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Concepto Marks 20 Years of Movement Making SJX Watches
Jacob & Co. tapped Concepto Jul 10, 2026

Concepto Marks 20 Years of Movement Making

One of the leading names in movement development, Concepto marks its 20th year in 2026. Concepto’s founder, Valérien Jaquet, has led the company since its founding in 2006, advised by his father, Jean-Pierre Jaquet, a fabled watch entrepreneur with a controversial history. Now a vertically integrated manufacture capable of creating and producing almost every part of a watch, Concepto is one of the rare handful of movement suppliers that have survived and prospered over the economic cycles of the watch industry. Some of its peers have gone bust, like Christophe Claret, while others, like La Fabrique du Temps, have been acquired by the industry’s giants. From left: Valérien Jaquet, Jean-Pierre Jaquet, and Jacob Arabo. Image – Concepto The company released a statement for its 20th anniversary that reveals some interesting facts about a little-known but crucial aspect of the industry — the specialist suppliers that feed watch brands with movements. Concepto remains a family business boasting some impressive numbers: according to the company, last year’s sales exceeded CHF60 million while output was some 30,000 movements, including about 1,100 tourbillon calibres. According to Concepto, its client list exceeds 100 brands. The list includes names large and small — the firm helped Bulgari set the record for the world’s thinnest tourbillon, while Jacob & Co. tapped Concepto for the V-16 engine automaton in the Bugatti Tourbillon wristwatch. Even Bugatti itself turn...

Frederique Constant Introduces New GMTs Inspired by Classic Teak Boats Worn & Wound
Frederique Constant Introduces New GMTs Inspired Jul 8, 2026

Frederique Constant Introduces New GMTs Inspired by Classic Teak Boats

Good things are worth the wait, according to Frederique Constant. Every two years, the Geneva-based watchmaker releases a new collector’s piece in their sought-after Classics Runabout collection, which represents, according to the brand, the combination of Genevan craftsmanship and Italian nautical influence. The 2026 model has been, of course, highly-anticipated; the Classics Runabout Automatic GMT represents a new chapter in Frederique Constant’s celebrated line.  The new GMT model, presented in collaboration with the Riva Historical Society, brings a 42mm footprint and two colorways: deep blue and teak-brown. Both models and their aesthetics are inspired by boats restored by the Riva Historical Society, and come with a miniature replica of said boat. The polished stainless steel case features three-part construction, and a midrange thickness of 12.85mm, giving it a decently chunky presence on the wrist. Still, the larger size is deceptive, given the bezel-less design; the GMT instead features an outer 60-second track, and a center 24-hour disk, giving it a filled-out look that slims the watch down visually. Arabic numerals appear at 12, 3, and 9 o’clock, and hand-applied indexes fill in the remainder of the hour markers, with a date window nestled at 6 o’clock. What results is a balanced dial that feels both busy and calm, given the limited color pallet, with blue and brown dial options both rounded out by beige-gold numerals and text details. All hands and ind...

Hands-On: The Greubel Forsey Balancier 3 Blue And An Intro To Bonniksen Hodinkee
Greubel Forsey Balancier 3 Blue Jul 7, 2026

Hands-On: The Greubel Forsey Balancier 3 Blue And An Intro To Bonniksen

Double tourbillons, quadruple tourbillons, movements assembled with such three-dimensional ambition that they sit like sci-fi architecture on the wrist, every time I have a Greubel Forsey in hand, I'm reminded just how much the brand operates in its own lane. Yet there has always been something faintly contradictory about the Balancier 3, the model the brand first introduced in 2023 as its most moderate, most structurally legible entry point. With three bridges, a clean balance, no tourbillon, and no theatre, the Balancier 3 on paper is reserved. And yet my first thought with this recently released version on the wrist is that even a restrained Greubel Forsey is a startling object. Balanced beautifully between spotlighting its technicality and marrying that with a new execution, this might be the brand's simplest watch on paper, but it is not, by any reasonable measure, a simple watch. The Balancier 3 has been with us for three years now, and with this latest edition, the large central bridge has been hand-frosted across its entire curved surface. The result is a deep, matte texture, the kind of pronounced surface that a machine couldn't lay down convincingly on a shape this complex, running from the edge of the movement between one and two o'clock down to the seconds between seven and eight. Around it, the balance and barrel bridges remain in a bright, polished titanium, producing an incredibly captivating contrast of reflection and depth. Then there is the blue, worked i...

First Look - New Iterations of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding 34.5mm, in Burgundy and Gold Monochrome
Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding 34.5mm Jul 7, 2026

First Look - New Iterations of the Vacheron Constantin Overseas Self-Winding 34.5mm, in Burgundy and Gold

Vacheron Constantin’s Overseas collection traces its origins to the 222 of 1977, one of the key icons of the slim, integrated luxury sports watch genre alongside the Royal Oak and Nautilus. Ever evolving, the collection was relaunched as the Overseas in 1996 and entered its third phase in 2016. Now a well-established family of sporty, […]

Studio Underd0g Updates their Spin on the Field Watch with the 02SERIES GEN2 Worn & Wound
Ming Jul 6, 2026

Studio Underd0g Updates their Spin on the Field Watch with the 02SERIES GEN2

In our over-saturated world of often austere dive watches and overwrought Explorer-likes, Studio Underd0g’s lineup is a continued breath of fresh, colorful air. The British brand’s signature style takes playful color schemes and theming, and applies them to rock-solid mechanical underpinnings to create a series of sporty timepieces that are instantly distinguishable from anything else on the market. Their 02SERIES of field watches, originally launched in 2023, has proven massively popular, with its “floating” numerals and deliciously bright seven-layer dials, topped off with a sapphire disc for depth effect. Joining that line is the GEN2 wave, which sees two new colorways, a slimmer case design, and some more mechanical tricks. The GEN2 is housed in a familiar 316L stainless steel case, slimmed down to 11.5mm in thickness, a 37.5mm diameter measurement, and a 18mm lug width. This makes it, deceptively, slightly bigger in diameter than the original 02SERIES watches, but noticeably thinner, giving it a lighter profile on the wrist despite the size difference. Inside beats the stalwart Sellita SW200-2 M manual-winding movement with hacking, though the power reserve has also been tinkered with, now offering 63 hours of off-the-wrist time before the hands stop. The two-part case construction, screw-down case back with jellyfish motif, and signed crown add touches of refinement to the otherwise fairly simple 02SSERIES GEN2 watches, and all come with a matching, colorway-...

Introducing: The Anoma A1 Prehistoric Hodinkee
Anoma Jul 6, 2026

Introducing: The Anoma A1 Prehistoric

What We Know Matteo Violet Vianello found the idea for his newest watch while standing in a room full of prehistoric tools. At the Centre Pompidou's Brancusi exhibition in Paris a couple of years back, Vianello, the man behind Anoma, saw the sculptor's collection of primitive tools and artifacts, which stopped him—and stayed with him. That visit became the starting point for the A1 Prehistoric, the latest limited run built on Anoma's signature triangular case. The case itself is hand-chiseled 316L stainless steel, a five-hour process undertaken by Steven Brunel, a French engraver whose work has been exhibited at the Louvre. Brunel works out of a workshop in Mornand-en-Forez, a village of about 500 people in the Loire region. The buckle receives the same treatment. Because the chiseling is done entirely by hand, Anoma says no two pieces will be identical. The dial carries the process further. Roughly 600 individual lines are cut by hand into a brass base in a sunburst pattern, then finished in a dark anthracite color meant to recall the look of worked stone or flint. Specs remain close to the standard A1: the case measures 39mm by 38mm, wearing closer to 37mm thanks to its lugless, triangular shape, with a 9.45mm thickness. Inside is the Swiss automatic Sellita SW100, the same movement Anoma has used across its lineup, running in a case rated to 50 meters of water resistance. The watch comes on a grey-grained Italian leather strap. Anoma will build 100 examples of the A1 ...

First Look - The New, Summer-Inspired IWC Ingenieur Automatic 35 Pool Monochrome
IWC Ingenieur Automatic 35 Pool Jul 6, 2026

First Look - The New, Summer-Inspired IWC Ingenieur Automatic 35 Pool

IWC’s Ingenieur tool watch, introduced in the mid-1950s, was specifically designed to handle magnetic environments thanks to its soft-iron cage. However, in 1976, the classic round watch fell into the hands of Gérald Genta, who transformed it into an integrated, anti-magnetic tool watch known as the Ingenieur SL Jumbo. After several remakes, the Ingenieur finally […]

In Depth: Patek Philippe Star Caliber 2000 SJX Watches
Vacheron Constantin Jul 6, 2026

In Depth: Patek Philippe Star Caliber 2000

The Star Caliber 2000 occupies a peculiar position in the history of grand complications. It was never the most complicated watch in the world. At its debut it ranked fourth — behind Patek Philippe’s own Calibre 89 and Graves Supercomplication, and the Leroy 01 — and in the quarter-century since, the complexity record has moved further still, most notably to Vacheron Constantin. The complication arms race the Calibre 89 inadvertently triggered ran its full course, and the Star Caliber 2000 was never part of it. What it did instead was something harder to measure and, as it turns out, more durable. It demonstrated that the tradition’s inheritance of unsolved problems — the desynchronised equation, the imperfect melody, and the moon exiled from the sky — was not inevitable. That each problem had a solution. And that the solutions, taken together, produced a different kind of watch: not necessarily more complicated but more coherent; not a larger accumulation of independent mechanisms but an integrated instrument in which every display refers to a single source of truth. The arms race In early 1989, as Switzerland prepared to celebrate the most complicated portable timepiece ever made, the man who had just assembled it returned to his bench. Paul Buclin had spent years assembling and setting up the Calibre 89 by hand — 1,728 components driving 33 complications. Weighing most of a kilogram, the watch itself required its own carrying case. The watch was a monument...

American Independent 1776 Atelier Debuts the Liberty 250 SJX Watches
Hamilton closed their American factories Jul 3, 2026

American Independent 1776 Atelier Debuts the Liberty 250

Texas-based independent 1776 Atelier commemorates America’s 250th year with the Liberty 250, a rose gold skeleton watch with sharp anglage on a movement that is overwhelmingly American made, from the main plate to the free-sprung balance. Initial thoughts The American watch industry transformed from a cottage industry heavily reliant on European imports to the world’s largest watch manufacturer in just a few decades, concentrated around a handful of massive, and capital intensive, factories. This meant that when Waltham, Elgin, and Hamilton closed their American factories in 1957, 1968, and 1969, respectively, the entire domestic watchmaking disappeared almost overnight. 1776 Atelier is one of a handful of independents trying to rebuild it. Founder Jason Lu is a Texan technology executive turned self-taught watchmaker who cut his teeth restoring pocket watches as a hobby. He was later mentored by Donat Kornagel of DK Precision — a prolific German movement customiser — and took anglage-guru Philippe Narbel‘s full week masterclass. Co-founder Zach Smith — WOSTEP-trained watchmaker and KERN-whisperer — also founded Hour Precision, one of the few American component suppliers. Two members of Hour Precision’s fleet of KERN CNC mills Together, their approach is antithetical to the so-called “American system” of industrial watchmaking, which failed in the US but lives on in Switzerland and Asia. Instead, they build watches in small numbers by labour-intensive ...

First Look - The Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve Now in Light Blue Monochrome
Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Jul 2, 2026

First Look - The Longines Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve Now in Light Blue

Longines revived the Conquest Heritage Central Power Reserve in 2024, bringing back one of the brand’s most original mechanical displays, a patented solution first introduced in 1959 that shows the remaining energy stored in the mainspring with rotating discs. Released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Conquest collection, the model successfully combined faithful vintage […]

The Business of Watches Podcast: Roy Davidoff (Geneva Vintage Watch Dealer And Collector) Hodinkee
Jacob & Co. before becoming Jul 1, 2026

The Business of Watches Podcast: Roy Davidoff (Geneva Vintage Watch Dealer And Collector)

Roy Davidoff has spent a life keeping up with the time. Born into a family of jewelers and a youth spent in Geneva, followed by a move to Miami, watches have been a constant throughout his professional career.  Roy Davidoff (Photo Courtesy Cartier).  A return to Switzerland saw stints at brands including Bovet and Jacob & Co., before becoming a dealer of vintage and pre-owned with his brother and the launch of their business  - Roy & Sacha Davidoff SA - more than a decade ago. The fraternal duo gained prominence as dealers and experts regarding the Omega Speedmaster - a specialized section of the vintage market that has most certainly had its ups and downs. A respected name and authority in the industry, Davidoff most recently served as a jury member for The Cartier Prize For Watchmaking Talents of Tomorrow, where, alongside fellow judges including Kari Voutilainen, were tasked with making selections for creations from European watchmaking students who were chosen for their technical and artistic interpretations reconsidering different ways to tell time. Davidoff's role as a dealer and collector demands deep knowledge and constantly taking the pulse of the secondary market, shifting tastes, and changing demands. At the high-end and elite level, the market has changed, Davidoff says, as many collectors seek assurance and certainty in modern, independent brands and watchmakers. He's candid, enthusiastic, and dedicated to the Swiss industry, where he's found a place amon...

First Look - The New Frederique Constant Classics Runabout Automatic GMT Monochrome
Frederique Constant Classics Runabout Automatic GMT Jul 1, 2026

First Look - The New Frederique Constant Classics Runabout Automatic GMT

Frederique Constant presented the first Runabout editions in 2009, and the partnership with the Riva Historical Society was formalised in 2013 to help preserve and celebrate one of Italy’s most enduring symbols of la dolce vita. The collection has become a biennial event, paying tribute to the wooden speedboats that defined the glamour of the […]

First Look - The New Czapek Antarctique with a Frozen Meteor Dial in Two Case Sizes Monochrome
Czapek Antarctique Jun 30, 2026

First Look - The New Czapek Antarctique with a Frozen Meteor Dial in Two Case Sizes

Launched in 2020, the Antarctique is Czapek’s distinctive take on the integrated luxury sports watch powered by the brand’s first in-house calibre. Although the Antarctique has embraced complications, the go-to model is the more straightforward time-only reference, often featuring textured dials, like the successful Passage de Drake editions. Following the Antarctique Green Meteor, Czapek proposes […]

Fratello On Air: What If We Started Collecting Watches Today? Fratello
Jun 30, 2026

Fratello On Air: What If We Started Collecting Watches Today?

Welcome to another episode of Fratello On Air! This week, we ponder what would be different if we started collecting watches today. We’re not allowing ourselves to roll in with all of the wisdom and hard knocks we’ve encountered. It would be a fresh start. Of course, we start with some other topics, per our […] Visit Fratello On Air: What If We Started Collecting Watches Today? to read the full article.

Hands On: Hermès Cape Cod Titanium SJX Watches
Hermes Jun 30, 2026

Hands On: Hermès Cape Cod Titanium

For those headed down the cape this summer, Hermès has unveiled an upscaled Cape Cod in brushed titanium. In some ways, it represents something of an ‘Offshore’ moment for the Cape Cod — a bolder, sportier version of one of the brand’s most emblematic models. While Henri d’Origny’s original 1991 design has evolved over the years to become more of a unisex concept, the latest execution is more overtly masculine than any prior variant in both size and finish. Initial thoughts Watches like the Cape Cod illustrate the strides taken by a handful of so-called ‘fashion brands’ that have successfully crossed over into watchmaking in the past few decades — Hermès is a poster child of this movement. The brand’s original designs — especially its emphasis on details like typography — and high-end movements have enabled it to make significant inroads with serious collectors, to say nothing of its broader success with its primary clientele. Despite the light weight of the 41 mm titanium case, the upscaled Cape Cod has substantial wrist presence on account of its design, which emphasises the lug-to-lug distance — perhaps a bit too much. But thanks in part to its monochromatic case and dial — the vivid orange seconds hand is the only pop of colour — the personality of the Cape Cod transforms easily with a strap change. Despite the strength of the Hermès brand and the obvious quality of the Cape Cod, the watch is priced well at US$7,900. That’s significan...

D1 Milano and Artist Peter Tarka Collaborate on an “Impossible” Watch Design Worn & Wound
Ming watch brands may have Jun 29, 2026

D1 Milano and Artist Peter Tarka Collaborate on an “Impossible” Watch Design

Thoughts and attitudes toward Kickstarter funded watch projects have shifted pretty dramatically over the years. It used to be incredibly common for microbrands to break on Kickstarter with community funded projects, and indeed some of our favorite brands trace their roots to a Kickstarter campaign. But as the saying goes, one bad apple spoils the bunch, and a very small percentage of opportunists, hype artists, or some combination thereof among the larger group of up and coming watch brands may have helped to contribute to an environment where skepticism about the motives of a brand prevailed over enthusiasm. There are still cool projects on Kickstarter, but it’s no longer the dedicated proving ground it once was, and it has increasingly become a platform for established brands to introduce products that might not fit into their normal catalog or release cycle.  And that’s how we find an unlikely Kickstarter campaign from the Italian brand D1 Milano. They’ve been around since 2013, so they’re hardly new to the watch enthusiast stage, yet find themselves on Kickstarter with a project that is a little outside their usual scope. The Impossible Watch is a collaboration with 3D artist Peter Tarka, and based on a retro-futuristic 3D composition by the artist that is being framed as “technically impossible in its original form.”  I’ll be honest here and say that I’m not sure how “impossible” this idea ever really could have been, as the watch itself is, whe...

Hands On: Greubel Forsey Balancier QM SJX Watches
Greubel Forsey Balancier QM Partly Jun 29, 2026

Hands On: Greubel Forsey Balancier QM

Partly a new watch, partly a manifesto, the Greubel Forsey (GF) Balancier QM inaugurates the brand’s Qualité Musée (QM) designation, which codifies its approach to world-class construction and finishing. Building on the Balancier Contemporain platform, GF has succeeded in refining its ‘entry level’ time-only watch, which comes in a 39.6 mm white gold case and is limited to 33 pieces. Initial thoughts The Balancier QM feels immediately familiair. It should, since it borrows much of its architecture from the recently-discontinued Balancier Contemporain. But what it lacks in novelty, it makes up in execution. In fact, the brand could hardly have picked a better way to inaugurate its official quality standard, dubbed Qualité Musée (QM). Without complications or chronometric fanfare, the Balancier QM’s design puts finishing at the forefront. The self-proclaimed ‘museum quality’ standard would sound brash coming from most brands, but it feels reasonable coming from GF. This ambition is evident throughout the Balancier QM. Even if the branding were blinded, the quality of make will be obvious to future generations of restorers, who will be able to tell immediately that the Balancier QM was never a commodity item. Even if they miss the escape wheel, which is polished on both sides, the artfully rounded pallet stones should catch their attention. On a technical level, the Balancier QM is an evolution of the Contemporain and doesn’t break much new ground. It’s st...

Hands-On: Re-Defining the Hype of Quiet Luxury with the Moser Streamliner Minis Worn & Wound
Jun 26, 2026

Hands-On: Re-Defining the Hype of Quiet Luxury with the Moser Streamliner Minis

There was one particular moment the Moser Streamliner clicked for me. I was fresh off my first enameling apprenticeship in the summer of 2023. At Geneva Watch Days, Moser was previewing some new models set to launch at Dubai Watch Week later that year, and one of those models was the Streamliner Small Seconds Aqua Blue. As a refresher, this is a standard mid-size 39mm build, but most importantly, it introduced an enamel dial to the collection for the first time. Let’s be clear, this isn’t any ordinary enamel dial. It starts with a hand-hammered solid gold base topped with three varying pigments of translucent aqua-blue enamel applied over the course of a whopping 12 firings to achieve the unique fume effect radiating from light to dark around the periphery. The result of the intricate process creates a visual range much broader than aqua-blue alone, evoking bright tones of turquoise and deep tones of violet in high and low light. Having just come off a week of training in an enameling atelier on far simpler designs, my degree of admiration and respect for the brand grew tenfold. This wasn’t just a beautifully streamlined (and perfectly named) take on the classic integrated bracelet sport watch – this was a true way of making a stainless steel sport watch luxurious, artisanal, and dare I say elegant. From that point forward, I started to develop a bit of an obsession with the Streamliner, and it began to inch toward my grail list of dream models. However, there’s ...

Brew Introduces the Metric Copper, their Latest Manually Wound Watch Worn & Wound
Brew Introduces Jun 25, 2026

Brew Introduces the Metric Copper, their Latest Manually Wound Watch

Is there a brand that more completely blurs the line between the definition of “microbrand” and “independent brand” than Brew? It depends, of course, on how you define each term. If a brand needs to exist in the haute horlogerie space and craft movements or other components from scratch in an artisanal way to be considered “independent,” then Brew will probably never qualify under those terms. But if your criteria is an intentional, well defined point of view on watchmaking with a clear, instantly recognizable design language, all executed according to the singular creative vision of the brand’s founder, Brew easily fits. I’ve never been one to see microbrand as a pejorative or diminishing label, but in Brew’s case I might argue that it doesn’t necessarily reflect the brand’s growth over the last decade, and the widespread recognition and popularity they’ve found outside of the enthusiast space.  Importantly, Brew continues to find interesting ways to iterate on the themes established since the brand’s founding by Jonathan Ferrer, the founder and designer behind the brand. It would be easy for Brew to simply pump out new colorways for successful models, but instead they’ve taken steps (sometimes, admittedly, slower than some collectors and enthusiasts would like) to gradually expand what people think of when they consider what Brew actually is. To that end, their latest watch is a new version of their manually wound Metric (with a Swiss movemen...

Hands On: Girard-Perregaux Laureato Three Gold Bridges SJX Watches
Girard-Perregaux Laureato Three Gold Bridges Jun 24, 2026

Hands On: Girard-Perregaux Laureato Three Gold Bridges

Girard-Perregaux (GP) closed out the Laureato’s 50th anniversary last year by launching the Laureato Three Gold Bridges, 18 years after the ‘three gold bridges’ format was first applied to the brand’s signature sports watch. Available with our without a diamond-set bezel, the Laureato Three Gold Bridges signals the brands emergent ambitions. Initial thoughts Few brands can lay claim to their own distinctive movement architecture, and GP is right to make the ‘three gold bridges’ format a pillar of the brand’s resurgence. While the brand did not have a monopoly of this format in the pocket watch era, the appealing architecture has been synonymous with GP since the formula was first applied to a wristwatch in the 1990s. To look at the Laureato Three Gold Bridges is to understand how a mechanical watch works, and that’s a key aspect of its appeal. The layout clearly separates the major functions, with the power source, the going train, and the regulating organ supported by dedicated bridges front and back. The sporty Laureato case and sturdy H-link bracelet are secondary to the spectacular movement, but the hard-wearing stainless steel construction does a good job of making the haute horlogerie calibre wearable on a daily basis, even if the 30 m water resistance rating trails competitors. The gem-set model illustrated is priced at CHF219,000, while the unadorned variant with a simpler white gold bezel retails for CHF162,000. This pricing slightly undercuts tha...

Introducing: Amida Digitrend OSII Black - Now With Lume (Live Pics) Hodinkee
Jun 23, 2026

Introducing: Amida Digitrend OSII Black - Now With Lume (Live Pics)

What We Know Amida keeps finding new ways to update and reinvent the classic Digitrend driving watch. When we last heard from the brand, they had fashioned a model inspired by the NASA space shuttle missions, a timepiece that demonstrated the range of design and development possibilities of the Digitrend format, which first debuted in the pre-shuttle era way back in 1976 at Basel.  Now, it seems, Amida has seen the light. Or rather, it's seen the way to add luminescence material to an open-worked version of the digital jump hour timepiece with the Digitrend OSII Black. Featuring an open sapphire hood showing the DLC-coated workings of the movement and Amida's in-house developed jump hour module, the new model uses an LRD or 'light reflecting display' utilizing prismatic technology that illuminates the digital numerals via Super-LumiNova, for the first time.  The Digitrend has never been a watch for everyone. It's quirky, and its time-reading display is unusual, to say the least. But the addition of lume certainly adds to its functionality and represents a welcome upgrade for this new edition that is limited to 150 pieces and goes on sale today on Amida's website.  The brand and co-founder Matthieu Allègre say the ongoing improvements, revisions, and tweaks to the Digitrend model line shouldn't be seen as merely more refined or robust versions of the original. Rather, they're designing and producing the model as it would have evolved had the original brand not been am...

Textile Textures: Seiko Brings ‘Tomioka Silk’ to the Presage SJX Watches
Seiko  Brings ‘Tomioka Silk’ Jun 23, 2026

Textile Textures: Seiko Brings ‘Tomioka Silk’ to the Presage

Seiko’s Presage series has long been the brand’s standard-bearer for affordable dress watches, and the latest Presage Classic Series ‘Tomioka Silk’ celebrates Japan’s 19th-century silk industry, which earned a UNESCO World Heritage designation in 2014. With an easy-wearing 38 mm case and an enthusiast-oriented no-date format, the ‘Tomioka Silk’ collection spans four colourways including an on-trend pistachio green flavour dubbed wakatake-iro. The embossed dial pattern results in a silk-like texture shimmer Initial thoughts Seiko’s Presage Classic Series has been treating watch collectors to a tour of historical Japanese hand crafts, with dials made from materials like Arita porcelain and urushi lacquer. The ‘Tomioka Silk’ collection toes a similar line, but uses a clever optical illusion to simulate the shimmer of the region’s famous silk more convincingly than past editions. While real silk dials do exist, they are understandably uncommon. Seiko’s time-tested approach to textile-textured dials involves embossing a metal dial with a pattern that, at arm’s length, resembles the source material, such as linen, or in this case, Tomioka silk. HCC002 Most watch brands would call this concentric multi-lobed motif ‘guilloche‘, but Seiko correctly avoids this term, choosing instead to emphasise the silk-like visual presentation of the stamped pattern. The dial quality is quite good for the price, which barely breaks four figures. I understand Seiko’...