Introducing the Café Collection from BREW Watch Co.

Yesterday, BREW Watch Co. returned with their third series of watches dubbed the Café Collection. This latest from the brand consists of two watches, both somewhat of a departure from past releases (however, those who have followed the brand will certainly see the evolutionary track of the design).

The first of the two is the Latté, which features a white dial, and the second is the Classic Espresso, which has a black dial. Both come housed in a two-tone case, where a rose-gold bezel sits atop a brushed stainless steel mid-case.Thinness is the name of the game here, which is why designer Jonathan Ferrer went with a Ronda 1069 Slimtech quartz movement (that, and it helps keep the price down). The case measures just 7mm tall against a width of 38mm, so the proportions are spot on. The lugless design also helps pull in things quite a bit, and the bowl shape gives the watch a great ergonomic on-the-wrist feel. A domed sapphire continues the rounded lines of the case. Overall, the design is expertly restrained, even down to the smaller crown that, despite its size, is easy to manipulate.

Then there’s the dial. The first thing that draws your eye in is the sub-seconds dial above six, from which concentric grooves (or ripples, as Ferrer calls them) radiate out across the entirety of the dial. Then you have the brushed teardrop hands that are perfectly paired against the indices, which are longer from nine to three to balance out the weightier lower portion of the dial. Along the very edge of the dial is a chapter ring with larger markings for the minutes/seconds, something that’s largely unnecessary here as far as legibility or facilitating timekeeping go, but it is nevertheless visually appealing. The “BREW” logo is printed on the crystal, but more on that detail a little later.

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We were loaned a prototype to test drive, and that’s what you’re seeing here. There will, however, be some changes to the final production run. The BREW logo will be moved from the crystal to the dial. I quite liked the floating logo, but the printing on the crystal was a bit rough and I can imagine aligning the logo correctly each time would be a nightmare, so I understand the change. The straps will also have straight ends rather than curved ones so they fit better on the case. And the strap will not have the metal stud at the end, but it will retain the rest of the rose-gold hardware.

It goes almost without saying, but this is definitely more of unisex design than BREW’s past watches were, with the size and the pairing of colors (especially the set up featured here) contributing to that. We don’t often get to write about watches that we would wholeheartedly suggest women try out, but this one would certainly pass that test. Just to add my two cents, I’d love to see other colors used for the two-tone case. I think the foundation of the design is a strong platform for experimentation, and there are lots of cool two-tone combinations possible here to give the watch a totally different look.

The Café Collection is currently on Kickstarter, with all the Early Bird options gone. However, you can still get one for $195, with the expected delivery date slated for January, 2018.