Amida Digitrend OSII Black: The Revival Gets Darker, and Finally Gets Lume

The Amida Digitrend is a genuinely weird watch, and that's a compliment. It uses a horizontal digital display viewed through a prism, so the numerals appear to float inside the case. It was an audacious concept when Amida first launched it in 1976, and designer Matthieu Allègre along with Depancel founder Clément Meynier have been carefully expanding the modern revival since the brand returned in 2024. The latest piece is called the Digitrend OSII Black, and it pushes the formula in two specific directions: darker aesthetics and actual low-light legibility.

The lume addition might sound minor, but it's genuinely meaningful on a watch whose whole point is reading the time at a glance. Previous Digitrend models were daytime-only propositions in a practical sense. The OSII Black fixes that. Alongside the lume, everything gets the black treatment, case, dial architecture, and display, pulling the watch further into its own futuristic corner.

This isn't a ground-up redesign. It's an evolution of the OSII concept that's been part of the Digitrend lineage since the original 1976 era. But the combination of changes adds up to something that feels like a more complete version of what the watch always wanted to be.

What Actually Changed

The two headline updates are the blacked-out execution and the addition of luminous material to the display. The prism display on the Digitrend is the core mechanism: digits sit on a horizontal drum and are magnified and redirected toward the viewer through an angled prism, giving the time a floating, almost holographic quality. Adding lume to that system isn't trivial, and it's the kind of practical upgrade that makes a novelty watch into something you'd actually reach for in a dark restaurant or on a night drive.

The all-black case continues the direction Amida has been building toward, giving the watch a more assertive presence. The jump-hour complication remains, advancing the hour digit instantly at the top of each hour rather than crawling through a transition. It's a satisfying mechanical trick that pairs well with the digital display aesthetic.

Who This Watch Is For

You need to know what you're getting into with the Digitrend. It is not a subtle watch. The case shape is unusual, the display mechanism is unlike anything else on the market, and reading the time requires a half-second of orientation the first few times you wear it. That's part of the appeal for a certain kind of collector.

If you're drawn to 1970s avant-garde watchmaking, the kind of thinking that also produced the Enicar Sherpa Jet or the early LED and LCD experimentations, the Digitrend OSII Black sits squarely in that tradition. It's also the right watch if you've been watching the Digitrend revival and waiting for a version with more visual punch and real-world wearability.

• Jump-hour display via a horizontal drum and angled prism, giving digits a floating appearance
• Lume on the display, a first for the modern Digitrend revival
• Full black execution on case and dial elements
• Design by Matthieu Allègre, developed with Depancel's Clément Meynier
• Rooted in the original 1976 OSII concept, not a reinvention from scratch

How It Compares to Previous Digitrend Models

Amida has shown real range with the Digitrend platform. The NASA space shuttle-inspired model proved the design language could stretch into thematic territory without losing coherence. The OSII Black does something different: instead of expanding the concept outward, it deepens the core proposition. Darker, more legible, more confident.

The original OSII concept from 1976 was about pushing what a display watch could look like before quartz and LCD commoditized the whole category. The modern OSII Black respects that origin without being a museum piece. It's a functional, wearable watch that happens to look like nothing else in your collection.

Compared to the earlier revival models, the OSII Black feels like the most resolved version so far. The lume alone elevates it. If you passed on earlier Digitrends because they felt incomplete, this one deserves a second look.

The Specs at a Glance

The Amida Digitrend OSII Black is available now through Amida's official channels. If the brand keeps iterating at this pace, the Digitrend platform is shaping up to be one of the more interesting ongoing stories in independent watchmaking right now. Keep an eye on it.