Ressence Type 9 Jules Wittock: A Solvable Maze Milled Into Titanium

Ressence has been running its Art Watch program for a while now, handing the Type 9 dial over to artists who mean something to the brand's Belgian roots. The latest collaborator is Jules Wittock, a contemporary Belgian artist whose entire practice revolves around hand-drawn mazes. Incredibly detailed, fully solvable mazes. That's his thing, and it turns out it translates surprisingly well onto a watch dial.

The result is the Ressence Type 9 Jules Wittock. Wittock drew the maze, and Ressence had it milled 0.2mm into the titanium dial surface. Then it was filled by hand, in either Emerald Green or black. Two colorways, 30 pieces each, CHF 20,000 a side. That's the shape of it.

What Ressence Actually Changed Here

The base watch is the Type 9, which means you're getting Ressence's patented Ressence Orbital Convex System, or ROCS. Time is displayed through rotating discs that orbit around the dial like planets around a sun. There's no crown. The whole thing reads differently from any conventional watch, and that's very much the point.

What's new here is purely the dial treatment. Wittock's maze covers the surface, milled in at just 0.2mm depth. That's a shallow cut, but enough to hold the colored fill and give the lines a tactile presence. The fill is applied by hand, which means each of the 60 pieces has a slightly human touch to it. Given the subject matter, that feels appropriate.

The Maze Isn't Just Decoration

This is worth spelling out because it's easy to gloss over. Wittock's mazes are functional puzzles. You can actually solve this one. The design was created specifically for the dial format, which means it works within the constraints of the orbital disc layout. That's a non-trivial design challenge. The ROCS discs sit on top of the dial surface, covering portions of it, so Wittock had to account for what's visible and what isn't at any given moment.

It also means the watch changes character as time passes. The rotating discs reveal and obscure different sections of the maze throughout the day. You're never quite looking at the same thing twice.

Who This Is For

If you already own a Ressence, you know what you're buying into mechanically. The Type 9 is an established piece. This edition is aimed at someone who wants that watch and also wants something with a genuine art world connection, not just a fancy dial stamp.

Wittock isn't a household name outside contemporary art circles, but that's part of the appeal. Ressence tends to pick collaborators who are interesting rather than famous. The brand was founded in 2010 by industrial designer Benoît Mintiens, and it's always leaned toward a design-forward crowd rather than traditional watch collectors. This collaboration sits squarely in that lane.

• Dial: Titanium, maze milled to 0.2mm depth, hand-filled in Emerald Green or black
• Movement system: Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS)
• Production: 30 pieces per colorway, 60 total
• Price: CHF 20,000
• Artist: Jules Wittock, Belgian contemporary artist specializing in hand-drawn mazes

How It Sits Against Other Ressence Art Watches

Ressence has done this before with other artists, and the formula is consistent: take the Type 9 platform, give a creative person genuine access to the dial, keep the edition small. The price of CHF 20,000 is in line with what the Art Watch series has commanded. You're paying for the watch itself and for the limited nature of the object, not just a signed print on a strap.

The Emerald Green version will probably move faster visually, it's the more striking of the two at a glance. But the black version has a certain restraint that works well with titanium. Both are worth considering on their own terms.

Sixty pieces total means this won't be everywhere, which is the right call for something this considered. If the Art Watch series interests you and Wittock's work resonates, don't sit on it too long.