Not the most common of watches to see in this day, especially from the land of the rising sun. Yes, this Tourbillion watch comes from Japan. The Hajime Asaoka Project T Tourbillon watch is a collaboration project between Hajime Asaoka and two other companies. Hajime Asaoka is a self-taught Japanese watchmaker.
This Hajime Asaoka Project T watch was developed with two tooling and milling companies which Japan is famous for. Amongst its products are diamond-coated drills used to machine carbon fibre into aircraft parts. Interestingly, Asaoka also worked with OSG for the glossy diamond-like coating (DLC) of the dial, which promises to retain its deep black colour permanently due to the resilience of DLC.
The steel case is 43mm wide with the main face plate DLC coated for a glossy high-end industrial look. The modern art deco-inspired aesthetic elements such as the hands, and hour markers are irresistible. With 40 hours of power reserve and an 18,000 bph frequency, the movement makes use of many ball bearings as opposed to traditional ruby palettes. Ball bearing pivots are generally much more robust than others. The movement is also separated into various sections. The entire tourbillon assembly is mostly made of titanium. This Project T is not just about extremely precise machining, instead Asaoka has reimagined the basic construction of the tourbillon, which is mostly made of titanium, including the screws.
The tourbillon bridge and base plate are a single piece for rigidity and perfect centring of the tourbillon carriage. According to Asaoka, the conventional construction of a separate bridge and base plate can lead to an eccentric rotation of the carriage due to misalignment of the parts. The Project T will retail for 8 million Japanese yen, which is equivalent to about RM250,000 or USD78,000.
