Ressence Watches: A New Way To Tell Time

DATE
13 September 2022
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When a industrial designer takes it into his head to design a watch, the results are often surprising. The different sectors in which one operates in fact greatly affect the final result, giving life to timepieces that profoundly innovate the world of watchmaking thanks to new creative ideas.

This was also the case with Ressence watches. In fact, its founder, Benoît Mintiens , has a past as a designer of high-speed trains, airplane cabins, medical devices, leather goods and even hunting weapons.

How Ressence watches were born

It all started almost by chance, following a friend’s request to design a watch to give new life to diamonds not otherwise used. Over a two-year period, he devoted himself to this secondary project to his main activity as a designer and went to Baselworld.

For us watch lovers it seems like a dream but he, as a complete stranger in the world of watches, is completely shocked. He can’t believe that the most important watch brands are sinful of creativity , it almost seems to him that they don’t collaborate with real designers and designers.

From his point of view as a product designer, attentive to ergonomics and the characteristics of human nature, the traditional shapes of a watch make no sense and he decides to completely overturn them. He then begins to design different concepts. In the end one seems to be the right one.

In 2010 Ressence was born, a name coined from the contraction of “ Renaissance of the Essential “, that is renaissance of the essential, with the aim of developing a new watch that shows the innovations and style of the 21st century.

The traditional crown, from the point of view of ergonomics and symmetry is far from perfect. Benoît then decides to move it to the caseback of the watch, thus solving two problems at the same time: that of symmetry and that of the discomfort when bending the wrist, which would normally lead the crown to hollow out the hand.

Ressence Type 8 C
Ressence Type 8 C

A new way to display time

A new way of reading the time is developed, the hands are in fact replaced by rotating discs on different axes that increase readability. Explaining it in words is certainly more complicated than seeing it in operation, it is an extremely intuitive method that allows you to read the time with a single glance with surprising precision.

As you can see below, to read the time just quickly follow the hands up to the number explicitly indicated.

Ressence Type 1 mP2
Ressence Type 1 MP2

All the elements are in motion, so it is necessary to proceed concentrically. By breaking down the dial of these watches, we find an outer edge that remains fixed with the indication of the minutes. Inside this fixed edge there is instead a rotating disk on which the minute hand is depicted.

This disc spins on itself, and inside it there are one or more discs that rotate at different rhythms. Generally, the larger one offers an indication of the hours, and is recognizable thanks to the outstretched hand, a logo that expresses the spirit that distinguishes the Belgian brand and manifests humanity, universality and closeness. The other two discs instead indicate, one the passing of the seconds, and the other instead the day of the week, with the two holidays different from the others.

Ressence Type Slim DX2
Ressence Type 1 Slim DX2

A study on how the brain interprets what it sees, conducted by Harvard University, also verified how this way of indicating the time, although it seems more complicated at first glance, is instinctive once you understand how it works.

During the test it was shown for a fraction of a second per hour in this way and in the traditional way and was considered the correct answer as long as it did not deviate from the time shown for more than three minutes. Initially the results were in favor of the traditional indication with a score of 62% versus 53% correct answers, but after careful re-examination and some modifications, the results were notably balanced in favor of Benoît’s clock which, with a score of 92% was declared irrefutably the best.

Macro su quadrante ressence type 2N
Ressence Type 2N

Our take

It is immediately evident that this is not a brand that produces classic watches, the creative language that animates it is certainly interesting and captivating for all lovers of high tech and new technologies. While maintaining a mechanical movement, in fact, innovative materials and finishes are used that instantly identify this brand as belonging to the 21st century.

The greatest influence is probably given by the fact that Benoît is not a watchmaker but a product designer, who has at the basis of his profession the function of solving practical problems in an aesthetic way.

The fact that it was initially external to the world of watchmaking was its greatest strength and the result is therefore a watch with an extreme fit, despite being anything but small, which presents an intuitive way of reading the time.

It is a unique brand, with strong minimalist traits and which undoubtedly follows the principle of “Less is More”, in fact nothing is out of place and this is another reason to honor the brand: the fewer elements used, the more difficult is to make a watch attractive, as all the elements must be in harmony with themselves and with others for collective success.


To learn more about this brand we invite you to visit Ressence official website.

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