The reference number on this watch is a birth year. Amsterdam Vintage Watches opened in 1987, so the dress watch it built with Paris microbrand Archi Works is The Diplomat 1.87.
It’s a small hand-wound dress watch with gemstones for hour markers, made in two versions of 100 pieces each. Orders opened on November 7, and it isn’t a pre-order: watches ship the following week.
Price: €2,250 (about $2,509), before taxes, shipping included
Where to buy: Archi Works
Archi Works founder Richard D. Ménasé and AVW’s Jasper Lijfering, who runs his family’s shop, have traded watches together for nearly a decade. The Diplomat is the vintage piece they kept hunting for, made new.
What’s on the Aurora dial?
Aurora puts lab-grown emerald baguettes at 12, 3 and 9 and lab-grown diamonds at the other hours, on a brushed silver chapter ring inside a warm yellow minute track. The seconds register at 6 picks up the yellow, and leaf hands do the pointing. It ships on a green Molequin Saffiano strap.
How’s the Azure different?
Sapphire baguettes replace the emeralds, gray replaces the yellow, and the strap turns blue, while the case, movement and price stay the same.
What’s ticking inside?
La Joux-Perret’s D100 in Soigné grade, built on the Peseux 7001. It’s hand-wound, 2.5mm thick, beats at 3Hz and holds 50 hours of reserve, and you can see the Côtes de Genève bridges, sunburst bevels and heat-blued screws through the engraved sapphire back.
Is 35mm too small for you?
Not if it’s meant to slide under a shirt cuff. The brushed 316L steel case measures 10.05mm thick with its crystal, with a thin polished bezel, long drilled lugs, quick-release bars, 5 ATM water resistance and the edition number engraved on the flank.
Want the small hand-wound look for a lot less? Timex’s Marlin reissue gives you a 34mm hand-wound case and 1960s styling.
Price: $217
Where to buy: Amazon
Price: €2,250 (about $2,509), before taxes, shipping included
Where to buy: Archi Works
With two dials on offer, it comes down to warm or cool, and I’d take the Aurora.
