Why have one dial when you can have three? If the mundane uniformity of contemporary timepieces has all got a bit much (or not enough), take a look at the watch in these striking images. And look again. This is the latest release from the pioneers at Ressence, who aim to make your piece of personal time-keeping jewellery to be that bit different to anyone else’s. The model you see here, the Ressence Type 7, is the newest and most unusual of the lot.
Ressence is the brainchild of Belgian timepiece innovator Benoît Mintiens who decided back in 2010 that the conventional automatic watch could do with a bit of a clean-sheet 21st century overhaul. His home city of Antwerp produced, after all, the avant garde fashion designers Dries Van Noten, Ann Demeulemeester and Raf Simons among others.
In that Antwerp avant garde spirit, Mintiens decided that his watches would have three dials and that these dials would rotate around each other, floating in silicon-based oil just below the sapphire glass for maximum visibility. Ressence watches might take a while getting used to, but aficionados report that beyond that you’ll wonder why all high-end watches aren’t made like this.
For the Type 7, Ressence have for the first time designed a fully integrated bracelet. And not - of course - just any bracelet. The Ressence bracelet is, like the Type 7 itself, crafted from Grade 5 titanium for an unbeatable combination of light weight and toughness. Beyond fitting the watch using the links, there are also five levels of “micro-adjustment” so you’ll just about forget you’re wearing your Type 7. Until someone asks to see it.
Ressence Type 7: The tech
There is way more technology in the Type 7 than in the average high-end timepiece. Ressence emphasise features you’d never thought of, such as a hydraulic shock absorber, a bellows system to compensate for changes of temperature in the silicon oil, and a built-in thermometer to let you know you’re within the acceptable range for the watch to operate. Since that’s between -5° C and 55° C, you’re pretty much covered from deepest winter to Sahara summer.
At the heart of the Type 7 is a bespoke version of the company’s ROCS, standing for Ressence Orbital Convex System, a unique mechanical module which Ressence technicians hand build in house. Magnets drive the rotation of the dials, so that each check of the time is almost like looking at a personal artwork, even if Mintiens might insist that this is a form follows function approach.
Pricing for such innovation was never going to be cheap. Ressence say each of their watches requires "superlative attention to detail and craftsmanship” by hugely-experienced watch makers. These are high-end pieces of gentlemen’s jewellery, the equivalent of - and ideal companion to - a Savile Row suit. In that company £33,362 doesn’t seem so steep. We’ll have ours in classic Night Blue, please.
Next up: These are the best watch brands to buy vintage.
