The TYPE 8S, the purest expression of design from Ressence, expands its colour palette with the launch of a Sage Green dial. This soft, elegant, and highly versatile green instils a sense of optimism and serenity to the lightweight all-titanium timepiece. This new colour addition further refines the sixth and latest watch type of the Ressence family collection and perfectly complements the existing TYPE 8 Cobalt Blue.
With its deceptively simple aesthetic, the TYPE 8 is designed for ergonomic comfort. The watch focuses on the essential indications being the hours and the minutes. Price-wise, it forms the entry-level range of the brand. The TYPE 8 will be available in both finishes worldwide from early May 2023, via Ressence’s official retailers network, and visible at Watches & Wonders in Geneva from March 27th to April 5th 2023.
Benoît Mintiens, Founder of Ressence, said: “The TYPE 8 is the purest, most essential of all Ressence experiences. You cannot possibly subtract anything more from it. To maximise legibility, its dial has been reduced to its most viable minimum.”
Asked about his perspective on colour, Benoît Mintiens added: “Colour is a part of our universal human language that reaches beyond time and culture. Colour triggers our emotions and affects how we experience the world around us. Awakening senses is key to Ressence, and colour certainly plays a part in this endeavour.”
Bold minimalism
Graphically simplified to the essence, the watch indicates only the hours and minutes, and with no text or numbers, the domed Sage Green dial has been reduced to its essence. Simple white baton markers present the time with perfect clarity from any angle thanks to the revolutionary Ressence Orbital Convex System (ROCS) display. The dial comprises rotating discs set into the same plane. The hands, the hour and minute scales are picked out in SuperLuminova® for low-light legibility.
As with all Ressence watches, the dial of the Type 8 eschews traditional notions of centrally-mounted hands. Instead, the main dial, a domed piece of titanium, rotates to indicate the minutes. Set within it on the same plane, a smaller dial rotates to mark the hours. Thus the entire dial is ever-changing, but still presents an intuitive at-a-glance display, legible from any angle.
Noticeably discreet
The TYPE 8 is the lightest of all Ressence watches. Strap included, the watch weighs just a mere 42 grams. Crafted from a feather-light grade five Titanium, the 42.9 mm sleek case fits so comfortably on the wrist, inducing a long-lasting love affair.
Flexible wearing
In keeping with Ressence’s previous designs and the brand’s founding principle of ergonomic utility, the TYPE 8 removed the traditional crown on either sides of the case that marks the watch out as left- or right-handed. On a Ressence it is the Titanium case back that intuitively rotates to set the time, while simultaneously winding the mechanical movement. This unique ambidextrous design makes for a comfortable experience on all wrists.
Commitment to mechanical innovation
The TYPE 8 is powered by a Ressence custom-made, yet traditional, mechanical automatic movement, based on an a specially customised and reinforced ETA calibre 2892/2 with a 36-hour power reserve. The rotating dial is the visible face of Ressence’s patented mechanical ingenuity: the ROCS (Ressence Orbital Convex System) which has been designed using a series of jewel ball bearings to ensure long-lasting, oil-free running. The ROCS module – which in the TYPE 8 is designated ROCS 8 – is just one of Ressence’s ground-breaking innovations that demonstrate the brand’s commitment to ushering in a new future for traditional mechanical watchmaking.
Ressence TYPE 8S Technical Specifications
Ref. TYPE 8S (Sage Green)
Functions
• Hours
• Minutes
Movement
• Patented ROCS 8 – Ressence Orbital Convex System – driven by the minute axle of a customised and
reinforced 2892/2 base calibre
• Self-winding
• 36 hours power reserve
• 28,800 vibrations per hour
• 20 gears
• 31 jewels
• 4 ball bearings
Dial
• Metallic Matt Sage Green or Cobalt Blue grade 5 titanium convex dial (75mm radius) running on a jewel ball bearing with eccentric satellites rolling on jewel ball-bearings inclined at 9,75° (hours)
• Engraved indications filled with 100% SuperLuminova® grade A
Case
• 42,9 mm (diameter) x 11 mm (thickness)
• Polished/satinated Grade 5 titanium
• Sandwich architecture
• Domed sapphire crystals
• 1 ATM splash-resistance
• Manual winding over 12° and set-up via case-back (crownless). Rotating two directions.
Buckle & Strap
• Polished Ardillon Buckle in grade 5 Titanium
• Grey leather strap (20/20mm)
Total Components
• 188
Weight
• 42 grams including strap (33 g ex-strap)
Price
• CHF12,500 (excluding taxes)
ABOUT RESSENCE
Ressence was founded in 2010 by Industrial Designer Benoît Mintiens.
The brand was created with one goal in mind: re-invent the essence of a 21st Century watch.
This quest implied, in the true respect of the traditional ‘Less is More’ design approach, to remove all unnecessary design attributes that traditional watches care to perpetuate decade after decade.
Behind this minimalistic design approach, the true purpose of Ressence is to provoke wonder, awaken senses and make mechanical watches, meaningful, lovable companions for today’s and tomorrow’s generations.
Benoît Mintiens started by removing one dimension and created with the SERIES ZERO a unique dial with flush discs that display time in 2D, as the human eye reads two dimensions more quickly.
This exercise continued later with the TYPE 1 when Ressence removed the crown, to make a truly leftright
watch. Then came the award winning TYPE 3 which removed the refraction of the glass by being partly filled with oil.
Last but not least, the revolutionary TYPE 2 removed the need to set or wind a watch with the first automatic self-setting crown in the world.
Winners of the Horological Revelation Award at the prestigious Grand Prix d’Horlogerie, Ressence takes a distinctive approach to the craft of contemporary Fine Watchmaking, combining Swiss-made calibres with unmatched self-engineered innovation to reimagining how mechanical watches can function and interact with its user in the modern age.