Paul Angelier teaches school in Dordrecht, deals vintage watches on the side, and designs his own in between. The Angelier Automatic is his second watch, a 37.2mm steel dress piece built around applied Breguet-style numerals he drew by hand, and the Kickstarter campaign funding it closes at 8 a.m. Central today.
It’s already over the line.
Backers have pledged $63,400 against a $55,500 goal, 114 percent funded with 118 backers in, so the watch gets built either way. What ends this morning is the price. Backing it today runs $532, and the same watch lists at $776 once it moves to regular sale.
Angelier came to watchmaking from the other side of the counter. He buys and sells vintage watches alongside the teaching job, working out of Dordrecht, and the dials that crossed his desk from the 1930s, 40s and 50s set the template when he started designing his own. He designs and assembles the watches in Dordrecht, and the Automatic is only the second model to carry his name.
Angelier Automatic
37.2mm 316L case, 8.7mm thick · Miyota 9039 automatic, 42-hour reserve · Hand-drawn applied Breguet numerals
Price: $532 $776 (save $244, 31% off)
Where to buy: Back it on Kickstarter
Numerals nobody can download
The numerals carry the design. Angelier drew the set himself, digitized the drawings, and had the finished figures applied in polished metal at the even hours, 12, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10, with small polished dots marking the odd hours between them.
Shapes like these ran on dress watches from the 1930s through the 1950s, and today they usually arrive as a licensed font file. A hand-drawn set keeps the irregularities that read as age.
Polished leaf hands sweep the dial, a railroad minute track closes its edge, and the applied figures stand proud of the surface under the box sapphire, catching light along their polished flanks. The dots at the odd hours get the same polished treatment, small as they are, and on a 37.2mm case that depth keeps the face legible at a glance.
Four dials, two finishes
Three dials wear a fine-grain matte finish the brand calls frosted. Frosted Black, Frosted Ivory, and a two-tone Tuxedo with a pale center disc against a dark outer ring. The fourth goes the opposite way, a Sunburst Blue that throws light across the grain.
The Tuxedo layout reaches furthest back, a sector-style split that dress watches wore before the war.
Every version runs the same layout, so the choice comes down to finish and mood, nothing more. The brand pairs the Ivory with a suede strap and the darker dials with black calf in its photography, and the 20mm lug width keeps aftermarket straps an easy swap. The straps carry quick-release spring bars, visible in the brand photography, so a swap takes seconds and no tool.
Slim on purpose
At 37.2mm across and 8.7mm thick including the box sapphire crystal, the case sits in true dress-watch territory, and 45.9mm from lug to lug keeps it wearable on smaller wrists. The three-part 316L case mixes finishes the way the dial mixes eras: polished bezel, brushed flanks, polished chamfers where the surfaces meet.
The back stays closed, held by those six screws and engraved with the brand name and a production number. Water resistance runs 50 meters, and the watch ships on Italian calf leather with a signed pin buckle.
One stretch goal hangs in front of the finish line. At $72,150 pledged, every watch gains a second strap, black and brown calf. The tally sat about $8,700 short.
A Miyota where the La Joux-Perret used to sit
Inside is a Miyota 9039, an automatic running at 28,800 vibrations per hour with a 42-hour reserve, 24 jewels, and a stop-seconds function for setting against a reference. There’s no date window, which keeps the dial exactly as drawn, and no date mechanism hides behind it.
The 9039 marks a step sideways from the brand’s first watch rather than a step down. That first Angelier, the Classique, ran a hand-wound La Joux-Perret LJP7380 inside a 38mm case and stopped at 100 pieces. This second model takes the same design language to an automatic caliber, a slightly smaller case, and a price the first run could not reach. The template carries over intact, numerals, leaf hands and railroad track included.
The money, the wait, and the catch
Backing runs $532 at the standard pledge level still open today, before shipping and taxes, which settle later through the brand’s pledge manager. Retail after the campaign is $776, so the closing window is worth $244 to anyone already sold on the watch.
Delivery is estimated for April 2027, with assembly in Dordrecht once production wraps. That gap is the trade. A 37.2mm no-date dress watch with hand-drawn numerals doesn’t exist at this price in a shop window today, and in exchange the money goes in months before a watch comes out, carrying crowdfunding’s standing risk that timelines slip. Backers are charged when the campaign closes today, not when the watch ships.
The decision window is the short part. Funding closes at 8 a.m. Central today, and the $532 tier closes with it.
Angelier Automatic
Box sapphire crystal, 50m water resistance · Closed caseback on six screws · Italian calf leather strap, 20mm lugs
Price: $532 $776 (save $244, 31% off)
Where to buy: Back it on Kickstarter
