We just might be witnessing the most exciting chapter in Ressence’s 16-year history. In 2010, Belgian designer Benoît Mintiens founded Ressence on an unprecedented approach to timekeeping: no hands, no apertures, no crown. Numbers? Sometimes. Instead, concentric discs rotate to indicate the seconds, minutes and hours.
This 39mm DLC titanium timepiece's futuristic dial was achieved using urushi lacquering and raden mother-of-pearl inlaying techniques.
One of horology’s most attention-grabbing faces, his patented Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS) comprises concave discs driven by a modified ETA movement. However, Ressence watches are far more complex than just slapping an ROCS module on a base movement. Previous Ressence models have featured a separate oiled chamber and dry chamber that cooperated using magnets (which necessitated magnetism-proofing the movement), and the new Type 9 Ike operates using jewel ball bearings.
The mechanics of Ressence’s various “Types” continue to evolve dramatically as Mintiens re-engineers them in his relentless pursuit of greater precision and durability.
While Ressence watches have been clothed in a variety of colors over the years, they have recently taken on even more inquisitive visages. The Ahmed Seddiqi × Ressence Type 9 S75 (in the header image) launched in June last year, for example, was speckled with sand sourced from all seven emirates.
Subsequent releases like the Ressence Type 9 ARM “Scattering Sun” (also in the header image) with salmon dial and gentle fluting (September 2025), Ressence Type 1 Round Rose Gold for Dubai Watch Week 2025, Ressence Type 8 Daniel Engelberg (both released last November) and Ressence Type 3 Marc Newsom were all warmly received, and they signaled Mintiens’ intent to switch up more than just colorways.
What Ressence just dropped is as visually bold, if not bolder, than the sand dune-inspired Type 9 S75: The Ressence Type 9 IKE features a dial blackened by renowned artist Terumasa Ikeda using the ancient Japanese urushi lacquering technique, and inlaid with mother-of-pearl through the intricate decorative method known as raden.
This cyberpunk aesthetic is matched by a pitch-dark 39mm DLC-coated case crafted from polished grade 5 titanium. Secured to the wrist with a black horse leather strap and titanium pin buckle, the Ressence Type 9 IKE is now available on Ressence’s online store.
It offers 36 hours of power reserve, though we suspect you’ll be wearing this eye-catching timepiece far more often than it spends resting.
While the Type 9 is Ressence’s most compact collection and among its most affordably priced, this eight-piece limited edition commands nearly twice the asking price of previous Type 9 models, retailing at CHF32,000. That’s about US$41,500 at the time of writing, but in return you get immense savoir-faire and countless hours of craftsmanship encapsulated in a thoroughly absorbing timepiece.
Unveiling one banger after another, Mintiens has us on the edge of our seats, and he appears far from finished.
