De Rijke & Co. is a Dutch microbrand that doesn’t have a huge catalogue of watches, making each of their releases more special. Their previous collection, the Amalfi, has always been one of my favourite motoring themed watches for its innovative case with rotating display. Now though they’ve released a new collection with a stunning rectangular design and stone dials, the Capri.
It’s a beautifully minimalist design with a 28.5mm x 38mm x 6.5mm case in steel that features a full width dial framed on the top and bottom by smooth, brushed bands that contain the Capri’s hidden lugs. There are three versions of the watch and across the three there are two crown designs. One of them, the Onyx edition, has a squat onion crown while the other two versions have a taller, squarer design.
Unsurprisingly, the Capri Onyx edition features an onyx stone dial, smooth and shiny like glass. It’s the most minimalist of the three designs, highlighting the skeletonised hour and minute hands and clean, elegant logo and ‘Dutch crafted’ inscription. Second is the Black Aventurine, which has the characteristic sparkles of aventurine. Last but by no means least is the Capri Blue, which is the most distinct of the three featuring additional hour markers and a small seconds subdial on its smooth lacquered dial.
For a small, rectangular watch it wouldn’t be surprising for it to house a quartz movement due to the size limitations and accessibility but De Rijke & Co. have gone all out with one of the most prestigious manual movements used by microbrands at the moment. If that description doesn’t give it away, it’s the La Joux-Perret D100 with 50-hour power reserve. Between this movement, the semi-precious dials and minimalist case design, this is a fabulous little watch.
At a price of €2,195 (approx. £1,920) it’s definitely a luxury watch but I wouldn’t have been surprised if you told me it was £500-£1,000 higher. That said, it remains fairly exclusive with each version of the watch limited to 50 pieces, so just 150 watches total. For a watch as handsome as the Capri, that’s not many at all.
Price and Specs:
La Joux-Perret calibre D101, manual winding (Onyx and Aventurine)
Hours, minutes (Onyx and Aventurine)
More details at De Rijke & Co.
Not a name that I am familiar with, but one that I will now appreciate.
The onyx version with onion crown is just breathtakingly beautiful, and is one of the nicest “true” dress watches I have seen in a long time. The skeletonized hands just (quietly) shout art deco, (which is a style that floats my boat). The simplicity of the style with hidden lugs is just so streamlined like a 1930’s luxury ocean liner.
As indicated in the review, it’s sleek and slim profile almost dictates the use of a quartz movement, but no, a manual version, – who needs this to be an automatic watch, nothing wrong with a manual movement IMO, particularly when powering this lovely watch.
Definitely one to consider adding to a collection, just a pity about the limited availability.