The 1970s was a notorious decade in the history of watchmaking, afflicted as it was by the ‘Quartz Crisis’. It was a period of time when new, cheap, reliable and accurate electronic movements almost spelt the death of traditional, watchmaking – resulting in the dissolution of hundreds of brands who were unable to keep up. One such brand was Monceau, who are today revived with the launch of the Monceau Model 01, available via Kickstarter until 15th June.
In style, the Monceau Model 01 pays tribute to the sports watches of the 70s and 80s that proved resilient to the Quartz Crisis. That means its 39mm steel case features broad, flat surfaces with wide facets around the edges creating a barrel-like (aka tonneau) shape. The lugs lead seamlessly into the steel bracelet, giving the impression that it’s fully integrated, though it is actually interchangeable, giving you alternative options.
For the dial, they’ve opted for a three-dimensional sand wave motif. A pattern that has seen increasing popularity in recent years, especially around the independent scene with watches like the Christopher Ward x Oracle Time Dune Shoreline (you know we can’t avoid mentioning it whenever we can, come on). There are four versions of the Model 01 dial available. Antarctic presents it in white, Atacama in grey, Icelandic in black and lastly Riyadh in red, inspired by famous beaches and deserts around the world.
Ensuring good readability, the hour markers are made from solid blocks of Super-LumiNova, standing out against the dial and glowing in low light conditions. They’re paired with angular hands that also have a strip of lume down the centre. Completing the display is a date window at 6 o’clock, which they’ve gone to the effort of colour matching to the dials, a detail that even some major brands overlook. It helps the window blend into the rest of the design so that it doesn’t distract from the primary sand motif.
Beneath the dial is the Sellita SW210-1 Elaboré, a manual-winding movement with a 42-hour power reserve. It’s visible through an exhibition caseback, where you can see that it’s finished in relatively understated fashion, which gives it a sort of practical but also classy appearance. Around the caseback you can see engravings marking its 200m water resistance rating as well as some of the movement specs such as frequency and the Incabloc shock resistance.
The Monceau Model 01 is available from their Kickstarter page with an initial price of £679, which runs until 15th June. For a versatile daily wear sports watch with a funky dial, that’s really solid value. Personally, I do like all four colours though with the coming heat of the summer, there’s something fun about the red sand of the Riyadh edition that stands out.
Price and Specs:
More details at Monceau.
I find myself really at odds with my normal view of integrated bracelet watches, this one is very nice, it doesn’t stand out as being too chunky with poor integration to the case as is the norm. Very nice, very well executed, probably because the links of the bracelet are smoothly jointed, rather than looking akin to a blacksmith bodged-together chain.
I’m not a great fan of boldly coloured dials (yes, I do like coloured dials to wear with clothing choices, but in a restrained manner), the Riyadh Red hits the restrained colour button. My only minimal criticism, is the copy of the Christopher Ward dune waveform dial pattern, for me (whilst I do like CW Dune dial), I would have done something slightly different and unique with this watch, but small point on my part. Overall, a really nice watch, and a great (realistic) cost. Glad to see that it is not available in a gold colour variant, so not following current trend.