Tobira Japanese Watch Face

WabiFace Tobira brings the leaf of an old temple gate, six brass bosses and all, to your Wear OS smartwatch.

⛩ A GATE LEAF, CUT ROUND
A tobira is the leaf of a gate. This one is cedar, weathered until the grain stands proud of the surface, held by two forged iron straps with square rivets driven through them. Six brass chibyo — the scalloped bosses a temple or castle gate carries — are applied across it in two rows of three, each a raised ring around a recessed metal floor. Off to one side an iron patch is riveted over a split in the boards. None of that has been cleaned up. A gate that was worth patching is a gate that was used, and the repair belongs to the object as much as the brass does.

⌚ SIX BOSSES, SIX RESERVES
Each of the six bosses holds a complication, sunk into the floor the brass surrounds. Every one is ring-capable: give a reserve a source that reports a goal and it draws a progress ring inside the boss, around the value. Battery does this out of the box; assign a step goal or an exercise ring and those fill too. These windows are generous — wide enough that even a five-figure step count clears the ring rather than crossing it.

✨ THE RUNNING LIGHT
A highlight travels the outer edge of the leaf, one full lap every minute. It reads the seconds the way light crosses timber, and it can be switched off for a still gate. The light is cut from the boards it runs over, so it stays the right colour whichever finish the gate is wearing.

🕐 THE TIME
Between the two rows of bosses the leaf carries nothing at all — a wide band of plain board, clear from edge to edge. The hour and minute sit on it with nothing behind them to read through, and that empty band is the reason this gate became a digital face.

📅 THE CALENDAR
Month and day, then the weekday, then the seconds, on one line under the time. The date and weekday share a switch because they are one reading; the seconds have their own.

🎨 FOUR FINISHES
Shiraki (bare cedar), Bengara (red ochre), Gunjo (azurite blue) and Kuro (black gate) — four finishes a gate of this kind actually wore. Only the boards change: the brass bosses, the iron straps, the square rivets and the patch are the same pixels in every one, the way a painted gate keeps its hardware in bare metal.

🖌 THREE INLAYS
Kin (gold), Shiro (lime white) and Gin (silver). One choice moves the time, the calendar, the seconds, the complication values and the goal rings together, so they can never drift apart — the way a single smith would have cut them all.

🌙 AMBIENT MODE
The boards fall away and the six bosses stay as thin lit rings, with a fine ring at the edge of the leaf and the hour redrawn among them, so the arrangement is still recognisable at a glance while the display is dimmed.

🎴 DETAILS
- A gate leaf kept at full resolution, split boards and all
- Two forged iron straps with square rivets, and a riveted patch left unmended
- Six scalloped brass bosses, each a complication that can carry a goal ring
- A band of plain board across the middle, wide enough to hold the hour on its own

🎴 MORE FROM WABIFACE
Kyoto, our free Japanese watch face: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.wabiface.kyoto

🌸 ABOUT WABIFACE
WabiFace is a collection of watch faces celebrating Japanese aesthetics — wabi-sabi, mono no aware, and the dignified passage of time.

Requires Wear OS 5 or later. Compatible with Pixel Watch, Galaxy Watch, and other Wear OS 5+ smartwatches.

Artwork created with AI assistance and reviewed by the developer.

Please check your watch OS version before purchasing.

For support: [email protected]
Website: https://wabiface.jp