A Ressence is possibly the watch beyond any other capable of replicating the magic many of us felt the first time we saw a working mechanical movement, or perhaps the first time we held a running tourbillon. The name, a portmanteau of Renaissance and essence, is intended to mean the Renaissance of the essence of watchmaking, or, more specifically, telling time. It’s undoubtedly a great fit for the most innovative watch brand in decades, so much so that I think that the “re” in Ressence may stand as much for revolution as it does Renaissance. Indeed, Ressence represents a sort of horological Copernican revolution in watchmaking. Copernicus, who was himself a Renaissance thinker, is best known for his heliocentric model, or the radical idea that the earth revolved around the sun. Likewise, Ressence reasoned that the hands of the watch themselves needn’t be fixed in the center of the dial, but could rather orbit it, creating one of the most fascinating watches in the world.
Today we’re looking at just one Ressence, but it is not coincidentally my favorite one, the Type 1 Squared, or as the brand styles it, the Type 12. The Type 1 Squared is far from the most exotic model offered in the small lineup; that honor would likely belong to the Type 3 or 5 and their oil-filled dials, or perhaps the electro-mechanical Type 2, but I would suggest that, within Ressence, it doesn’t really matter as they’re all amazing. For me the Type 1 Squared combines my favorite case (although I also love the Type 3’s) with a relatively clean and simple dial, although I’d be thrilled to have any of them.
In some sense, all Ressence watches are regulators, or watches that separate hour, minute, and seconds functions. Generally speaking, this occurs on a fixed dial combined with a pair of fixed subdials, but while Ressence also separates these functions, it is unique in that they are orbital. The area now in red is constantly rotating on a Ressence watch, and with it, the three subdials also rotate around the dial. This is the minute hand, or its equivalent in a Ressence, anyway. Note that none of these are hands in the conventional sense, but are rather added onto rotating dials. As the entire dial rotates, the affixed minute hand will rotate with it.
While the main dial (the minute hand) rotates, the three subdials are also independently rotating within their own respective rings. The seconds hand (or seconds disk, more appropriately), on our left, for instance, continues to rotate as a normal seconds hand would, even while the entire subdial orbits around the watch face once per hour.
The outer ring is the only truly static component on the face of the watch. Those three inner rings, the seconds to the left, hours toward the bottom, and day to the right, rotate around the dial as the minutes pass by, yet they maintain a consistent orientation. The Ressence Hand logo remains upright, for instance, regardless of where that subdial is on the watch at a given moment. It is truly a mesmerizing thing to see and probably the most magical experience a mechanical watch can offer right now.
Only the day complication needs much explanation as, despite the watch’s highly unorthodox layout, it’s actually a very easy to read watch. That complication, indicated here by five white dashes and two orange ones, is quite simple in practice. The white dashes simply represent weekdays in their logical order and the orange ones Saturday and Sunday. It’s one of those things that, once explained, seems painfully obvious, but at a glance a lot of people don’t recognize this function. The day complication is also a sort of de facto AM/PM indicator, as the hand travels along each dash as the day progresses; the first half is the morning, the latter evening. This also makes the Type 1 (either Slim or Squared) one of relatively few watches with day complications but no date. If you want the full day-date treatment, you’ll need to move to the Type 3. That said, while the Type 3 manages to include a date complication around the edge of the dial, it might be worth considering a window in a future model (likely a “big date” version, because this is surprisingly more compact, mechanically speaking, than a traditional date complication). Breguet did this in their 1920s “Watch Without Hands,” which featured a centrally rotating “minute dial” (for lack of a better word), not unlike the Ressence, but it had a jumping hour window embedded into the rotating dial itself. It might be interesting to see what Ressence could do with that approach since it could reduce clutter yet still be truly free of hands.
All that said, we must also examine the dial itself, aesthetically and functionally, setting aside its unique rotation (to the degree that’s possible). The Type 1 Squared is currently available in three colors, namely black and white, in addition to this blue. They’re all lovely, but I’d suggest going for the blue one. The slight orange accents really pop against the blue and the radial brush makes the dial even more dynamic than it would otherwise be while visually emphasizing the rings. From a functional standpoint, it’s a shockingly legible watch. As a regulator, all of the timekeeping hands are separated from one another, making it borderline impossible to get confused at a glance, and none of the hands ever overlap or obscure each other or information below (a hand covering a date or day window, for instance). Sure, it’s wild, but unlike a lot of haute horology, the practicality isn’t compromised.
Just when you thought that the Ressence couldn’t get any cooler, out comes the lume shot. This has to be one of the coolest looking watches at night in the world. Perhaps only the mighty A. Lange & Söhne Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase Lumen could compete with the Ressence for nocturnal dominance, but as amazing as the Lange is, the Ressence isn’t being a showoff with its lume. You get the feeling from the Lange that the moon phase and date are luminescent strictly because it’s cool (and it is indeed very cool), but the Ressence manages to look amazing merely by being practical and legible; there’s no unnecessary embellishment here, this is just the logical extension of the dial at night, and it looks incredible.
Whether viewed at day or night, that amazing dial is due to the ROCS, or the Ressence Orbital Convex System. That may sound like a lot of marketing buzzwords, but I actually think that’s a fairly literal assessment of what it is. More specifically, the Type 1 Squared uses the ROCS 1 version (more precisely, this model has the 1.3), as each Ressence model receives a unique application of the system. As per what ROCS is generally, you might consider it a complication, but it’s sufficiently elaborate (ROCS 1, the simplest of the designs, requires 107 parts alone) as to nearly constitute an entirely separate movement inside the watch, albeit one with no escapement. In this regard, ROCS can probably be compared to other exotic complications like perpetual calendars and minute repeaters.
Essentially, the ROCS converts what would have otherwise been the ordinary motion of watch hands into the far more interesting Ressence design, with a rotating dial and subdials. Timekeeping is provided by the excellent 2892, which I’d guess was likely selected for its thinness. Although many will dismiss ETA movements outright, the 2892 remains a very competitive movement in both performance and dimensions which basically allowed, I suspect, a relatively small brand like Ressence to devote its time and resources to focusing on what makes the watches unique.
While you can’t see the movement through the solid back, standard on Ressence watches at the moment, because the ROCS is on the other side of the 2892, you wouldn’t be able to see anything particularly interesting anyway. No, for Ressence, the action is all on the dial side, and that’s fine with me because it would take years to get bored of it. On the other hand, it lacks the super cool sapphire back (although still not a display back, to be precise, confusing though that may be; all you can see is a circular rotor which totally obscures the movement) you find on watches like the Type 3, so there’s a bit of give and take when comparing with other Ressence models.
You may have noticed that the Ressence lacks a crown in any conventional sense of the word, and that’s because both winding and setting have been relocated to the back of the watch, giving the case a very unique streamlined look. To wind and set the watch you can pull out the folding lever, but unlike a conventional modern crown, there aren’t separate stops to indicate different functions. Rotating the folding lever in either direction will set the time (which is one of the most fun ways to use the watch, really, because you get to watch the dials rotate far faster than they do under normal circumstances), but clockwise will set the day. Conversely, you must go counterclockwise to wind. This introduces a bit of complexity to winding the watch because it will also change the time. Thus, you probably want to lean on the automatic capabilities of this watch more than you might be used to, although a watch winder is also a straightforward way to sidestep this. You also need to be patient winding and setting the watch as Ressence has a prominent warning engraved right into the case back, which I take to mean they’re quite serious about it. I’m not quite clear if this is due to the increased torque that you can get out of this winding mechanism or if it’s a limitation of the ROCS itself, but in either case, probably best to play it safe.
On Ressence watches, the dial, quite appropriately, gets all the attention, but their cases are also very unique. We’ve already discussed how they removed the crown to create a simpler look and, given the fact that the dial rotates, a very high degree of symmetry, but there’s more to talk about, both aesthetically and in terms of dimensions. The first thing to note is that you can get the Type 1 in two versions, the Slim and the Squared. The Slim, the alternative to the one we’re looking at today, is indeed shockingly thin for a watch of this complexity at 11 millimeters, and the 42mm case is quite reasonable by modern standards. While more conventional than the Squared, it nonetheless has a distinctive, ultra-smooth elongated look that feels very space-age. The Squared, you might suspect, is therefore thicker than the Slim, but you’d be wrong; they’re both 11mm thick, and the Squared is actually 1mm smaller at 41mm. I’ll admit a certain fondness for cushion cases like those found on Panerai’s Radiomir or Vacheron’s American 1921, but there’s something special here with this Ressence that sets it apart. It feels somehow more modern than those examples, which, I suppose, it is in a literal sense, but it’s also refreshingly simple. I love both the Slim and the Squared, but I’m firmly in the Squared camp.
It’s worth noting that an 11mm thickness is an impressive achievement given what Ressence is doing here; that ROCS complication looks thick and, as I mentioned earlier, practically constitutes another movement attached to a 2892, which, as we’ve seen in modular chronographs, is a not a recipe for a lithe case. I suspect the fact that this style of dial needs very little space between itself and the crystal may have played a role here. Typically, you’d have an hour, minute, and seconds hand stacked on top of one another, each requiring a bit of clearance from the other, and then clearance from both the dial below and crystal up top. But a Ressence needs virtually none of that; it has no protrusions, and the “hands” are never stacked, so whatever space the ROCS is taking up is getting paid back in freeing up room between the dial and crystal, at least in part. A Ressence might be a truly exotic watch, but it’s supremely wearable. You could, and should, wear it every day.
The Ressence Type 1 Squared somehow manages to return the magic to high-end watchmaking. It is spectacularly fascinating in a way so few watches these days manage to be, yet somehow also straightforwardly functional. Despite its extremely complex addition to the movement, it remains thin, and the 41mm case size is entirely reasonable. It’s rare to find something so exotic yet so practical in the watch world.
Supposing that you’re alright with spending the not-inconsiderable sum to pick up a Ressence, you probably ought to. There’s really nothing as special out there and I don’t think anything on the market is going to intrigue you in the same way. But even if you agree with me on that point, you must still decide which Ressence. If you like the idea of Ressence as a sort of novel engineering exercise, you’re probably better off with the wildly more complex Type 3 or Type 5, but there’s something about the simplicity of the Type 1 that appeals to me personally. It doesn’t hurt that it is much more affordable than the others either. At $20,600, it’s about half the price of a Type 3, for instance, making it the best value Ressence by a longshot.
If you want to check out all of the Ressence models that Watches of Switzerland has to offer, click here.
