RESSENCE Watches is a relatively young brand in the watch industry and took many by surprise when they unveiled their prototypes at Baselworld in 2010. Benoit Mintiens, the founder and creative mind of RESSENCE Watches had a simple concept in mind when designing his watches which was to keep users at the core of his design. RESSENCE watches are…
With Ressence, everything started with a style, a shape and a perception of the watch that were rather different from the traditional codes of watchmaking. Very round, almost void of case, smooth, without crown, almost entirely focused on the dial and the display, this concept used on the Type 1, and even emphasized on the Type 3, was the hallmark of the brand. Then came the Type 5, a dive watch which combined the Orbital Convex display with what was a proper materialized case. Today, Ressence comes with its fourth watch, the Type 12 (or Type 1 “Squared”), less dematerialized and more horological than before, in an assertive cushion-shaped case. Still, the fantastic “Beyond Hands” display of the brand has been kept.
Ressence has made a name for itself with minimalist designs backed by ingenious mechanisms to display the time – including its signature oil-filled planetary display – but its latest wristwatch dials back the complexity to prove less is more. Slated to be launched at SIHH 2017 next week, the Type 12 “Squared” is based on the original Type 1, the […]
Today, our readers on the other side of the Atlantic are celebrating Thanksgiving, and while this day doesn’t make a lot of sense for those in Old Europe or Asia, it however opens the festive season. And who says festive season says Christmas and our usual buying guides – and also an overview of the best watches we’ve seen this year. After long debates and fights at the Monochrome-Watches headquarters (not literally, no worries), here are our 5 Best Dive / Sports Watches of 2016, for all budgets and tastes.
When it comes to unique displays of the time, you though you’ve already seen everything: wandering hours, chains, magnetic balls, liquid-filled capillary, rotating prisms… Then, in terms of complications and construction of the overall watch, you thought the same. Well, you’d better look at this watch, the Ressence Type 3, simply because it has both a very special display and an almost unique construction. Certainly, the Type 3 doesn’t have the visual flamboyance of a MB&F, the bold high-tech design of an URWERK or the apparent complexity of an HYT. However, under this restrained attitude and this relative discretion hides a watch filled with oil and that does not use hands to display the time. And that makes the Ressence Type 3 very special to us.
Quill & Pad’s early 2016 Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève predictions in which the team picks favorites and explains why. In contention this year are the Tudor Black Bay Dark, the Eberhard & Co. Scafograf 300, Montblanc’s TimeWalker ExoTourbillon Minute Chronograph Limited Edition, the TAG Heuer Heuer Monza Chronograph, Ressence’s Type 5b, and the Ulysse Nardin Grand Deck Marine Tourbillon.
If you remember, back in December 2015, when Benoît Mintiens (the founder of Ressence) showed me the Ressence Type 5 for the first time, I actually ended my article with a wish to have this watch as my summer watch. The team of Ressence heard my wish and granted it so here we are, with my review of this great, sort of unique watch, which I’ve been wearing for an entire summer. Usually I tend to be rather technical and factual in my reviews, but here I’m going to be slightly more focused on the wearability and on the feelings, trying to position myself as the owner of this watch. Here are my thoughts after my summer with the Ressence Type 5 on the wrist.