In 2014, commercial saturation diver Paul Scurfield, frustrated by the inability of existing, so-called “professional” dive watches to hold up to the hard usage they faced in his profession, founded his own watch brand. Reservoir calls La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland home and uses high-quality Swiss movements to pair with the signature designs. Whether it’s a watch for land, water, or air, this design language is prominent across each collection, giving the brand a very distinct identity. Time is displayed by a single retrograde hand with a jump-hour mechanism which is inspired by vintage measurement instruments with similar readouts. Also classically Swiss are the movements, from the artisans at La Joux-Perret (actually owned these days by the Japanese Citizen Group), which offer extended 68-hour power reserves, an extra bonus at the watch’s very reasonable price point of around $1,500.įounded in 2015 by former banking professional François Moreau, Reservoir brings a visually unique approach to displaying dial information. The modern Elka, which opened its doors in 2022, is fully Swiss, a project of former Swatch Group design veteran Hakim El Kadiri (nicknamed Elka, in a bit of serendipity), and leans not only into the vintage styles of its defunct predecessor but also into eccentric, unconventional aesthetic elements, as on the X02 model pictured, whose dial puts the emphasis on the minute markers rather than the hours. One of the newest yet “oldest” brands on our list, Elka traces its heritage all the way back to a Ducth watch brand, founded in Amsterdam in 1877, which opened a branch in Switzerland in 1949 and disappeared from the scene entirely in the 1970s. As a shift away from those sporty undertones, Dufrane unveiled the Waterloo, a dressy watch with everyday capabilities, and the Travis (pictured), named after Austin's Lake Travis, with a dial that captures its dazzling shades of blue. The brand prides itself on those Texas roots, and the hand assembly of all their watches in the United States. The brand first made its way onto the scene with the competitively priced and capable dive watch called the Barton Springs.
Learn more here.ĭufrane was founded in Austin, Texas, an area whose influence is felt throughout the collection, whose timepieces offers many stylistic nods to the city. 0% interest for up to 24 months available on select brands.
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