As I am walking into Ressence’s booth at some watchmaking trade show, I hear a loud, amused, and frankly unsettling declaration. Benoît Mintiens, the brand’s mastermind, is in the middle of a presentation, all smiles, and let out a roaring “But of course we don’t have a loupe (emphasis on don’t). We’re not watchmakers here!” How odd to hear someone from the watch industry bragging to be an outlier. Ressence, the exciting brand, is all about this. Their watches are all Swiss (apart from the straps, crystals and other accessories). Although they are not part the watchmaking establishment, they are recognized as a member of the envied club of independent watchmakers. One member of the staff does not know how to assemble a movement, craft it, or even tune it. The movements did not come from watchmaking tradition, inspiration or decision. They are not based on a marketing strategy that would target, strategize and manage a desired brand equity. These watches have nothing to do reviving a long-dead or half-forgotten brand name from the 1800s and 1900s, justification for neo retro design. Although they don’t fit into any of the traditional watchmaking boxes, they are still one of those rare names that is associated with an authentic vision of what watches are, what they do, how the read and how the user interacts with them. This is a modern brand of watches. And to understand how so, one must do a deep dive into the mind of founder, creative director, CEO and sole shareholder Benoît Mintiens.
Belgium’s Best
Benoit Mintiens does not speak French or Swiss but is fluent in French. It is clear to a trained ear that he is Belgian. Hercule-Poirot-Belgian is not the same as the OCD detective in any of the numerous series. The real thing, with an accent. The red-headed guy is from Antwerp. As his brand’s logo, he chose his city’s emblem – a hand that has a lot to do with the tactile dimension of his watches’ design. Because he’s a designer who is well-trained and experienced. Isn’t that an unusual trade for a watch brand creator and manager? Mintiens has also designed street furniture, airplane cabins, trains coaches, and oncology radiation therapy equipment. He is a pragmatic, eclectic and opinionated designer. He had never made a watch before, but that was until he started to fill blank pages with his ideas. It was true that no one had ever even thought of it in his own circle or family. How did the story start?
Antwerp is one of the world’s three capitals of the diamond trade. One day, his gem-cutter buddy asked him to begin thinking about designing a timepiece for him. He walked through the trade show alleys, now gone, in search of potential suppliers. He became increasingly frustrated with what he heard and saw. After returning home, he spent the day sketching and thinking. The core idea for Ressence came to him at this moment.
“I gave myself a simple brief. It’s a format I’m familiar with so I used it,” says Mintiens. “The watch had to be affordable, meaning I could afford it. It had to be unique, so that it would stand out. And not an oddity, because it had to stay close to what one imagines a watch looks like.” That is what the man calls simple: a set of constraints that would seem to anyone, at best, vague, at worst, irrelevant. Even more so, since this brief also included two personal elements in total conflict with one another. Elements derived from his own personal and familial history.
“My mother’s Dutch. She is my Germanic side, the orderly one. My father is Belgian-French. He is more Latin and emphatic. As for me, I’m both of those things and so are my watches: beautiful and warm, technical and cold.” The truth is that structure and affability are intertwined in that man in a way that makes him extremely easy to like and to listen to. His last point is crucial: his watches must be functional. The readability of the watch will be crucial.
The Lightbulb
“I was in the middle of mowing my garden, sitting on my lawn tractor. It’s an old thing I had imported from Chicago. Its monotonous squealing always gets me into my head. And then I told myself ‘Benoît, you have to do it. You have to create your own brand’.” Said brand’s first act was the 2010 Type 0. The timepiece is wound and set by the caseback. The round timepiece looks as if it were cut out of a sphere. “A Ressence watch is organic. Its face isn’t flat. Flat isn’t a thing that happens naturally. I’ve pushed the notion of face so far that the information goes beyond what we think to be the object’s physical limit.” Most important of all, his first watch does not tell time like any other. It’s neither digital nor analogue. “It’s a mechanical screen : a dynamic, ergonomic surface that offers a relevant function.”
Visually, the dial is not a dial, but rather a series circles that rotate within each other. The largest disc is the hour hand. There are three discs: a smaller one to indicate the minutes, a larger one to show the power reserve, and the last one is for the day. The large disc and all of its sub-dials rotate thanks to a clever mechanical system that implements sophisticated spinning and counterspinning. These sub-dials rotate counterclockwise to stay upright and their reading scale is still readable. This dial still gives us the basic information that we need to know when looking at it, namely, two long, curved indicators. It still has some hands. “It’s the only thing I decided not to reinvent,” says Mintiens. “Hands are too efficient a mental picture to do away with. The brain is very good at interpreting them.” Case in point, learning to read a Ressence takes a handful of seconds, and then becomes completely natural.
Rebirth of the Essence
The year is 2010 and at the same time as Ressence’s first release, a few days apart actually, Harry Winston had presented their Opus X (where X stands for 10). It was an insane timepiece typical of Harry Winston at the moment (or the Opus Series). This extreme project had been developed by Jean-Francois Mojon, the founder of movement maker Chronode, along the same display principle as Benoît Mintiens. That was just another case of great minds thinking alike…and at the exact same time, an occurrence more frequent than one would think in watchmaking. Opus X, however, was 10 times the price of a Type 0. The Type 0 was less dramatic, smaller, and easier to wear and read. The idea is great, but it is not enough to make the design simple.
Intelligence can be defined by its simplicity. Being able to see outside of the box is also a sign of intelligence. A quick glance at a Ressence Type 3 could reveal yet another. It has no case, and it does not obstruct your view (except for the Lugs). The piece is all surface, rims and display (just take a look). The shape is like a pebble and the dimensions of opening and diameter are irrelevant. This iteration is the result of a constant development effort, aiming at perfecting the system that operates the rotation-within-rotation display. It’s called ROCS (Ressence Orbital Convex System) and is continually being improved, modified and perfected. Ressence spent 10 years perfecting the Type 8’s simplest form, which requires very small tolerances.
Ressence is a paradoxical expression of simplicity. It is a testament to watchmaking that such simplicity can be so difficult. Calculating the passage of time may seem simple, but it’s not. The Ressence watches are a reminder of this fact.
This article first appeared on WOW’s Festive 2024 issue.
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