Ressence Type 1 Round Night Blue Review

Ressence was founded by Benoit Mintiens in 2010 and has just exploded over the past ten years ever since the launch of the Type 1 in 2013. The Type 1 and earlier ZeroSeries and SeriesOne looked at displaying time in a novel way not really seen in the watch world prior. This approach along with the captivating design of the early Ressence watches really struck a chord with watch collectors.

Mintiens had no background in watchmaking or watch design but was an established industrial designer whose portfolio included designs of high speed trains, medical devices, guns, leather goods and aircraft cabins. To say Mintiens entered the world of watch design with a blank slate would be an understatement.



Traditional watchmaking has a set of guidelines which over 99 percent of watch designs follow. This includes having two center set hands to tell hours and minutes as well as a crown mounted on the side of the case to deal with all winding and time setting duties. As an industrial designer, Mintiens threw this all out the window and focused purely on the end user of the watch and their experience with a timepiece.

Ressence is based in Antwerp, Belgium where all their watches are designed. The watches are designed with the thought of what would appeal the most to the wearer of the watch. This ranges from how the watches are interacted with while they are wound and set to how the user views the time on the dial. When the design of a Ressence watch is finalized, the watches are then built and assembled in Fleurier, Switzerland to the highest standards of Swiss watchmaking.



While Ressence has probably got the most attention for their oil filled dials in recent years which just give an amazing viewing experience, for our first in-depth look at one of their timepieces we chose to look at their first serial produced timepiece in the Type 1. Hopefully we will be able to look at some of their other offerings in the coming months including the oil filled pieces and the Type 2 with its beyond belief e-crown.

Much to our elation, Ressence and their US distributor Totally Worth It were kind enough to fill our request of a Type 1 Round to review. When the watch arrived the first thing I noticed about it was how lightweight the watch was. The Type 1 Round is fully crafted out of grade 5 titanium and on the leather strap only weighs 66 grams. For a watch with a case diameter of 42.7 mm being less than 70 grams is pretty amazing. I've had some "lightweight" titanium watches in recently that had smaller case diameters and weighed over 30 grams more than the Type 1.



Naturally the next thing I noticed was the just stunning night blue dial. There is no "bezel" on the Type 1 Round and the crystal extends all the way down to the sides of the case. I guess you could liken it to a glassbox style crystal on the newer TAG Heuer Carrera models. The crystal is highly domed and all you see of the watch is the Deep Blue dial. Making things even more interesting is how the sub-dials just appear to float in a sea of the blue on the dial. That these sub-dials actually move around the dial as time advances is just mind-blowing as well.

The final thing I noticed about the Ressence Type 1 Round during my initial time with the watch was its blue leather strap. The strap has an almost glossy sheen to it and at first felt a bit plastic to me. Initially I was not a fan of the strap at all. After wearing the watch a few times though, it really grew on me and even the texture changed a bit for the better. I can't recall a strap that I've worn that is similar in appearance or texture to the strap found on the Type 1. I guess that since Benoit Mintiens had previously worked on leather goods, he had great sources for interesting leathers with unique finishes.



Now that we've gone over my initial thoughts of the Ressence Type 1 Round Night Blue, let's take a look at its technical specifications. We measured the case diameter of the Type 1 as 43.2 mm and the lug to lug length as 47.4 mm. The thickest part of the case measured 11.5 mm and the watch weighed in at 66 grams on our scale. Overall the Type 1 is watch with a ton of dial real estate but a midsized lug to lug length, slim profile and low weight make it an extremely wearable watch for most wrist sizes.

The sapphire crystal is double domed and has anti-reflective coating only on the inside. Having the anti-reflective coating only on the inside of the watch is a nice touch since it makes the crystal much more scratch resistant. Watches with anti-reflective coating on the top of the crystal typically pick up light scratches in the anti-reflective coating rather easily.



Under the crystal clear sapphire crystal is the night blue convex German silver dial. Depending on the lighting the dial can appear anywhere from a brilliant deep blue to a near black. The dial also typically shows some gradient in color since the dial is curved. On the exterior of the dial is the non-rotating white Super-Luminova minutes track with Arabic numerals for every ten minute marker.

The larger inner dial is where all the magic happens though. The dial is made up of three sub-dials that signify the day of the week, running seconds and the hour of the day. In the center of the dial is the large minute hand that the sub-dials follow around the dial.



While at first glance the dial of the Ressence Type 1 might seem hard to decipher, but in actuality it is rather simple. Starting with the hour hand, the hour sub-dial is the largest of the three sub-dials and includes the Ressence hand logo at 12 o'clock. As the time advances the hour hand rotates around the 12 marked hours as any traditional watch would.

Next you have the large centrally located minute hand that rotates along the outer 60 minute track of the dial. As the hand rotates it moves the three sub-dials around the dial with it. To the "left" of the minute hand you have the running seconds sub-dial. This is just a straight forward seconds hand that rotates around the sub-dial every 60 seconds.



Finally you have the day of the week sub-dial to the "right" of the minute hand. This sub-dial tells a lot in a very small space. Basically you have the sub-dial divided into seven pieces with the first five white backed pieces representing Monday through Friday and the final unfilled orange pieces being Saturday and Sunday. The position of the hand inside one of these sections represents the time of the day. So let's say the watch shows the time as 7:30, if the hand is pointing inside of the first half of a section it would be 7:30 AM, if it was in the second half of a section it would be 7:30 PM.

On last thing that needs to be mentioned about the dial is that every single element of the dial is lumed. All the numerals, hands and markers are coated in Super-Luminova that glow either green or orange in low light. Under UV light the dial just explodes as well with the blues (green when not under UV) and oranges looking out of this world. The only non-lumed element is the Ressence hand logo, otherwise everything lights up. I can't think of too many watches where so many of the dial elements are illuminated.



Moving on to the case of the Ressence Type 1 Round, the sides of the case along with the lugs are done in polished grade 5 titanium while the caseback is brushed grade 5 titanium. When you handle the watch you can really tell the crystal, case and caseback all go together to create a pebble like feel. I've heard people describe Ressence watches in this way, but you really have to handle the watch to tell just how organic it feels.

Flipping the watch over shows off once again how not traditional of a watch the Type 1 is. Typically any mechanical watch is set and wound with a crown that is normally mounted on the right hand side of the case. The Type 1 has no crown and is instead controlled by the caseback. This is somewhat similar to how the original Ulysse Nardin Freaks and new Freak ONE and Freak S are operated, where the watch is wound through turning the caseback and set via the bezel.



Unlike the Freak, the Type 1 is wound (initially) as well as set through the caseback. On the solid titanium caseback that also includes engravings of the brand's logo, model Type and serial number are engravings that tell you how to wind and set the watch. There is a folding half circle lever that once raised is used to control the watch.

Turing the caseback counterclockwise will manually wind the automatic movement. You can also set the time in either direction by turning the case either way. Finally you can set the day by turning the case clockwise. All this takes a bit of getting used to, but when you have set the watch a few times it is second nature. It should be noted that this isn't a quick process, so if you typically have 10 seconds to set the time and day when running out of the house you might want to leave yourself a bit more time with the Type 1. Also the Type 1 is a listed as "splash resistant" by Ressence, so not a watch you'd want to go swimming with. Ressence does make the Type 5 that has 100 meters of water resistance if that is something that is important to you with your watches.



Now the real magic of the Ressence Type 1 is in its patented ROCS 1.3 Ressence Orbital Convex System. For how innovative and complex this system is, the Type 1 is powered by the industry workhorse ETA 2892 Swiss Made automatic winding base caliber. For such an exotic watch it's surprising the 2892 was used as a base caliber, but these movements have powered some of the most complex watches ever made.

Not having to worry about the base caliber allowed Ressence to focus rather on designing the 107 part system that enables the Type 1 to do its fascinating dance on the dial. The ROCS module is driven by the minute axle of the customized 2892. Through an intricate series of gears then ROCS module is able to translate the action of the base calibers minute axle to display hours, minutes, seconds and day of the week. All while rotating fully around the dial every twelve hours.



The 2892 features automatic winding and beats away at 28,800 (4Hz) and offers 36 hours of power reserve. ETA quotes the accuracy of the 2892 from as low as +/- 20 seconds a day up to +/- 5 seconds per day. On our timegrapher the customized 2892 had an average accuracy of +6 seconds per day, which is much more than acceptable.

The lug width of the Type 1 is 20 mm and the watch comes on a blue leather strap with no taper. The pin buckle is polished and rectangular shaped with the back half of the buckle used to fold the strap down towards the strap loops. The blue leather strap is rather thin and has somewhat of a shine to it, while the backing of the strap is done in more matte grey leather. At first I found the strap to be a bit plastic like in its feeling and also a bit stiff. After wearing the watch for a few hours the strap started to form well to my wrist and also became suppler. The strap did grow on me, but my personal style is a bit more casual with the blue leather strap being dressier. Personally I think the Type 1 Round Night Blue would have looked amazing on the grey nylon strap found on the Type 5 L, but that's just me preferring a more relaxed look.



When a watch like the Ressence Type 1 comes in, I typically try to spend as much time with it as possible. I love innovative watches and Ressence sure is an innovator in the rather straightforward world of watches. Although at first I was a bit worried that the Type 1 might be a bit too dressy for me to pull off with t-shirts, shorts and sneakers, the watch actually ended up looking fine with my rather laid back outfits. The extreme lightness of the watch also made the Type 1 a treat to wear on errands since it 100% disappeared on the wrist. Telling the time even at a glance like while driving couldn't have been easier. When your head realizes that the two large hands are the primary time tellers, just a quick look is all that is needed for telling the time.

Once the strap broke in, the watch did a very nice job of staying centered on wrist. On my 7.25 wrist with a 55 mm flat area the watch did a nice job of filling my wrist. Typically I'd prefer if a watch was over 50 mm in lug to lug length with the Type 1 falling a bit short of that, but with how the watch is all dial, it might have seemed like too much "watch" if the dimensions were 3 mm larger. Like I mentioned earlier, the low weight of the Type 1 made it a treat on wrist. The watch only made its presence known when I wanted it to be.



I was recently invited to join a watch club here in Austin mostly made up of very serious collectors and the first meeting I was invited to was about a week ago. Instead of wearing one of my personal watches I ended up taking the Ressence Type 1 with me. I had always been very curious about Ressence watches and thought the rest of the group would be more entertained with it than an AP, Blancpain or IWC. As expected everyone was excited to see the Type 1 in the metal and had a million questions about the watch. The dial and movement of the sub-dials were what seemed to draw the most attention as well. I think a few members left their first time seeing the watch rather intrigued by the brand.

In general the watch seemed to draw a decent amount of attention. I had a few strangers ask about the watch and also showed a few non-watch enthusiasts the watch as well. Once again the look of the dial along with how the dial moves received the most comments. The Type 1 isn't nearly as attention grabbing as the newest hype integrated sports watch or something like a Freak, but it does garner its fair share of attention.



The Ressence Type 1 Round Night Blue is not an inexpensive watch with a retail price of just over $20,000. When you think of the work that went into the design of the ROCS module that makes its unique time telling method possible the price starts to make more sense. Also when you look at the price other smaller independent brands are asking for less complex timepieces the value of the Type 1 starts to add up. With that being said, let's take a look at some other watches that tell time in unique ways and see how the Type 1 stacks up.

First let's take a look at a watch already mentioned a few times in this review, the Freak ONE OPS from Ulysse Nardin. The Freak ONE OPS is crafted out of carbon and titanium and has a case diameter of 44 mm. Like the Type 1 the Freak ONE OPS has no crown and can be wound by its caseback. The Freak ONE shows the time via the flying carousel and exposed gear train. The watch is powered by the in-house Caliber UN-240 with automatic winding and a 90 hour power reserve. At $66,800 the Freak ONE OPS is a good deal more expensive than the Type 1 as well.



Next is the Audemars Piguet Code 11.59 Starwheel in ceramic and white gold with a case diameter of 41 mm. The Starwheel also has a unique way of telling the time in three rotating wandering hours discs that align with a minutes track to display the current time. The Starwheel is powered by an in-house calibre 4310 with a 70 hour power reserve. Like the Freak, the Starwheel also retails for much more than the Type 1 at $59,600.

Moving on is the recently released UrwerkUR-230 Polaris which like the AP Starwheel is also a wandering hours timepiece. The UR-230 is crafted out of ceramic and has a case size of 44.81 x 53.55 mm. The UR-230 is powered by an in-house caliber UR-7.30 with a power reserve of 48 hours. With a retail price of around $167,000, the UR-230 is also much more expensive than the Type 1.



Finally we have the Horological Machine Number 10 from MB&F which is crafted out of titanium and has a case dimension of 54 x 45 mm. The HM10 uses two domes to display the time with one displaying hours and the other displaying minutes. The HM10 is powered by an in-house movement with a power reserve of 45 hours. As is the trend, the HM10 retails for $105,000 which again is much more than the Type 1.

While at over $20,000 the Ressence Type 1 Round is a large investment for a timepiece, but when you compare some other timepieces from respected brands that also tell the time in a unique manner, the value of the Type 1 is obvious. There really aren't any one to one watches to compare the Type 1 to, but the wandering hours pieces from AP and Urwerk are probably the closest with their rotating discs. Both pieces are also multiples more expensive than the Type 1. The HM10 from MB&F is totally unique but also displays time in a unique way. The Type 1, Freak ONE OPS and Starwheel are more traditionally shaped watches and in turn will appeal to a larger audience, while the UR-230 and HM10 are way more out there in terms of case design.



So in the end is the Ressence Type 1 Round Night Blue for me? While I do love the watch, I'm just too locked in on designs that are a bit sportier. The lug design and blue leather strap push the Type 1 Round more into the realm of a dress watch. For that one main reason, the Type 1 Round wouldn't be the watch I would personally pick from Ressence. The Type 5 with its sportier case design and 100 meter water resistance is much more up my alley. The fully lumed Type 5 L with its stunning nylon strap really stands out to my personal preferences. The Type 2 also with a sportier case design and its high tech e-crown setting method really intrigues me as well.

Don't get me wrong though, I would fully recommend the Type 1 Round to anyone looking for an interesting dressier piece though. The work Ressence did in bringing the ROCS module to life and also powering it by such a humble base movement as the ETA 2892 is mind-blowing to me. The deep blue dial and double domed sapphire crystal just make the sub-dials and hands jump off the dial. The fact that every marker on the dial is lumed is also something that stands out to me. I have a feeling that the Type 1 typically wouldn't be your daily watch or form a one watch collection, mainly it would be a statement watch in a collection. Based on the reaction of my watch collector friends that have seen everything, the Type 1 would make a huge impact to any collection. I do feel that Ressence watches really need to be seen in person to be appreciated fully, so if you're at all interested in the brand I'd recommend finding an authorized dealer to see one in the metal.



I'd really like to thank Ressence and Totally Worth It for sending us the Type 1 Round Night Blue to review. It served as a great introduction to the brand and is the longest produced watch in their current collection. Next I'd really love to spend some time with possibly a Type 5 diver or Type 2 with its e-crown setting system. Also seeing one of their oil filled models would be extremely interesting to me.

For more information about the Type 1 Round Night Blue please visit : Ressence

Technical Specifications

Reference Number: Type 1

Retail Price: CHF 18.150,00 (~ $20,200)

Case Size: 43.2 mm

Lug to Lug: 47.4 mm

Thickness: 11.5 mm

Weight: 66 Grams

Case Material: Grade 5 Titanium

Bezel: Grade 5 Titanium

Strap: Blue Leather Strap with Pin Buckle

Movement: ETA 2892 Base Automatic Movement with ROCS 1.3 Module

Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Day of the Week

Power Reserve: 36 Hours

Water Resistance: Splash Resistant