Ressence Type 1 Genesis's unique dial tells origin story

Belgian watchmaker Ressence is dedicated to slick engineering and creativity, evident in its signature nested dials. It's one of the few modern brands doing something truly innovative and unique with horology. To celebrate its fi fth anniversary, Ressence has created a special edition of its signature product: the Type 1 Genesis.

Founder Benoît Mintiens's concept was to look back to the very first prototypes for inspiration, creating a Type 1 with parts as fresh as possible off the assembly line. No hand-fi nishing, no SuperLuminova filling in the numerals, no polished edges. In case you've forgotten how to read a Ressence, it's pretty straightforward.

The long-hand shape marker on the main circular plate points to the minutes around the edge of the dial. As it rotates, so do the three discs inside. The disc marked 1-12 shows the hour, the disc with 12 indices shows seconds, and the disc with seven indices shows the days of the week. (Hollow for weekdays and double-engraved for weekends.) It seems complicated. But after you wear one for a day or two, the process becomes as intuitive as reading a normal watch face. And seeing the entire watch face make a full rotation every hour never gets old.