The Toledano & Chan Oshinobi Hides Its Secret In Plain Sight
Toledano & Chan has carved out a nice little niche in the watch industry. In a universe dominated by familiarity, the young brand is not afraid to walk a different path. It’s a path defined by creativity and pushing design in new directions. As a result, Toledano & Chan’s creations are not for everyone. But that comes with the territory of breaking new ground. For their latest creation, Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan created a special one-off watch that will be auctioned as part of the TimeForArt auction at Phillips in New York on December 5th, 2026. This benefit watch auction is dedicated to supporting contemporary art, and the Toledano & Chan Oshinobi is the perfect watch for the occasion.
The TimeForArt auction will feature unique creations from 25 brands, including famous ones like Bvlgari, Chanel, Chopard, Hermès, and Zenith × USM. There is also a nice list of exciting smaller brands that will also participate, including Baltic, Czapek, Dennison, Lebond, Ming, Unimatic, and Toledano & Chan. Overall, it’s an impressive list of brands, and we can expect some amazing creations. Some will be created in collaboration with special artists, so it will be interesting to find out more about them as the auction approaches.
The details of the Toledano & Chan Oshinobi
The first brand to share its creation is Toledano & Chan with the Oshinobi. Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan have created a brutalist, sandblasted titanium bracelet… so it seems. But the magic of their new creation is hiding in plain sight. Oshinobi (お忍び) is the Japanese word for a high-ranking person traveling incognito, and it fits the watch perfectly. This is not a bracelet. If you push the small cover to the left, a dial featuring two carats of natural snow-set diamonds unveils itself in all its glory.
It’s a clever design and the ultimate personal luxury statement, as only you know what you are wearing. In today’s world, it’s the ideal diamond-set watch and one you can safely wear in public. The watch features a 21mm-wide case made of sandblasted Grade 5 titanium.
Powering it is a manual-winding Swiss LTM (Le Temps Manufacture) caliber hidden behind the titanium case back. On that, you’ll find a special TimeForArt engraving to remind you of the special occasion for which this watch was created.
The special diamond-set dial
For this watch, Toledano and Chan took inspiration from geodes. When opened, these hollow, plain-looking rocks reveal wonderful constellations of extraordinary crystals inside, which inspired the diamonds’ snowy setting. Approximately 387 natural diamonds of varying sizes were used to create the dial. To contrast with the watch’s angular, brutalist exterior, the duo wanted an organic stone formation on the inside. The dial is concave to add extra depth and make it feel more like a natural phenomenon than a traditional watch dial.
It will be interesting to see what this extravagant design piece goes for at auction. All the proceeds will be used to support modern and contemporary art. Across its first two editions, the TimeForArt auction raised US$2.4 million for the Swiss Institute.
The organization hosts innovative exhibitions, public programs, education initiatives, and community engagement workshops in New York and beyond. And even more excitingly, Toledano & Chan will create a limited-release production model of the Oshinobi in 2027. It shows there are more interesting things to come from the brand in the near future.
