Maze with a Message
For this year’s art watch, Ressence teamed up with Belgian artist Jules Wittock to introduce a handdrawn maze onto the dial of the brand’s TYPE 9. The T9 JWE and T9 JWB – limited to 60 pieces, 30 each – is a visual experience, made to awaken the senses and wonder your way through.
Wittock is known for tracing mazes freehand. In the case of the T9 JWE (Emerald Green colourway) and T9 JWB (black), a miniaturised design offers the wearer a single entrance, a single exit, and a path between them that spells a word.
“I like hiding things in my paintings,” says Wittock. “There’s always a mystery within the maze.”
Only at midnight does the maze align to reveal its hidden message — a nod to Wittock’s childhood ritual of making a wish at times like 11:11 or 22:22. What that message is remains between the artist and those who own the piece.
The T9 JWE features a white-filled maze on an Emerald Green ALD-coated titanium dial that changes to a purple colour depending on the angle of the watch; the T9 JWB features a white-filled maze on a black titanium dial in a black coated case. The patterns are milled directly into Grade 5 titanium and traced at 0.2 millimetres wide — made visible by the painted fill catching against the metal. Both editions debut on leather straps.
“The criteria we use to choose the artists we collaborate with run deeper than creativity or graphic impact alone,” says Benoît Mintiens, Ressence’s founder and creative mind. “We look for a visual language that translates physically onto the watch. Jules’s labyrinths are engraved into the dial and filled by hand, so the drawing lives in depth. His line stays extraordinarily consistent across every path — remarkable mastery, given that he draws each one freehand.”
The result, in watch form, draws on Ressence’s patented Orbital Convex System (ROCS) technology, which allows the dials, now carrying Wittock’s hand traced paths, to orbit in continuous motion. It’s a playful interpretation of a watch built to be handled, enjoyed, and lived with.
“A Ressence adds a fourth dimension to the canvas: time,” Mintiens adds, noting that it’s only at midnight and midday that the watch dials align for wearers to solve the labyrinth. “The artwork keeps changing. It appears differently with every glance.”
Being in the Now
Wittock has drawn labyrinths since childhood to find a path through complexity. “When I create my work, it’s a moment when I am in the present,” Wittock explains. “I don’t think about what I am doing, what I need to do, or what I did. I’m just doing right now, and I love being part of right now.”
It is a philosophy of clarity drawn from complexity — and it is where his world meets Ressence’s. Both strip away the noise to reach the essential. Both make objects meant to be lived with that reward attention over time. “I love how they think,” Wittock says of Ressence. “They are starting over with watchmaking, rethinking the whole concept. The way they work is minimalist, optimal, efficient — and I have exactly that in my paintings: the maximum space given to the logic, never to empty space.”
For Mintiens, that shared instinct is the point. “We move through life guided by instinct, and the coherence reveals itself in hindsight,” he says. “The labyrinth stays intricate. Then a moment comes when the pattern resolves and the word can finally be read.”
Art Watch Series
Each guest edition watch begins with a shared way of seeing between Ressence and its collaborators. Ressence partners only with artists whose work already speaks its language — clarity, curiosity, and the conviction that an object is made to be experienced as much as owned.
Previous guest editions include Shantell Martin’s TYPE 1 Square White, featuring her fluid line drawings and “Enjoy Life” mantra for TimeForArt 2024. Stefan Sagmeister’s TYPE 3X Look Up (2020) embedded his “Now is Better” philosophy into the dial, while Alain Silberstein’s TYPE 1 S REV Grail Watch (2022) offered a symbolic exploration of “Carpe Diem.” More recently, Daniel Engelberg’s TYPE 8 DE1 and DE2 (2025) brought the artist’s “Inside Out” concentric circles into kinetic form, and
Terumasa Ikeda’s TYPE 9 IKE (2026) brought his urushi lacquer and mother-of-pearl craft to the rotating dial.
The brand’s “art in motion” philosophy underscores Ressence’s belief that a watch should engage the wearer emotionally as much as technically.
“My work is based on challenge,” says Wittock. “The more complex the process, the more satisfying it is at the end.”
Ressence TYPE 9
Built on the TYPE 9 design — Ressence’s smallest and lightest watch to date — the new editions exemplify the brand’s ‘Less is More’ philosophy, focusing on simplicity in both form and function. By distilling watchmaking to its essence, the TYPE 9 offers a pure time-reading experience with hours and minutes displayed through the patented Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS).
The T9 JWE and T9 JWB will be available from 17.09.2026 through Ressence’s online store and select global retailers. As the latest release in Ressence’s art series, they continue Ressence’s ongoing dialogue with contemporary art, affirming a vision of watchmaking as a meaningful form of creative expression.
Technical Specifications
Name TYPE 9 JWB – TYPE 9 Jules Wittock Black
Functions
• Hours
• Minutes
Movement
• Patented ROCS 9 — Ressence Orbital Convex System — module driven by the minute axle of a customised automatic base calibre
• Self-winding
• 36 hours power reserve
• 28,800 vibrations per hour
• 31 jewels
• 20 gears
• 4 ball bearings
Dial
• Grade 5 titanium dial (75mm diameter) running on a jewel ball bearing with eccentric satellites rolling on jewel ball-bearings inclined at 9.75° (hours)
• Engraved indications hand-filled with white lacquer and Grade A Super-LumiNova® on a Black PVD-coated titanium dial
Case
• Polished Grade 5 titanium
• Domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating inside
• 39 mm (diameter) x 11 mm (thickness)
• 1 ATM splash-resistance
• Manual winding over 12° and set-up via caseback
• Rotating two directions
Buckle & Strap
• Titanium ardillon buckle
• Leather strap (20/18 mm)
Components
• 182 components
Weight
• 42 grams (strap included)
Name TYPE 9 JWE – TYPE 9 Jules Wittock Emerald Green
Functions
• Hours
• Minutes
Movement
• Patented ROCS 9 — Ressence Orbital Convex System — module driven by the minute axle of a customised automatic base calibre
• Self-winding
• 36 hours power reserve
• 28,800 vibrations per hour
• 31 jewels
• 20 gears
• 4 ball bearings
Dial
• Grade 5 titanium dial (75mm diameter) running on a jewel ball bearing with eccentric satellites rolling on jewel ball-bearings inclined at 9.75° (hours)
• Engraved indications hand-filled with white lacquer and Grade A Super-LumiNova® on an Emerald Green ALD-coated titanium dial
Case
• Polished Grade 5 titanium
• Domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective coating inside
• 39 mm (diameter) x 11 mm (thickness)
• 1 ATM splash-resistance
• Manual winding over 12° and set-up via caseback
• Rotating two directions
Buckle & Strap
• Titanium ardillon buckle
• Soft calf leather strap (20/18 mm)
Components
• 182 components
Weight
• 42 grams (strap included)
About Jules Wittock
Jules Wittock is based in Brussels and raised in a family of artists. He is known for hand-drawn labyrinths painted onto large-scale linen canvases. He has drawn labyrinths since childhood to find a path through complexity — each one traced freehand. Each maze follows the same internal logic: a single entrance, a single exit, and a path between them that spells a word. Some pieces carry secondary layers — UV-revealed patterns, mechanical mechanisms, and other concealed elements — that invite the viewer to interact with the work.
Wittock works across media and techniques — from marker and paint on linen to bronze and aluminium sculpture, as well as kinetic pieces. His labyrinths run up to 10 metres in length, yet the work stays minimalistic in purpose: typically a single colour, driven by the logic of the maze.
His work has been exhibited across Europe and includes large-scale public commissions, among them a ceiling mural at the Brussels Palace of Justice. He is currently expanding into sculptural work in bronze and aluminium.
About Ressence
Founded by Benoît Mintiens in 2010, Antwerp-based Ressence is setting a new paradigm for watchmaking — rethinking what a mechanical watch would be if it were a 21st-century invention.
Known for its patented Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS), which replaces hands with rotating discs, Ressence crafts watches that are intuitive, legible, and deeply human. Awardwinning innovations like oil-filled dials and the absence of a crown serve a clear purpose: ergonomics, clarity, and experience.
Ressence applies design thinking to fine watchmaking, providing mechanical watches with functional meaning for those who value clarity without losing soul and functionality without compromising beauty. Ressence calls this Simplication — a dedication to innovation, minimalism, and human connection in watchmaking.
In an industry dominated by tradition and status, Ressence stands apart as a design-led independent. Its made-in-Switzerland watches are built for modern life, not the museum. Its audience is curious and optimistic, seeking watches that spark conversation without pretension.
Wearing a Ressence is a statement of optimism. A belief that the future holds more promise than the past.
