titanium: its lightness. The band’s cross-section has no edges and rises seamlessly from the wrist, while the entire surface is finished so that you never feel any steps or ridges, expressing the subtle luster unique to metal in a thoroughly simple shape. The slight gap between the wrist and the watch is a thoughtful touch for comfort, reflecting the intent to create unity between the watch and the wearer. While simple shapes often lack a sense of movement, this watch’s band, when worn, has areas where the gap disappears and areas where it is clearly felt, creating a dynamic, ever-changing impression reminiscent of a living body. This model is the result of a thorough exploration of titanium as a new material, making the most of its advantages to provide maximum comfort for the wearer.

Affordance Design

This model is equipped with CITIZEN’s standard chronograph watch layout movement, Cal.3510. While various models featuring Cal.3510 have been released to the market with different design approaches by designers, this particular model stands out as a highly sophisticated design that makes the basic operations of the chronograph immediately clear to users at a glance. The placement of the push buttons and the positions of the hands are designed so that users experience no stress when wearing the watch and using the chronograph functions. To ensure that the complex operations of the chronograph can be understood at a glance and to encourage instinctive and unconscious actions, each push button has a distinctive shape and size. The color scheme of the case, the asymmetrical styling, and every aspect of the design are unlike anything seen before. These distinctive shapes, the mechanical component-like forms incorporated into the outer ring, and the four screws visible on the asymmetric case all serve as details that evoke the impression of a 'chronograph' as a 'precision machine,' completing the model’s design.

Organic Details

Watches, primarily made of metal, are products of industrial manufacturing, and nowadays, computers are mainly used in their design process. As a result, many designs tend to become inorganic. In this model, by incorporating curves and rounded edges into details such as the indexes, side surfaces of the case, bezel and case back edges, and the crown, a balance is achieved by adding organic elements to what could otherwise be an inorganic watch design. By adopting details that could even be described as biological in a sense, the shape is made moderately flexible, allowing it to be worn comfortably without psychological resistance or a sense of harshness for the wearer.