Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The New Ressence Art Watch Type 9 x Jules Wittock
Wittock’s amazing mazes are set in perpetual motion on the dial of the Type 9.
Founded in 2010 by industrial designer Benoît Mintiens, indie brand Ressence stands out from the crowd with its original and contemporary way of displaying time. Like planets orbiting the Sun, time circles around the dial thanks to the brand’s patented Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS). For the brand’s latest Art Watch, Ressence has teamed up with contemporary Belgian artist Jules Wittock, renowned for his freehand mazes that often conceal a hidden message. The compact, minimalist Type 9 serves as the canvas for Wittock’s maze artwork, now set in continuous motion thanks to the brand’s ROCS technology.
In 2025, Ressence engaged German artist Daniel Engelberg to create the hypnotic dial of the 42.9mm Type 8 Art Watch, then the brand’s most minimalist watch, limited to hour and minute displays and presented in a seamless flying-saucer case. In 2025, Ressence introduced the Type 9, a more traditional case with short, exposed lugs that is currently the brand’s lightest, most compact and streamlined model and the first to feature the minutes track on a fixed external bezel. Moving the minutes to the bezel means fewer indications on the dial and, consequently, more space for artists’ imaginations to run free. Just a few months after its release, Ressence teamed up with Japanese urushi lacquer artist Terumasa Ikeda for the Type 9 IKE, a sci-fi creation that transmits an enigmatic, colourful signal from outer space.
Like many Ressence watches, the 39mm case is made from lightweight grade 5 titanium; including the strap, it weighs just 42 grams. With a height of 11mm and no crown to disrupt the streamlined profile, the advantage of a crownless design is that the watch can be worn on either wrist. Available in grade 5 titanium or black DLC-coated titanium, the external bezel with 5-minute markings secures the domed sapphire crystal protecting the dial. For intrepid maze crackers, there are two signs on the fixed external bezel indicating ‘In’ and ‘Out’.
Rather than reproducing Wittock’s maze artwork statically on the dial, it is directly integrated into the revolving planetary discs of the Type 9. As a brand that espouses ‘art in motion’, Wittock’s labyrinthine artwork constantly changes and deconstructs over time. Available in two colours – emerald green or black – Wittock’s patterns are milled directly into the titanium dial and filled by hand. The emerald green-coated dial, with its white-lacquered maze, shifts to purple depending on the watch’s angle. Both feature white-lacquered minute and hour hands (note the maze pattern invading the tip of the hour hand) and the chapter ring, in green or black, features Arabic numerals at 3 and 9 o’clock, indices and the brand’s hand logo at noon. All the indications and the maze are treated with Super-LumiNova.
The domed dial rotates once per hour, aligning the long pointer hand with the minutes track on the external bezel. The smaller hour disc also moves and completes a revolution every twelve hours, following the minutes around the dial in a never-ending dance. Wittock’s secret message embedded in the maze is only revealed at midnight when the glowing hour and minute hands align to form the word.
The Type 9 is powered by the ROCS 9 module driven by the minute axle of a customised ETA automatic 2892 base. The movement operates at 28,800vph and offers a 36-hour power reserve. The Type 9 Jules Wittock is limited to 30 pieces in emerald green and 30 in black, and retails for CHF 20,000 (excl. tax).
More information at ressence.com.
