Ressence has, thus far, announced that it will present three new models at this year’s Watches & Wonders in Geneva. The Type 1° Round has a new sleeker case design and two dial colour options. Type 8 gets a new Sage coloured dial.
Ressence – a portmanteau of ‘renaissance’ and ‘essence’ – is a relatively new watch brand based in Antwerp, Belgium. Founded in 2010 by Belgian industrial designer Benoît Mintiens, Ressence has quickly established itself as a highly admired brand in the luxury watch industry, thanks to its unique watch designs and technical excellence.
The brand’s USP is its patented time display system which inverts the traditional approach to telling time, where the dial is stationary while the hands move to tell time. In a Ressence timepiece, it is the dials and subdials that rotate while the hands are painted onto their surfaces. All of the graphical dials lie on one co-planar surface, very close under a sapphire glass, and are immersed in clear lubricating oil.
In addition to its unique and innovative approach to telling time, Ressence watches are also admired for their minimalistic, fluid designs. It also has several other patented innovations, such as a module that displays multiple time zones simultaneously to its credit.
Ressence watches are designed, engineered and tested in Antwerp, Belgium, but are manufactured in Fleurier, Switzerland. The brand currently offers six model collections – Type 1°, Type 12, Type 2, Type 3, Type 5 and Type 8.
The new Type 1 Round watch has been given a fresh redesign, resulting in a noticeably slimmer profile and smoother look and feel overall when compared to its 2014 predecessor. It has a convex German Silver dial, finished in either Black or Night Blue. It displays the hours, minutes, seconds, and day-of-week. The 42.7mm diameter case is grade five titanium, fastened with a leather strap and polished titanium ardillon buckle.
The Type 8 has a sleek, minimalist 42.9mm case, also crafted in grade five titanium. The tapered case design has a sandwich-style construction with a two-tone finish, showcasing both polished and satin finishing textures. The case has no apparent lugs, instead, the overall effect is a compact round watch, out of which the strap appears to grow.
Type 8 is minimalist in function as well, displaying just the hours and minutes. The first Type 8 had a Cobalt Blue coloured dial. This year’s model, the second in this collection, comes with a contrasting Sage Green dial with a metallic matt finish. It has a grey leather strap, with a polished Titanium ardillon buckle.
Despite having a complex mechanism and a case filled with lubricating oil, both models are surprisingly lightweight. With the strap included, both watches weigh in at 42 grams.
