Although the Chinese watch industry is currently booming, few brands in this new generation of Chinese watchmakers push the envelope as rapidly or as aggressively as CIGA Design. Both on the design and complication fronts, CIGA Design has introduced some impressively high-level concepts in recent years, and for its latest release, the brand aims to bring this avant-garde spirit to its use of materials. In keeping with its brand ethos of blending ultra-modern concepts with traditional Chinese motifs, CIGA Design has developed a proprietary new case material that blends the strength of modern ceramic with the most Chinese of semi-precious stones: jade. The new CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade further refines the brand’s square-case, skeleton-movement design brief, combining its romantic new material with a compelling airy look.
With 43mm wide and 12.9mm thick overall measurements, the CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade’s square case seems like it would cut a hefty figure on the wrist, but the reality is quite different. The smoothly rounded, almost pebble-like lugless square design feels far more compact than the figures might suggest, and the complete lack of any hard angles or corners also ensures a comfortable wearing experience. Of course, the real heart of this case is its proprietary ceramic jade material. Created via oxygen-enriched sintering at extremely high temperatures, this material allows CIGA Design to combine the scratch resistance and toughness of modern ceramics with the gloss and depth of jade. To the layman, this reflective off-black surface may not immediately read as jade without the stone’s familiar pale green or white tones, but it doesn’t take long to recognize this is a different beast from familiar zirconium oxide ceramics. As a start, it’s heavier than a traditional ceramic case, offering a satisfyingly weighty feel on the wrist. In addition, it’s surprisingly cool to the touch, which adds another unique tactile layer to the wearing experience. Although the case material is attractive and satisfying on the wrist, the case as a whole isn’t without its downsides. The largest of these is the caseback. While the subtly domed sapphire crystal takes up nearly the entire caseback surface, the band of material surrounding it has no engravings or text of any kind. This leaves the case feeling slightly unfinished or simplistic, and its 30-meter water resistance underwhelms, as well.
The CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade’s dial refines and iterates on the heavily skeletonized design language used across much of the brand’s catalog. The brand offers some remarkably clever ideas here, extending the X-shaped main skeleton bridge layout into an outer ring surrounding the rest of the movement. Thanks to a set of sapphire movement mounts, this allows the circular skeleton movement to seemingly float inside its square aperture, but more importantly, it also makes the Series Y Eastern Jade impressively legible for a watch this aggressively skeletonized. Not only do the engraved, brightly polished lines along this outer ring serve as restrained but effective hour indices, but the gear-toothed outer edge enables the brand to incorporate a minutes scale into the design without disrupting the futuristic design ethos. Each interval between the hour indices sports four rounded, prominent gear teeth (except, unfortunately, in the interval between 2 o’clock and 4 o’clock), making to-the-minute legibility easy at a glance. Broad, skeleton paddle hands and a stylized gear-shaped central seconds hand give this layout a more offbeat character, but what stands out the most here is CIGA Design’s finishing. Naturally, none of the finishes seen here will be competing with the upper echelons of Swiss standards, but there’s a striking variety and creativity on display. For the X-shaped main bridge, CIGA Design finishes the uppermost surfaces of the matte black element with a contrasting polished, grooved look, adding a wealth of visual detail to the layout. There’s also (limited) polished anglage, matte blasting, and a handsomely radially brushed open mainspring barrel on display here, leading to a more varied, detailed layout than previous CIGA Design efforts.
Compared with the relatively complex finishes of the dial side, the view of the brand’s CD-02 automatic movement through the CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade’s caseback is rather simple. The striped, black-coated, and unsigned rotor dominates the layout here, floating above skeleton bridges and gear train elements in a mix of matte black, polished steel, and brass. On the performance front, the CD-02 is largely in line with expectations at this price point, offering a 40-hour power reserve, a 28,800 bph beat rate, higher shock resistance than previous brand efforts, and a conservative accuracy rating of -15/+30 seconds per day. To complete the watch, CIGA Design fits the watch with a single-link bracelet in polished black ceramic. Compared with the depth and perceived refinement of the ceramic jade case, this classic ceramic bracelet feels a bit simple, with wider tolerances than some of its competitors (particularly through the butterfly-style two-button clasp), but it complements the dark, avant-garde look of the overall design well.
Over the past few years, CIGA Design has established itself as one of the most forward-thinking and creative brands of the current Chinese watch boom. The new CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade focuses on and evolves the brand’s futuristic skeleton aesthetic while introducing a proprietary new material with ties to the classical Chinese art of jade-working. The CIGA Design Mechanical Watch Series Y Eastern Jade is available now through the brand’s e-commerce platform. MSRP for this watch stands at $599 USD as of press time. For more information, please visit the brand’s website.
