This watch is really a fine luxury timepiece with a classic look from a new watch maker. The brand is Ateliers DeMonaco, and is meant to be a mix of Swiss watch making finesse with Monaco style and attitude. The watches come in various forms with the square models being my favorite. They feature three different styled faces in various colors. The faces have either Roman or Arabic numerals, or pictured with simple hour markers. These are some of the first actual images of the watch after its unveiling that I’ve seen and I have to say that I am impressed. Not only does the face and dial look deliciously elegant, but look at that decorated movement and rotor! Seeing such high engraved and decorated rotors is very rare. Being able to afford them is probably just as rare.You can read a bit more about it where I discussed DeMonaco watches on Luxist.com here.

The particular model show’s full title is Atelier DeMonaco Carree d’Or Black Pearl Grand Tourbillon XP watch, but you can just call it the Carree d’Or, or Black Pearl for short (Europeans and their titles…). Grand Tourbillon XP refers to the movement, which is really interesting. The tourbillon cage is perfectly balanced and features a titanium inner frame. The tourbillon bridge is transparent and is a sapphire crystal. Thus creating the floating movement look. The movement also has a silicuim escape wheel and lever. The movement is almost entirely visible, and you can see right through the watch via the lower part of the face. The dial of the watch features faceted gold indexes, while the dial is made of mother of pearl and onyx. Of course the movement is also an automatic which is nice. Overall, just a great looking movement.

The 18k rose or white gold case is 44.3mm wide by 48mm tall – a substantial size for a substantial watch. The watches will be available in a limited edition of only 18 pieces, but that should be per a model. There is something very old world about the design, yet the cut-away of the face as well as the design of the movement is more modern. I think that DeMonaco did a good job trying to recreate the “substance” of Monaco in this watch. Like I said before on Luxist, the case and look appear to be more architecturally inspired versus traditionally horologically inspired, and it is a fresh change of pace done well.