Freshly Brewed: Unimatic Debuts A Pair Of Brown Dials Inspired By Italian Coffee

At its core, Unimatic watches are minimal, unobtrusive and monochromatic. It’s with their collaborative pieces that we get to see Unimatic let their hair down a bit. The vibrant blue dial and bezel on the U1-MLM Massena LAB collaboration comes to mind, or more recently the gun-metal cased green dial with a yellow tipped rally car seconds hand UT4-AA collaborative piece with Automobili Amos, to recall another. Today, Unimatic takes a slight detour from their hallmark black-dial tool watch look with the release of two new special edition brown dial watches. No collaboration was needed here for the refined looking duo as Unimatic taps into their Italian ways, creating a pair of watches inspired by the Italian adoration for coffee with the U1S-MB and U2S-MB.

When it comes to using the right shade of brown, Unimatic hits the mark with the U1S-MB and U2S-MB. When I think about brown dial watches, I associate them with vintage pieces that over time have patinated into that warm chocolatey-colored dial. It symbolizes something that was well-worn, especially in warmer climates closer to the equator where the sun is much stronger, hence the appropriately named term tropical dial. For that reason, brown has always been a tough dial color to properly execute in a new watch. The tone of brown used in the Unimatic U1S-MB and U2S-MB isn’t too dark that it could be mistaken for a black dial, nor is it too light where it seems that there is an over-reach to achieve a patinated effect, it’s just right.

The U1S-MB takes after the Modello Uno UC1, having a brushed 316 stainless steel case, a double-domed sapphire crystal that sits slightly above the unidirectional bezel and an oversized crown flanked by a pair of crown guards. The case dimensions with the exception of the case thickness remain the same; 41.5 mm wide, 49 mm lug to lug and 11.6 mm thick which is significantly slimmer when compared to the UC1 thickness of 13.6 mm. The bezel also gets the coffee inspired treatment with a deep mocha tone and a single lume pip being the only aid to track any sort of elapsed time. Should you find yourself in a situation where you need to figure out a metric conversion, like say, how many inches are in a mile, but Siri (Bixby or Google Assist for the Android users) isn’t handy at the moment, imprinted on the caseback is the Unimatic conversion table to give you some assistance. The answer is 63,360 inches in a mile for those who were curious.

The U2S-MB appeals to those who are keen on a straightforward three hand field watch. Using the Modello Due UC2 as its base, the polished fixed bezel, ‘ultra’ double-domed sapphire crystal and exposed crown are some of the features that translate over to the U2S-MB. The U2S-MB has the H-shaped lug construction which usually means that the watch is set up to look the business on a wide variety of straps. Bonus points for the drilled lugs on both the U1S-MB and U2S-MB. Powering both watches is the Sellita SW 200-1.

The hour markers and hands get a moderate dose of faux patina in the form of Super-LumiNova Old Radium which visually, compliments the matte brown dial perfectly. Looking more closely at the markers, the white outlining surrounding each hour marker really makes them pop for an eye-pleasing contrast on the dial. The U1S-MB and U2S-MB come on an attractive two piece dark brown suede leather strap that brings the watch all together.

This isn’t the ordinary, sober Unimatic that you throw on and just forget about because it seamlessly fits in with most attire and can take some punishment if it has to. Think of the Unimatic U1S-MB and U2S-MB as a nice, quality but rugged pair of suede boots or a suede jacket (Except the boots and jacket don’t come with 300 meters of WR). Not every moment may call for it, but when the time comes to throw it on, you’re going to feel like a million bucks.

The Modello Uno U1S-MB retails for €1010 and the Modello Due U2S-MB for €830 with each being limited to only 500 pieces. Unimatic