Review: the Holthinrichs Signature Ornament LAB Series 1.24

One of the most satisfying experiences you can have when you write about watches is when a new piece completely meets or exceeds all of your expectations. This is a somewhat rare occurrence. When you see as many watches as we do, we notice all the little imperfections, compromises, and, sometimes, flat out mistakes. It means that even when we like a watch a lot our minds naturally go right to the idiosyncrasies that make it less than perfect. Because, after all, no watch is perfect. There are always small things that will bother you or that you wish had been handled in a slightly different way. 

But then, sometimes, a watch comes along that legitimately stuns you. Even better when it’s from a brand that you’ve been waiting literally years to see if they could live up to the lofty ambitions they set for themselves, that they told you about over coffee in Geneva at an impromptu meeting with a table spread with rather rough prototypes. 

Holthinrichs is a brand that’s been on my radar for just about as long as the brand has existed. Their design language, inspired by architecture, the elegant lines of classic sports cars, and their home city of Delft, is infused with a uniquely Dutch sensibility, and has always grabbed me. Brand founder Michiel Holthinrichs has emerged as one of contemporary indie watchmaking’s great characters. I hope he’d take it as a compliment if I described him as Biver-esque, but there’s some connective tissue there for sure in the way Michiel speaks so enthusiastically about his goals, as if he’s on a crusade. I’d be lying though if I told you I wasn’t a little concerned that he’d bitten off more than he, or anyone, really, could chew. In addition to the Signature Ornament line (an affordable collection that represents a huge gamble for the company) he’s also got the ultra high end Ornament Nouveau, a haute horlogerie project currently up for a GPHG award (and an even bigger gamble). Then there’s the Ornament LAB series, the second version of which recently found its way to the Worn & Wound offices for a little hands-on time. Oh, and they still advertise on their website that they’ll do custom bespoke pieces, the original conceit of the brand. 

In short, Holthinrichs has a lot going on, and in particular a lot of new stuff – they’re also in the process of moving into a new headquarters in Delft, the historic Armory building, which serves as inspiration for the new LAB Series piece. My impression is that getting all of these watches spun up on schedule has been a challenge. How could it not be? So when the team reached out and said that, at long last, they had a sample ready to go for a new Ornament LAB piece made in collaboration with the Dial Artist, I jumped at the opportunity to take a look. To this point, even as the brand has become a bit of a fixation for me, I’d only really seen bits and pieces of the new projects, and hastily assembled watches made to show media on the fringes of a trade show. Nothing, certainly, in a state anyone would consider complete enough for a full evaluation. 

I wasn’t in the office on the day the new Signature Ornament LAB Series 1.24 arrived at our door, but I heard the reaction. Zach Weiss, not prone to being overly enthusiastic about a new watch release, sent me the following message on Slack: 

That Holthinrichs that came in today is one of the best looking watches I’ve seen in a while.

Similarly, just the other day, Devin Pennypacker, who all would agree has taste in watches that is often divergent with Zach W. and myself, told me that he can’t stop thinking about the Holthinrichs. So this watch, on a purely aesthetic level, is winning people over in the Worn & Wound office, which is a pretty major victory. It’s not that we’re all in violent disagreement over watches that land with us for review, it’s just that usually I don’t hear about it, being remote, and sometimes a bit disconnected from the water cooler conversations that happen when colleagues discuss the various watches passing through. This watch had a level of positive chatter associated with it that was notable. People didn’t just like it, it was blowing them away. 

My expectations were high already, but this level of hype from my colleagues had me expecting something truly revelatory by the time it was shipped over to me in New Hampshire. What can I say, really, except that my coworkers were right, and this watch rules? Sometimes it’s as simple as that – a watch just makes an incredible impression right off the bat, and no further digging or explanation is required. No matter how many words this review winds up being, all you need to remember is that Holthinrichs nailed it. 

Of course, that doesn’t mean that everyone who lays eyes on this is going to find it as aesthetically interesting as I do. It’s an unusual watch, and not for every taste. But it’s exactly the watch Holthinrichs set out to make. It’s the watch they described to me two years ago come to fruition, and that’s worth celebrating even if it’s not exactly your style. The degree of difficulty is maddening, so it’s a real accomplishment. 

The thing that strikes you immediately about the Ornament LAB is the dramatic lug architecture. The lugs are effectively skeletonized, and curve down and inward, pinching the upper and lower ends of the case as they hug the wrist. The way they twist and bend defies convention and feels both ornate and industrial simultaneously. They have a unique visual appeal from every angle, and in my time with the watch I found myself trying to steal a look at the profile, and even taking it off and checking out the lugs from above, and holding the watch up to a window and seeing the light pass through them. There’s a “How did they do that?” quality to them. Maybe it’s because I’m currently wrapped up in the new Alien: Earth series, but there’s more than a little bio-mechanical, H.R. Giger influence here as well.

The “How did they do that?” question is an important one, though, and worth exploring a bit more. Holthinrichs was one of a handful of brands to adopt 3D printing as a manufacturing technique when the brand was founded, and the Ornament LAB represents a sort of pinnacle for their use of the process. The idea was to leverage the possibilities of 3D printing to create watch with the thinnest possible lugs and the best possible wearing experience. The case is titanium, so it’s very light, and made even more so by effectively removing metal from where it’s expected but not needed to maintain structural integrity. Holthinrichs hasn’t stopped at the lugs – if you look closely at the case, the entire perimeter is a sunken, concave shape, and the bezel is concave as well, creating a beautiful slope upwards toward the crystal. In spite of the watch feeling very airy on the wrist, it also has a solid quality to it. There’s nothing “cheap” feeling about it at all.

The Apiar Gen1.0 I reviewed recently is an interesting contrast to the Holthinrichs Ornament LAB, and you can see in these two watches the unique possibilities of 3D printing. Both incorporate structures and geometry that would be impossible or too expensive and labor intensive to create with traditional manufacturing techniques. While the Gen1.0 shows off the rough texture associated with 3D printing as a badge of honor, Holthinrichs has taken steps to finish their watch to remove most signs that it was 3D printed at all. The result is a design with a similar skeletal frame, but a much more refined aesthetic. This isn’t a knock on Apiar at all – as I said in my review of the Gen1.0, I’m a fan of the rough look of that piece. But the Ornament LAB takes the germ of the 3D printing idea to a new level, one that could trick you into thinking you’re looking at something else entirely. 

The Ornament LAB’s dial is a collaboration with Chris Alexander, known professionally as The Dial Artist. Chris has established himself over the last few years by customizing dials for patrons with abstract splashes of paint. Recently, he’s begun to work directly with brands on collaborative pieces. For this limited edition, dials begin their life at Holthinrichs headquarters in Delft, where they are milled from a solid piece of brass and the prominent texture on the surface is carved by hand. It goes through a multistage process of “forced patina” via electrolysis and heat treatments before its pale green shade (inspired by the paint in the brand’s new space at the Delft Armory) is achieved. It then makes its way to Chris in Scotland, where he applies gold leaf meticulously to the dial through an adhesion process of his own making. Each dial is a little different, and leaves the impression of a very old, patina inflected piece of metal. There’s also something vaguely cosmic about it, as if you’re staring into the center of a universe in an alternate galaxy.

Legibility is mostly fine, although there are certain lighting situations where the hands and markers get a little lost. There’s plenty of depth to set the markers and hands apart from the dial surface, but treating the hands in such a way that there’s just a little more contrast might be beneficial. I doubt, though, that Holthinrichs is all that concerned, as each component of the dial as-is feels perfectly coherent with the case, and vice-versa. This is, after all, primarily an exercise in extending the Holthinrichs experiment to a higher level – it’s not a tool watch.

Powering the Ornament LAB is a Sellita SW300 automatic movement, with a rotor that’s been carved by hand in a manner similar to the dial. Plenty of people, I’m sure, will complain that a watch at this price point (it’s 5,900 euros) with a Sellita movement is too much. To that I say, simply, that this is the laziest way to critique a watch, and you’ve missed the point entirely. Just as we see with watches from Cornell, Otsuka Lotek, James Lamb, and others, the movement here is largely secondary to the design and craft of literally everything else. The Sellita caliber is a perfectly fine automatic movement that will keep this watch functional for a very long time, and it keeps the cost down so that it’s relatively accessible. Remember, Holthinrichs does make a watch with a completely bespoke movement, and it starts at around 60,000 euros. I for one am happy to have an option that gives me a lot of the look and personality of the five figure watch for around the price of a Speedmaster. 

I feel like a bit of a broken record saying this, but it truly feels like we’re in a golden age of interesting independent watches coming in under $10,000 or so. There’s a lot of talk about price sensitivity in the watch world right now as prices for watches from the biggest brands rise to points where consumers feel offended, and with good reason. At the same time, though, we have watches like this one from Holthinrichs which, while expensive for sure, feels like a steal when you consider the completely unique design, uncommon manufacturing techniques, and handwork involved in the finishing and dial making. This segment, sometimes overlooked by the movement snobs, is where the real value is in today’s watch market. 

Still, it’s undeniable that this is a niche product for a very small number of people (Holthinrichs is only making 79 of these). I hope that they find their audience, and that the watch enthusiasts who have been begging for new ideas for years put their money where their mouth is to support what I think amounts to genuine horological artistry. Holthinrichs