Lift the diamond-set lid on Dyne’s new cuff and a miniature dial appears. Closed, it reads as jewellery. A cluster of rounded white diamonds sits on a sinuous, hand-carved gold band, shaped like a lily bud about to open. Inside is a vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre movement. It marks the first time Sarah Ysabel Narici, the British-Italian designer behind the New York label, has made a watch. “I love things that are a bit secretive and only the wearer understands,” she tells British .

The idea of a watch masquerading as jewellery has a long history. Secret watches had their moment in the 1920s and ’30s, when Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, among other storied jewellery maisons, hid dials beneath jewelled bracelets, brooches and pendants. Much of that depended on Jaeger-LeCoultre, thanks to its ever-smaller movements making disguise possible.

Bud watch, by Dyne.

Narici’s work occupies a curious space between antiquity and science fiction, with organic forms and distinctly alien overtones. Her designs bring to mind Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2010 Plato’s Atlantis collection, particularly its iridescent, otherworldly “Jellyfish” looks. It’s a fitting comparison for a designer who worked at McQueen early in her career. Her pieces have been worn by Charli XCX, Shygirl and Vittoria Ceretti. At this year’s Met Gala, Rihanna wore Dyne’s Elixia diamond ear cuff with her custom Maison Margiela look.

The budding watch makes its debut at this year’s Salon Art + Design fair in two versions, one in yellow gold and one in blackened gold, as part of Protection II, Narici’s latest body of work comprising one-of-a-kind and limited-edition jewellery. As its name suggests, it is the second chapter of her ongoing exploration of protection. In 2025, she explored the idea of shelter, drawing on the enclosed structure of a lily bud and the spacecraft interiors of Soviet architect Galina Balashova. This time, she’s interested in something less insular: the possibility that connecting with the outside world might make us feel safer. The buds, accordingly, have begun to open, presenting her with an unexpected design opportunity: concealing a miniature watch within the flower.

Immortal Jellyfish Earrings, by Dyne.

The watch belongs to Glow, one of two themes running through Protection II, inspired in part by Japanese contemporary artist Mariko Mori. Narici was particularly drawn to Mori’s use of luminous orbs and her exploration of the relationship between humanity, nature and the universe. Taken together, the references to Balashova and Mori, and the visual parallels with McQueen, suggest a recurring fascination with how we might inhabit and protect ourselves from an unfamiliar world. In the jewellery, that idea comes through an unusual choice of stone: diamond cabochons.

Unlike the faceted diamonds we’re accustomed to seeing in high jewellery, cabochons have smooth, rounded surfaces. Narici first encountered them five or six years ago, but it wasn’t until she was researching Mori’s luminous orbs that she discovered exceptionally clear, colourless cabochons that won her over.

Twin Bud Ring, by Dyne.

She has always preferred diamonds with a little more character to perfectly white stones. Here, though, light was the point. “How the light behaved in these orbs was really important for me,” she says. She imagined them on rings, casting fragile halos around the fingers. Graded D to F, at the top of the colour scale, the diamonds total more than 11 carats and were individually hand-carved for the watch. The contrast with last year’s bud designs is deliberate: those featured sharp, reverse-set diamonds that pointed outward, a way of keeping the world at bay. These are altogether softer.

For the watchmaking side of things, Dyne enlisted the help of a specialist in Sotheby’s watch department, who helped source the vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre movements. A specially hand-carved sapphire crystal on the reverse of each watch offers a glimpse of the mechanics within.

The approach is jewellery first, and Narici imagines the watch’s eventual owner in the same way. “I don’t think they need to be a watch fanatic to buy this,” she says. “I think this is just something that will delight someone who wants a really gorgeous bracelet.”