NAGOYA & HIDA

The Armoury And Naoya Hida & Co. Type 4A-2 "Floating Feathers"

Usually, we only get one round of Naoya Hida & Co. releases each year, as the company manufactures so few watches per year (though that number is increasing) that one round of releases of 10+ models with around 10 watches per model per year is about the maximum. So imagine my surprise when we got a press release about a new collaboration between Hida-san and his retailer, The Armoury, to be released after the initial wave of releases. They've collaborated before (their "Lettercutter" is one of Hida's most beloved watches). This new release, the Type 4A-2 "Floating Feathers," is by far the most unusual and imaginative Naoya Hida watch yet.

The watch uses a high-polish stainless steel Type 4 case (36mm by 42.9mm lug-to-lug, 11mm thick) with a central seconds hand, keeping the dial free for artistic expression. Mark Cho, co-founder of The Armoury, and designer Elliot Hammer say that they were inspired by decorative ornithological dials, botanical motifs, and nature scenes. 

As ornithology is the study of birds, my thought immediately went to "singing bird boxes," but hey, I didn't make the watch, so no one asked me. Hammer, who travels to Japan often, said he was taken by their attention to space and timelessness, and in the press release says, "if there are feathers, there must have also once been a bird."

Rationale for the design aside, Naoya Hida & Co. has the benefit of a talented in-house engraver, Keisuke Kano, and used the bead-blasted Argentium silver dial as a canvas for the barbs and vanes of the three floating feathers settling onto it. The logos of the two brands sit at the edge, while 12 hand-polished 18k yellow gold minute-marker globes are set in the minute ring, with dashes marking the minutes. The hands are also gold, cut and then polished, and the seconds hand is a more discreet line of blued steel with a "caviar spoon" counterweight.

The hand-wound caliber 3020CS movement is based on the ETA 7750 platform, measuring 30mm by 5mm, but with a central seconds (the 7750, being an automatic chronograph with subsidiary seconds, is, of course, quite different). The watch runs at 4Hz but has a 45-hour power reserve, with 22 jewels. All of this is protected by a screw-down caseback with 50 meters of water resistance. The watch is delivered on a hand-stitched charcoal grey calf strap by Jean Rousseau (with 20/16 taper) and 904L stainless steel pin buckle.

The watch can only be purchased via applications (which the brand says is a simple questionnaire), must be submitted from May 18, 10 AM JST to May 21, 10 AM JST via an email to nyc@thearmoury.com. Only 10 pieces will be produced for 2026 applicants, with deliveries scheduled for 2027. The retail price is $33,000.

It's remarkable how something engraved into a hard material like Argentium silver can convey such softness to the dial. It's certainly unlike any other Naoya Hida watch before it, and I'm not exactly sure how it fits in the lineage of the watches viewed from Hida-san's mind, but I think there's something kind of captivating to it. It's like a feather settling into white snow. 

There must also be something about feathers in Japan, as they are not the first to explore the bird-and-feather motif. The Citizen has used an eagle feather motif on a silvery-white dial before. Grand Seiko has been inspired by peacocks. There is, of course, the Credor Goldfeather line. And yet, this is its own interpretation. It speaks to me, since I wear a silver feather (with gold) around my neck every day, also from a small maker in Japan, but at $33,000, it's also distinctly not in my price range. So I'll just watch it float away from a distance.

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