The concept was conceived by The Armoury co-founder Mark Cho and designer Elliot Hammer, who were inspired by mid-century Cloisonné watch dials depicting birds. Instead of going for a full-on bird portrait, the pair settled on the less common imagery of feathers.
“Whilst in Japan, I appreciated the attention to space and timelessness,” Hammer said in the watch’s press release. “In the
Floating Feathers, there is a logic: if there are feathers, there must have also once been a bird.”
The feathers are the hypnotic star of the show here, but they’re hardly the only impressive thing about the dial. Both brands’ names are engraved via an ultra-precision micro-milling machine, the faceted hour and minute hands are made of hand-polished yellow gold, the minute hand with its “caviar spoon” counterweight is in heat-blued steel and the hour markers are solid 18k gold globes that are both polished and set into the dial by hand.
Availability and pricing
Like all Naoya Hida models, the Floating Feathers is both very expensive and very, very rare. What do you expect from a brand that largely handcrafts its watches and only produces 100 or so in a given year?
The Floating Feathers is priced at $33,000 and is available exclusively at The Armoury. The watch is only available to purchase via application, which can be filled out either in person at The Armoury’s New York store or online at its website between May 17 and 20. Just 10 examples will be produced this year, with deliveries taking place in 2027.