Three watch brands that don’t put their brand name on the dial
Buffy AcaciaIt’s funny to consider the attitudes towards branding on clothing and branding on watches. If someone were to wear a suit with an obvious logo, it would probably be considered poor taste. Watches, however, wear their brand names with pride because the history and associations of the name is considered almost as important as the design itself. So what does it say about a brand who doesn’t put its name on the dial? Let’s take a look at three of them and find out.
Serica
Most sterile dial watches actually are military watches, because they’re supplied to the military that way. If you’re considering a field watch or a pilot’s watch, brands like Stowa and Marathon sell watches with or without their logos. However, a brand which doesn’t use a logo on its dials at all is Serica. Its style takes a lot of cues from sports watches of the early-to-mid ‘50s, which themselves were still developing away from the looks of WWII-supplied watches. Some people will say that a dial needs a logo to feel balanced, however Serica is proof that proper attention to detail is all that’s required for great, balanced design.
If text on a dial is supposed to draw the eye, then Serica ensures its technical specifications are shown off. Particularly the water resistance and chronometer certification, granted by COSC after testing the Soprod movements. Each of the current catalogue’s three watches are water resistant to 200 metres, making them adventure-ready even if they’re not specifically dive watches. If you’re looking carefully you can actually spot the Serica name down below 6 o’clock where the Swiss Made label usually is, but now it reads Serica Swiss.
H. Moser & Cie.
H. Moser & Cie. is without doubt the quintessential logo-less brand. Even though the Pioneer and Endeavour case styles are fairly generic and many brands use leaf hands, the sheer lack of logo plus the spectacle of the dial is enough to recognise one immediately. Then there’s the Streamliner series with its cushion case full of ’70s swagger and the smooth-flowing integrated bracelet. There may be a few models that do have script logos, but they’re paying tribute to the brand’s near 200-year history, so we’ll give those a pass. Moser has even released a watch without hands on the dial, so clearly it’s not above removing things which are considered must-haves.
As for the dials, it only takes a glance to see why they’re special. Plenty of companies do gradients and fumé effects, but few can achieve the same depth of colour and dynamics that H. Moser & Cie. does. Then there are the more experimental dials such as the Smoked Salmon which almost resembles timber, and the Vantablack which absorbs 99.965% of visible light.
Ressence
Plenty of companies claim to be breaking boundaries, but nobody does it like Ressence. Just by looking at the dials you may assume them to be fairly minimalist, but they’re packed with so much innovative technology. The subdials each have their own function and they slowly orbit each other as the day progresses, which keeps the dial exceedingly dynamic and fresh without sacrificing ease of legibility. Admittedly, the displays will take some getting used to, but they’re worth it. The only visible logo would have to be the hand located at 12 o’clock on the hours subdial, but it’s integrated seamlessly and doesn’t take your eye away from anywhere else.
As for the movements, they’re entirely mechanical despite the futuristic looks. The space between the dial and the crystal on certain models is filled with clear oil, which almost makes the display look like a 2D digital screen, or like something printed on the underside of the crystal. The watch can be wound and adjusted via a rotating disc on the caseback, which is coupled to the movement via the brand’s in-house ROCS module. For the oil-filled models, the brand gets past the fluid barrier using magnets to wind and set the watch, and some even have a temperature gauge, which is determined by the oil compressing and expanding a bellows system.