THE CARVED PIECE

Embracing the challenges of independent watchmaking from his Seoul-based workshop, Minhoon Yoo marks his debut with an elegant timepiece featuring subtle nuances of Korean styling and unique hand-crafted elements. Largely self-taught, Minhoon was inspired compelled to create watches under his own name on viewing a documentary featuring the Swiss Masters Philippe Dufour and Antoine Preziuso while studying South Korea’s art furniture in college. Having founded his own atelier in 2020, the craftsman expresses the essentia of his culture by blending his knowledge of micro-engineering and meticulous finishing techniques, together with artistic self-expression.

The Carved Piece wristwatch is the young watchmaker’s first model, and it features a hand-crafted silver dial with a distinctive free-hand carved pattern, and random applied indices which are individually hand-cut and executed with hand-polishing and hand-bevelling. At odds with the traditional preciseness normally found on the dial of a watch, the non-uniformity of these features is an arrangement which ensures the uniqueness of the watch, and of each singular model in this series. The indices and minute markers are placed on a hand-finished chapter ring, and are accompanied by a small seconds subdial, with time indicated via hands crafted in the watchmaker’s atelier by hand. Finishing the dial, the name plate at the upper dial takes the form of the swallow-tail hinges found on antique Korean furniture, and which evoke a cultural association with good omens.

The piece carries the aesthetics and proportions of a dress watch, with a case of stainless steel measuring 37mm across and with a height of just 7.3mm. Within, the manual wound movement, which is based on the ETA/Peseux calibre 7001, has been extensively re-worked by Minhoon. Notably, the slender bridges have been crafted from nickeled silver, despite the difficulties of working the material within a calibre of such petite proportions, and the click spring of his own making. The beautifully executed finishing of the movement is revealed through a sapphire centre in the caseback, surrounded by a brushed steel frame.

A confident design by an exciting new addition to the independent watchmaking landscape, the Carved Piece by Minhoon Yoo comes presented on an alligator strap, secured with a stainless steel buckle in the shape of a swallow-tail motif.