Hands-On: the Metrical Epiphany One
I feel like I say it all the time around here, but one of my favorite things about working in the watch space, particularly in the micro/indie territory that we find ourselves in, is being surprised by a brand or a watch that comes at you completely unexpectedly. I had that experience recently with a new watch from Metrical, an entirely new brand that I can honestly say I had never heard of until a PR colleague dropped me an email about them. The renders in the press release had me immediately intrigued. This watch, which they call the Epiphany Origin, uses a non-traditional time telling display inspired, according to the brand, by the way humans first told the time: through changes in the sky.
The party trick of the Epiphany Origin is relatively simple. The minute hand is self explanatory and just like a traditional minute hand on any other watch you’ve worn or seen. The hours, though, are read through an aperture in the upper half of the dial, with a numerical display that spans from 6:00 to 6:00. During the daylight hours you’ll find a graphic representation of the sun in that aperture, and in the evening you’ll see the moon, trailing right behind. It’s one of those things you sometimes experience with a watch that is initially a little bewildering, but then completely intuitive. It is, after all, just a different way to clock a twelve hour timespan on a dial, and is essentially an AM/PM indicator that’s blown up to full dial size.
That “blowing up” aspect of it is what’s really rewarding about the Epiphany Origin, as there are lots of little details in the dial finishing that work together in what I found to be a charming and harmonious way. There are two distinct guilloche patterns in each interior dial section, a bolder pattern in the blue sector containing the hour ring, and a much more subtle and fine texture in the white center section where you’ll find the rotating sun and moon disc. I like the way these patterns play off one another, and I especially enjoy how one is nearly invisible in most lighting conditions. One of my favorite things a dial can do is hide a feature like this 90% of the time – it makes it that more special when you catch it in the right light.
The Epiphany Origin is also a lume machine and has one of the better lume executions I’ve seen on a dial in quite some time. The Arabic numerals and the small circular plots between them are lumed and glow a bright blue/green when fully charged and viewed in the dark. But the action is happening on the rotating sun/moon disc. Each ray emanating from the graphical representation of the sun, and the sun itself, is given a coating of lume, and when during the evening hours the moon and stars are lit up as well. No points for creativity here – it’s obviously a bit on the nose to make these dial elements glow in the dark – but the execution is really very nice. Wearing the watch, I found myself regularly charging it with a little flashlight I keep on my desk just to admire lume treatment. I think what ultimately draws me to it is that this is a very old fashioned (ancient, in fact) idea – tracking time by the sun and moon – but it’s been presented here with a contemporary twist that I find appealing. The watch doesn’t seem overly steeped in classical design elements, even though it is undeniably reaching out to the past and the earliest days of human timekeeping.
The stainless steel case of Epiphany One measures 39mm in diameter and a little over 11mm in height. It’s fairly nondescript but wears comfortably, as most watches with these dimensions tend to. The case here is really a vessel for the dial design and the unique time telling layout and perhaps the highest compliment it can be paid is that it doesn’t let those things down. Some brands, I think, try to do too much when they have a single good idea, and might be inclined to design an overly complicated case design that distracts from the thing they’ve nailed. I’m glad that Metrical, in this instance at least, seems to have a grasp of the lane they’re playing in and decided to stay within it.
The Epiphany One runs on a Sellita SW331-2 movement which has 56 hours of power reserve. It’s visible through the exhibition caseback and is finished with Geneva stripes, perlage, snailing, and blued screws. It all looks quite nice, but at CHF 2,200 we’re obviously talking about machine finishing here, which of course is completely fine. Given everything this watch gets right aesthetically, plus the novelty of the time telling layout, I think it’s tough to argue that it isn’t fairly priced for what it is.
There’s another element to the Epiphany One that has to be addressed, and that’s the pitching of this watch as one with a design rooted in “a celebration of God’s creation.” While it’s not part of the official press materials, the Metrical website makes it very clear that this is a watch using motifs with a distinctly Christian point of view. Some of these are subtle, and actually a bit of a stretch. For example, the caseback includes the familiar Ichthys (fish) symbol to denote water resistance. Yes, this is a symbol with origins in the Christian tradition, but it’s also used on many, many watches that do not have a religious perspective at all. And of course the name of the watch, Epiphany, refers to the realization among Christians that Jesus Christ is the son of God, even as the word has its own secular meaning as well.
It’s interesting to consider how Metrical is positioning the Epiphany One. As a Jewish person (who is also agnostic) the religious framing of the watch holds absolutely zero appeal for me, even though I find myself drawn to the overall design and unique character of the piece. There is, I imagine, a market among Christians for exactly this type of product – the 99 piece limited edition of the Epiphany One is sold out, and it’s hard to imagine anyone making it through the brand’s website to order it without understanding the inspiration behind the watch. My impressions after spending a few weeks with the Epiphany One are that the watch itself does not hit you over the head with these elements (there’s no giant cross on the caseback, or an image of Jesus on the dial), but the website does, and that might limit Metrical’s reach if they move to open editions of this design, or other designs, that are not limited in nature.
As it stands, I don’t think there’s any denying that the Metrical team has some interesting ideas and that they’ve taken a lot of care with the Epiphany One to get them into the watch in a way that feels like you have a high quality product on your wrist. I’ll be curious to see what Metrical has planned for a second act, and if they pivot at any point to reach a more secular audience. Metrical
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