Muse Kagura 44 Titanium Watch Review

A peculiar brand, Muse, is a watch company that has an aim to combine high quality watchmaking craftsmanship and the beauty of contemporary art as dictated by its founders, Pascal Robert and Freideric Leuba, who started the company in 2016. These philosophies are clearly reflected on the Kagura 44 – Titanium Full Black. Its peculiar design which catch your attention in a moment’s notice, and its beautifully, well thought of craftsmanship will leave you speechless.

The Kagura Look

The casing of Muse’s Kagura 44 – Titanium Full Black is made out of, as its name suggests, titanium. Known for its durability, you are guaranteed to have a durable case, and with the bezel, it is combined to be 44mm in thickness. In addition, it is crafted to show off a vertical satin finish which gives added artistry to the already creative timepiece.

The black also gives it an extra elegant finish.

Moreover, the Kagura 44 is designed to have 50 m of water resistance, which is equivalent to 5 ATM. Which is not bad considering it was not designed to resist water in the first place. This is just to help nullify the effects of water as you go swimming or when you go white water rafting where it is prone to heavy splashes from the strong current waves.

The Kagura 44’s crown is positioned on the left side of the casing, where it sits well on its own.

What makes it stand out for us is how the lugs have a sort of matte look to them. This gives the casing room to stand out, and in some angles, creates an impression that it is floating against the lugs, which gives service to how the key feature of the timepiece is its creative contemporary art inspired face.

For a luxury watch, the straps made of handstitched fabric does it a disservice considering that you would except at least a leather strap to its creativeness. However, maybe this was for the purpose of making the ‘Muse’ engraving on its pin buckle stand out, and if so, they thought of this small detail very well. Kudos!

Key Features

Contemporary Art at the Forefront

The hands of the Kagura 44 – Titanium Full Black is what stands out the most, and it is the very first thing that you notice because of the way it is peculiarly designed. True to the philosophy of the company, they have consistently released watches with peculiar designs. This features hexagonal designs, which is clean when you first look at it, but eventually becoming confusing if you are not used to it.

In addition, the dial shows the same peculiar pattern on its surface that is distracting as it starts turning as it goes through the day, which again, does a disservice when all you want to have in a watch is something that can help tell you the time properly.

However, this is just a personal opinion. Although, they do have other models that combine contemporary art better than this hexagonal pattern.

On the other hand, maybe one of the reasons why its difficult to tell time clearly for first time users is the fact that it does not have any indices to indicate what time it already is. You will end up relying on your power of estimation to come up with what time it is, and that is counterproductive, considering that it is a watch.

Crystal

The crystal of the Kagura 44 has anti-reflective technology imbued in it. This means, it prevents reflection from showing on the timepiece.

What this does is tell time clearly for those who eventually get used to the way the hands point at the time, which is a good timepiece to have on a very sunny day.

Movement

At the heart of every Muse timepiece is a classic movement that has stopped production in 1982. Luckily for them, a collector had hundreds of kits in hand for them to rework, which they eventually renamed MU 01.

It is the same for the Kagura 44, and what they are really proud of is how this movement favors a power reserve, which, in their estimate, can reach up to at least 48 hours.

Its unique finish with the 25 black rhodium jewels, gives it a unique feeling. Along the sides, an engraving of MUSE can be seen along with the inscription of the kind of movement that the timepiece is being powered with.

Conclusion

Having contemporary art at the forefront is no small spectacle. To have a fully functioning, well crafted timepiece is difficult, which Muse was able to accomplish here. It is powerful, and to bring a long-forgotten movement back is the crowning jewel of this timepiece which is suitable for those who will eventually get used to telling the time with the distracting pattern on its dial. Other than that, Muse has once again outdone itself.