RESSENCE TYPE 5G

€31,500 / ressencewatches.com

THE HANDS ARE SUSPENDED IN OIL, MAKING THEM EASY TO SEE UNDERWATER

Ooh, weird. Analogue or digital? Magical, isn’t it? At first you think it might be a screen because of the sheer two-dimensionality of the display – and because some of the hands don’t seem to make any sense. Well, pick up your jaw off the floor and chew on this: it’s analogue. There are real spinny widgets in there.

Does it wobble like jelly? There is an element of viscosity to Ressence’s watches – what you’re seeing is the hands suspended in oil. This kills internal reflections to make them legible from all angles down in the briny depths… for this watch is being pitched at divers. The hand-wound mechanical movement, which wouldn’t like being immersed in oil, is separated from the gloop by a titanium plate, and exerts its force on them via the witchcraft of magnets.

But that hand’s painted on! A-ha! The whole dial rotates, giving you your minutes, along with a sub-dial for hours. The other two dials are diagnostic: the temperature of that oil, showing it’s within its operating margins, and a 90-second ‘running’ hand that’s required for diver safety standards. And there’s a rotating bezel on the outside for measuring dive time.

Earlier, you mentioned Ressence’s ‘watches’, plural…? This Belgian maker launched its first models back in 2010, and the Type 5 diving watch as recently as 2015. But the original Type 5 had a white-on-black design that, while just the thing for not making mortal miscalculations under the sea, wasn’t so desirable for the majority of potential Ressence buyers who – let’s be honest – spend a lot more time swanning around at the boat club. Hence the Type 5G, designed to look a little classier. It costs the same: a don’t-forget-this-is-a-marvelof-engineering €31,500.