Ressence is what happens when a designer approaches the problem of telling time from first principles. This should not be surprising, as it was the precise approach founder Benoît Mintiens utilized to land on this ‘orbital’ time display, a modern take on the regulator display where seconds, minutes, hours, and days are on individual discs which orbit each other while always staying upright. But this Ressence, made in collaboration with Hodinkee, was created to distill the Type 1 slim to its essence, open dial space, and create visual layers. It was part of an extremely limited production of just 20 examples in 2021 and sold out immediately.
Ressence are a young independent watchmaker. The name is a jumbling of the words renaissance and essence, to summarize their revolutionary, minimalist lens through which they view watchmaking. This is a design-first watchmaker, but perhaps in the opposite way that Cartier are also design-first. This is arguably best summarized by their motto, which is ‘Built on the expertise of yesterday, crafted with today’s technology, our watches are designed for tomorrow’. When you recognize just how similar most takes on the wristwatch are, you realize how much merit there is to Mr. Mintiens pursuit.
In this limited edition, that minimalist depth is underscored by an anthracite palette, with skeletonized dial sections reveal contrasting grey metal gears and plates lurking beneath. This is complimented by a grade 5 titanium case, which is just a shade darker than the steel tone we’re all used to. The case of the Type 1 Slim was designed to hug the wrist as tightly as possibly, with a uniquely sloped lug and 11mm case depth, no crown. Instead, there is a lever on caseback for time adjustment and winding. It's a much more wearable case than their earlier iterations. This is independent watchmaking with no ties to traditional horology. Its genius is not in complication, but rather how much of it can be removed in order to display time as clearly as possible.
