Peren is a newer watch company out of Switzerland, and the Regia is its latest model. Peren was founded by Andy Bica, who has Romanian heritage. The Regia might be modern in its design, but the name comes from an ancient timekeeping artifact. Near Bica’s birthplace in the Transylvania region of Romania is Sarmizegetusa Regia, a historic capital city of the Dacian people with an ancient sundial known as the Great Circular Sanctuary. My understanding is that the Regia watches have a case and dial design that is loosely inspired by this important part of ancient European timekeeping history.
Peren makes two versions of the Regia, known as Regia and Regia X. Both versions are essentially the same but have different bezel insert designs. The watches are available with either a fabric or FKM (synthetic rubber, as pictured) strap or a matching steel metal bracelet. In essence, the Regia is a military field/diver-style sports watch with a modern design twist. This is a very popular theme among enthusiast watches today, and, frankly, many of them end up looking alike. That’s where Peren separates itself. It fits the checklist for the watch style many are going for, but the resulting design does not immediately look like many other things on the market. Design originality is something we watch enthusiasts highly value, and it often demonstrates that a real artist and watch lover is behind a brand or product design. Bica is clearly someone who knows what else is out there in the competitive space but clearly did not want to produce a “lookalike” concept.
Both the Regia case and dial are fine in their own respects, and together they make for a highly attractive and cohesive experience for a watch that retails for under 1,000 Swiss Francs. The case is modest in size but sporty at 39mm wide, with a case thickness of 12.8mm. The lug-to-lug distance is also a modest 45.3mm, while the case is water-resistant to 200 meters with a screw-down crown. The case is produced from steel, with an interesting mix of sandblasting with polished angles and trim. This is slightly uncommon, as polishing is normally mixed with brushed surfacing. The case is also very nicely constructed, with a tall sloping uni-directional rotating bezel. The bezel insert is aluminum, and there are two styles to choose from: the simpler day/night-style Regia and the more instrumental-style Regia X. Over the dial is a flat, AR-coated sapphire crystal.
Other impressive details on the case include the crown, which is also designed to be sloped like the bezel section, and the caseback (meant to look like those on historic military watches). The dial is another attractive part of the watch unto itself. It begins with a matte-black face and high-contrast luminous applied hour markers and hands. The mainly rounded features on the dial are easy on the eyes, with rare sharp angles such as the tips of the hour and minute hands. There is even more added depth in the center of the dial, which is rarely seen on military field watches. Peren makes the unusual (but effective) choice to turn the typically prominent 12 o’clock hour marker into a discreet round date window.
Inside the Peren Regia X is a Swiss Made Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement, which operates at 4Hz with about 38 hours of power reserve. This is a very decent movement in a watch at this price point. Even the black FKM strap is custom-made, with horizontal striping to break up what would otherwise be a boring black strap.
Peren indicates that the two Regia models are each a limited edition of 300 pieces each. I think that as soon as these watches are discovered by the larger community, they will sell out pretty quickly. That, however, takes time and luck in such a crowded space. Price for the Peren Regia X watch is 963 Swiss Francs. Learn more at the Peren watches website.
