Latest Review
Nearly a year ago I sat in on a conference call with some colleagues and members of the Serica team, who outlined their upcoming slate of 2024 releases. They were particularly excited about a new watch they weren’t yet ready to show us that would debut toward the end of the year, a watch they claimed was a significant departure for them in terms of style, shape, and what enthusiasts have come to expect from Serica over the last five years. While not an anniversary piece, per se, they framed this release as one that celebrates the brand and their unique perspective on the watch world, and now, finally, having seen the new Reference 1174 Parade, their excitement makes a lot of sense. This is an ambitious release, and should go a long way in expanding what the community might expect from Serica going forward.
Serica has built their brand on designing purpose built but elegant tool watches in the style of classics from the midcentury period made by Rolex and countless other historic brands. Their watches tend to have a very clear vintage influence without being too on the nose – they never mimic or borrow completely from any specific classic watch. The same holds true for their first watch in a more formal vernacular. The Parade jumps in the shaped case arms race with a dramatic oval, stepped case in what the brand calls a “Stadium” footprint: straight sides, but with soft, curved corners that suggest both roundness and length simultaneously.
The watch might immediately make you think of dress watches from the likes of Cartier and Piaget, but the Parade has been conceived to be a “tool” of sorts in its own way. While this isn’t a watch made for diving or mountain climbing, it’s still water resistant to 100 meters and runs on a reliable and robust automatic movement. In other words, it conforms to the same principles Serica has established for robustness in all of their watches, but has been designed with a recognition that for some people “adventure” includes getting dressed up from time to time. In my short time with the Parade, I came away from it feeling like it absolutely could hold up to daily wear if that’s how you chose to wear it. The design is perhaps a little too offbeat for this to be a true daily piece for many, but that’s beside the point.
The case measures 41mm from lug to lug and is 35mm wide. It’s 8.6mm thick and wears very compactly on my 7.5 inch wrist. The proportions are similar to the Echo/Neutra Rivanera, and like that watch, the Parade feels like a design with a lot of vintage design cues and inspiration, but designed to feel contemporary in how it wears to appeal to fans of modern watches. There was a time not too long ago when a watch like this would have closer to 36 or 37mm from lug to lug to match the size of the vintage watches it’s inspired by, but it feels like we’ve moved beyond that moment of pure vintage revival, and the most interesting young independents like Serica are taking those ideas and literally reshaping them to suit what enthusiasts are interested in now.
While the shape and construction of the case will likely garner the most attention from enthusiasts and watch media types, I think it’s important not to sleep on the impressive dial on the Reference 1174. When I was introduced to the Parade at Windup ahead of its release, the Serica team explained that they were intrigued by avant-garde and sterile dial designs that are common on design forward dress watches, but they wanted the Parade’s dial to maintain basic functionality and legibility.
The best-of-both-worlds solution they’ve come up with is an “S-curve” guilloche pattern emanating from the dial’s center that naturally draws the eye to (very small) minute markers at the dial’s perimeter and more distinct hour markers that make it easy to read the time at a glance and also offers a certain level of precision for those who need it and have the eyesight for it. As someone who is not sensitive to dials without markers for hours and minutes I find myself firmly in the camp of being fine with an approximation of the time if the dial looks great, and I think the Parade’s dial is great. There are two variants available at launch: Satin Black and Sunray Brass. The brass dial has a nice luster to it that puts the guilloche pattern front and center, while I suspect the black (which I did not have a chance to see in person) could be a bit more versatile day to day.
I’ve said it a lot over the course of the last year (which is a good sign unto itself) but I like when a brand takes a big swing on a watch like this. The Parade is probably not what most people would expect from Serica, and I imagine there will be longtime fans who will see this watch and either decide it’s not for them or wonder if Serica has lost their way. But that kind of risk taking is something we need more of in the microbrand and independent watch space, and I hope Serica continues to challenge expectations in the future.
The retail price of the Reference 1174 Parade is 1,490 Euros. Serica
