Miyabi Japanese Watch Face

Miyabi is a Heian court dial in black urushi and gold maki-e, cut through so the movement beneath it shows. Gold suyari-gasumi cloud bands drift across a shinden-zukuri palace with mother-of-pearl shoji, and where the clouds part, the mechanism is running underneath.

⚙️ EIGHT WHEELS, EIGHT RATES
The plate is cut open at the centre and again above and below it, following the clouds' own edges, so the gold lies over the movement rather than beside it. A great wheel turns slowly with its axis hidden under the cap, so only an arc of its teeth crosses the opening. No two wheels on this dial run at the same rate, because two wheels moving together read as one printed picture sliding rather than as a mechanism.

🔩 A BEATING ESCAPEMENT
At the foot of the dial a jewelled lever rocks on its own jewel, twice a second, and the escape wheel beside it does not spin — it is released one tooth at a time, on the lever's beat. Set the second hand to Beat and it steps on the same beat, so the whole face ticks together.

🌙 MOON PHASE
The moon over the palace waxes and wanes with the real lunar month, drawn in sixteen steps from new to full and back.

🦪 TWELVE PEARL HOURS
Twelve pearls are set into the rim, each one seated on its exact hour.

📅 DAY AND DATE
A slot under twelve carries the weekday and the date. Its bezel is the wells' own gold rim, swept round the rounded rectangle, and its floor is the dial's own lacquer — so it changes colour with the lacquer you choose.

⌚ TWO DATA WELLS
Two gold-rimmed wells at four and eight show steps and battery by default, and can be changed to other information you prefer. Anything that carries a range brings a gauge with it, drawn as a filled arc against its own unlit track.

🎨 THREE LACQUERS
Black, indigo and chestnut tame-nuri re-ground the plate and the movement together. The gold never changes, because the gold is the maki-e.

🪙 THREE HAND METALS
Gold, silver and copper. Gold as it leaves the box, to match the plate's own maki-e; silver stands furthest from the lacquer if you would rather the hands were the first thing you saw.

🕐 SWEEP, BEAT, OR NONE
The second hand sweeps continuously, or beats twice a second with the escapement, or comes off the dial entirely.

🌙 AMBIENT MODE
Optimised for always-on display. The plate, the movement and the sweep second all drop away, leaving the dial's own twelve pearls, the hands and the centre cap on black to preserve battery.

🎴 MORE FROM WABIFACE
Kyoto, our free Japanese watch face:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.wabiface.kyoto

🌸 ABOUT WABIFACE
WabiFace is a collection of watch faces celebrating Japanese aesthetics — wabi-sabi, mono no aware, and the dignified passage of time.

Artwork is AI-assisted illustration, curated and assembled by the developer.

Requires Wear OS 5 or later. Compatible with Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, and other Wear OS 5+ smartwatches.

Please check your watch OS version before purchasing.

For support: support@wabiface.jp
Website: https://wabiface.jp