Venetian watch brand Venezianico have been going from strength to strength across the past few years and it doesn’t look like they plan to stop any time soon. While it’s perhaps not as significant in watchmaking terms as the creation of their Italian-made movement in the Utopia II, Venezianico are welcoming a specific complication to their collections for the first time: the complete calendar. The new complication features in the aptly named Arsenale Calendario.
Jumping straight to the dial and its new calendar display, it’s available in two colours, blue and burgundy, each with sun ray brushed finishing. At 12 o’clock sits a power reserve indicator, 3 o’clock displays the months on a subdial, 6 o’clock is a 24-hour disk with day/night indication beneath a sapphire window, 9 o’clock is days of the week and lastly the date is nestled in a small aperture between 4 and 5 o’clock. It’s the most information that has been packed onto any Venezianico dial with perhaps the exception of the Bucintoro Tricompax Chronograph.
Despite how much information is being displayed, they’ve managed to keep the Arsenale Calendario surprisingly legible and clean. That’s thanks in large part to their minimalist approach. For example, the day and month subdials have a classy snailed finish that highlights them nicely in the display without distracting too much attention. The hour markers and peripheral minute scale follow the same path of relative subtlety while retaining a sense of dress watch charm.
The most extravagant detail on the watch is certainly the 24-hour day/night indicator. It features a sun and moon motif set in a field of stars. Although the most unusual aspect is the use of a sapphire window instead of an opaque cover like you would normally see on a complication like this. The logic is that an opaque cover adds a blocky layer to the dial that looks unwieldy, but by making it sapphire, the overall dial looks cleaner while still adding an orientation to the subdial so it’s actually usable.
Zooming out from the dial, it’s housed in the standard Arsenale case design with its coin edge bezel and integrated bracelet. It measures 40mm in diameter, in steel, with a thickness of 9.6mm. That’s perfectly within the expected proportions of a sports-chic integrated bracelet watch. You’d almost expect a calendar complication to be more at home in the even dressier Redentore line but I do really like the Arsenale case.
Powering the Arsenale Calendario is the Miyota calibre 9100, one of the less common Miyota movements as complete calendars are simply a rarer complication at the levels of accessibility Miyota are typically known for. It has a 40-hour power reserve, automatic winding and a 4 Hz frequency. Venezianico have also regulated the movement in-house to improve the accuracy to +/-15 seconds per day instead of 30.
Priced at €1,200 (approx. £1,050) it’s also one of the most accessible complete calendar models I’ve come across and has the look of a far more expensive timepiece. In terms of value, that’s very impressive.
Price and Specs:
More details at Venezianico.
