Whereas I’m not traditionally an enormous fan of built-in bracelet sports activities watches, I’ve all the time preferred the aesthetic of the Notion case, and located it to be a really nice watch to put on for the week or in order that I used to be in a position to pattern it. It’s 40mm in diameter with a form that vaguely recollects the Nautilus, with pronounced “wings” on each case flanks. However in apply, the Notion may be very a lot its personal factor, and doesn’t really feel an excessive amount of like a by-product of extra well-known, larger finish watches in the same model. What actually makes the case work, for my part, is its peak. It measures simply 9.4mm tall and wears very near the wrist. Once you mix the sunshine weight and a case form that makes it put on a bit smaller than the scale would point out, it has a virtually invisible high quality to it that I loved, significantly on the rubber strap, which I believed was very snug, and might need a slight desire for over the bracelet. There’s definitely nothing flawed with the bracelet, however the strap simply labored a bit higher on my wrist and the lightness is kind of interesting.
The actual showstopper right here, and the explanation we’re speaking about this watch in any respect, nonetheless, is the dial. Atelier Wen has actually tapped into one thing with their guilloche dials, which they promote as being “handcrafted” and “turned by China’s sole guilloche grasp craftsman, Cheng Yucai.” In addition they write that the dials are “hand turned on rose engines within the workshop of China’s sole guilloche grasp craftsman.” That’s, doubtlessly, a distinction that might be of some significance to sure collectors, though it means little or no to me, and I’ll attempt to clarify why.
Handcraft is a superb factor, and I like proudly owning watches which were touched by true artisans, however as a watch media skilled and somebody who has been round these items for an entire bunch of years, I believe I’m pretty savvy in understanding that, at a sure value level, concessions and shortcuts are all the time going to be obvious. It doesn’t take a deep understanding of the technical facets of guilloche work to grasp that, for instance, the watch dials made by Josh Shapiro is likely to be made in a essentially completely different manner than these fabricated by Cheng Yucai. Shapiro’s watches strategy and generally exceed six figures. The Notion is somewhat below $4,000. At this value level, I don’t want or anticipate any single part to be made by a single craftsperson, and would anticipate that some industrialization of the craft course of has occurred, no matter what a model is telling me of their advertising and marketing. Whereas I all the time hope that manufacturers are as clear as attainable after they’re attempting to promote me a luxurious object, I believe it’s additionally vital to easily be affordable in our expectations.
I’d argue that on the Notion’s value level, what issues most is deciding if that guilloche seems good or not. It will largely come all the way down to subjective issues of style, however I’ve to say that I used to be fairly impressed with what I noticed. Am I an professional evaluator of excessive finish guilloche? Reader, I’m not. It’s simply not a nook of the watch trade I’ve had a lot publicity to, and it’s frankly outdoors my private style. However wanting on the Notion Mù below a loupe reveals a steadiness of precision and little indicators of handwork (in different phrases, tiny idiosyncrasies solely seen below magnification) that you simply’d anticipate in a dial made utilizing conventional guilloche strategies. Or, at the least strategies adjoining to conventional guilloche strategies. It’s clear, in different phrases, that the Mù’s dial is just not stamped. Stamped guilloche is simple to identify even for a novice, because it seems largely excellent, considerably sterile, and clearly missing in the kind of character you’d anticipate with a dial factor made by hand.
There have been some within the watch group very lately who’ve claimed that Atelier Wen’s guilloche strategies usually are not what they promote. A widely shared article published in the King Flum newsletter by a writer who goes by the name of A Watch Critic goes into nice depth about what he phrases “the guilloche deception.” The declare, particularly, appears to relaxation largely on the concept that Atelier Wen markets these dials as being hand-turned by Cheng Yucai himself, when proof appears to point that his apprentices and workers is likely to be doing the work below his supervision. Additional, the creator claims that Atelier Wen and Cheng are obfuscating vital technical facets of how the guilloche patterns are achieved, and whether or not the hand operated machines utilized by Cheng and/or his group are in reality rose engines in any respect. The assertion is mainly that Cheng’s strategies are needlessly time intensive whereas being much less reliant on the ability of a craftsperson, and that the guilloche course of has been decreased to a collection of steps nearly anybody can observe to realize a end result just like the dials you see on the Notion. In brief, his grievance appears to be that Atelier Wen has industrialized the method of making use of guilloche, whereas making claims that these watches are artisanal, craft objects.
I reached out to Robin at Atelier Wen to see if he was curious about responding. Once we chatted briefly final week, he expressed a want to place the entire episode behind him, and didn’t appear participating in a endless backwards and forwards together with his critics. “On my finish, I believed I had given a definitive reply,” Robin informed me once we spoke on a video name. “We offered proof,” he stated, “of the time it takes to make the dials,” and defined that he despatched a group to verify on Cheng’s processes and was glad with what they discovered. “From that second on, the difficulty is closed,” he stated.
When Robin mentions that “definitive reply,” he’s referring partially to an Instagram post dated August 14, wherein model’s founders clarify that Cheng’s strategies, which incorporate rose and straight line engines, usually are not immediately similar to extra conventional guilloche processes born out of a European custom. Cheng, in fact, is from China, a rustic that has many important craft traditions, however doesn’t share a lot in the best way of watchmaking heritage with Switzerland. Cheng is self taught, and has acknowledged that he has constructed his machines largely from scratch – it stands to motive that the time it takes to engrave a dial or the methodology behind it would differ dramatically from what an skilled guilloche artisan based mostly in Switzerland or Germany who realized the craft by the traditions of watchmaking in these international locations may anticipate.
I reached out to A Watch Critic as effectively, through Instagram, to see if he had any further commentary so as to add, particularly with respect to Atelier Wen’s rationalization offered through social media and referenced above, which was printed weeks forward of the e-newsletter publish, after hypothesis first started to swirl about Cheng’s strategies. A Watch Critic offered a prolonged textual content response that underlined most of the factors he made in his beforehand printed article, together with a rebuttal of the “36 hour” declare made by Atelier Wen, buttressed by a video included of their social media publish. “The video exhibits the pace of scribing,” he wrote, “and even when [Cheng] goes over every line a number of occasions and desires time to regulate for every line, you would need to be extraordinarily gradual/inefficient if you wish to get near the 36 hour declare, and for instance go over every line 10-15 occasions or so, which is unnecessary.” A Watch Critic additionally cites “specialists” he has spoken with (however doesn’t title) who corroborate the view that “the claims they make are simply nonsense to anybody with expertise with engine turning.”
This type of sniping directed at a model that’s clearly on the rise is, sadly, not significantly stunning. Whereas it’s vital to ask questions on how a model does no matter it’s they are saying they do, a lot of the dialog round Atelier Wen’s guilloche dials has been couched within the language of gatekeeping, one thing anybody who works in or close to any luxurious trade shall be all too conversant in. Utilizing scare quotes round “Grasp Cheng,” mentioning that Atelier Wen’s founders come from the world of funding banking and personal fairness, and, maybe most egregiously for my part, making claims concerning the model’s strategies anonymously, below a pseudonym, don’t encourage confidence that any critique introduced is grounded in good religion. Once I requested A Watch Critic if he had made any try to achieve out to Atelier Wen whereas researching his story, he replied that he “didn’t really feel the necessity to attain out to Atelier Wen as they’ve shared ample info publicly to attract the conclusions I did.” Assuming he’s talking of the model’s Instagram publish from August, one may surmise he merely is just not taking them at their phrase. He added, “I don’t have any obligation to tell or get any approval from them.” True sufficient.
As a substitute of pointing fingers and discovering fault with Atelier Wen and Cheng for producing guilloche dials the best way that they do, it strikes me, and doubtless many others locally of small, upstart micro manufacturers, as one thing price celebrating. The tradition of this group is considered one of experimentation and discovering new methods to do issues. In case your perspective is strictly rooted in traditionalism, it’s simple to have a Puritanical view on making use of guilloche in any manner apart from with a rose engine with a really explicit technique that ought to take a particular time period. Ingenuity and downside fixing is a part of what makes the unbiased watch area (significantly at an reasonably priced value level) so rewarding. No, the guilloche dials made by Cheng for Atelier Wen usually are not immediately similar to these made by Shapiro or Comblemine, or different excessive finish masters of the craft. They characterize one thing new, and completely different, based mostly on the elemental ideas of utilizing the assets obtainable to you.
Discovering new methods to do outdated issues is just not a worth held carefully by the normal watch group. In truth, the other is true: manufacturers and watchmakers are celebrated for doing issues within the old style manner, even when it’s costlier or time consuming. I’m curious about and have fun conventional craftsmanship, however I believe it’s vital to additionally maintain area for many who are able to problem the established order and innovate in a significant manner. To me, that’s what it seems like Atelier Wen is doing with these dials, and whereas it’s a disgrace that some have chosen to painting them as pretenders or frauds, it’s a story as outdated as time, or at the least as outdated because the printing press.
For those who look previous the noise, what we’re left with within the Notion Mù is a really effectively executed built-in bracelet sports activities watch that I believe will please lots of people desirous to expertise a specific sort of workmanship that has not all the time been simply attainable. At $3,588, this seems like lots of look ahead to the cash, even in case you do subscribe to what I believe are the faulty notions that the guilloche work is stuffed with shortcuts or by some means inauthentic. The extent of ending on the titanium, for instance, is kind of good, surpassing, for my part, the requirements of the costlier Longines Zulu Time that I reviewed recently.
If there’s an space the place the watch generates some actual query marks, it’s seemingly within the alternative of motion. Made by the Liaoning Peacock Watch Firm, the caliber SL1588A will merely be unfamiliar to many leaping into Atelier Wen possession for the primary time. From the start, Atelier Wen has chosen to supply as many elements as attainable from China, together with the caliber, and so they exist as considered one of only a few fanatic targeted manufacturers to take action with an excessive amount of satisfaction. There’s no motive in any respect to suspect that the SL1588A won’t carry out effectively over time (Atelier Wen regulates the actions to 5 positions, and the actions undergo a wide range of exams, together with shock and temperature testing), however it’s price acknowledging that this caliber shall be unfamiliar to many. In my transient check interval, the watch saved time and the motion operated precisely as I’d anticipate it to.
Atelier Wen is a model I’m rooting for, and I’m curious to see what is likely to be subsequent for them. They trace all through their web site and IG feed that new case designs (and attainable new artisanal methods) are within the works, which is an thrilling prospect. It will in all probability be simple for Atelier Wen to easily milk the Notion indefinitely, so it’s to their credit score in the event that they do certainly elect to show the web page and transfer onto one thing utterly new. For those who take a look at their first watch, the Porcelain Odyssey, I believe it’s honest to say that it by no means may have predicted the appear and feel of the Notion, so the thought of a brand new design that’s equally as unpredictable is attractive. Atelier Wen
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