Hands-on: Atelier Wen Porcelain Odyssey Ji

Text & pictures: Aleksandar Mladenovic

There is an abundance of micro brands and most of them have slogans along the lines of “disrupting the watch industry” and “affordable luxury”. At Atelier Wen they let the watches speak for themselves instead. What made me curious about the brand was partly that they use dials in porcelain in combination with their automatic movement and price tag. Let us take a closer look at their debut model Porcelain Odyssey in the version Ji.

Atelier Wen is a micro brand based in China and was started, like many other micro brands, through a Kickstarter project. The focus was on the Chinese market. But they were quickly noticed around on various watch forums and social media and spread around the whole world. Behind the brand are two Frenchmen who have studied and worked in China. Together with two Chinese designers they wanted to create a brand that notices and pays tribute to both Chinese watchmaking and traditional Chinese design in a modern guise. 

Many recoil a little when you see watches that have movements from China or that are entirely produced in China. But the fact is that China supplies a lot of components to the Swiss watch industry and its manufacturers. At Atelier Wen they are transperent about which different suppliers they use and about the manufacturing process. 

Let us look a little closer at the watch.

Case

The case measures 39mm in diameter, is 11.7mm thick and made in Japanese 316L stainless steel. The crystal ring and case have a polished finish while the top side of the lugs are brushed and have a nice chamfer on the edges. The watch's lug to lug distance is 47mm so it is not a small watch but at the same time not something that is unwearable on my 16.5cm wrist. Thanks to the lugs being quite aggressively angled the watch hugs well and feels nice to wear. When I unpacked the watch from its box the first thing that struck me was the watch's weight. It weighs 87 grams which is still quite a bit for a steel watch on a leather strap. 

The back is moreover very nice to look at and they have engraved Kunpeng, a creature from Chinese mythology that is partly bird, partly fish. The crown is non screw down but nicely engraved with the logo and easy to operate. 

I do not like the term “sports dress watch” but it is probably what I would categorise this watch as. It is in my opinion too big to act as a dress watch but at the same time it is very clean and pared back in design and form language unlike the sports watches. 

Dial and hands

The dial in the Ji is what got me interested in the brand. I am a sucker for porcelain and enamelled dials and was not disappointed when I got to see it in reality. It has an interesting shade of blue that really stands out and you stop a little extra every time you look down at the wrist. They have chosen leaf shaped hands and both baton markers and round markers for the hours on the dial. Both hands and indexes are rhodium plated and create a fine contrast against the blue dial.
They reflect the light nicely and in certain angles and light conditions they look black. 

At six o'clock on the dial there is a sub seconds that contains the Chinese concept “Bagua” or “eight trigrams” which refers to the four characters Kun (坤), Li (离), Qian (乾), Kan (坎) that correspond the sun's position in the sky at different points in time.

On the outer edge of the dial there is a Chinese pattern called “Huiwen” that works as the “minute track”

My example has a few imperfections in the printing on the dial, since it is an example for the press and a costly and time consuming process for the manufacturer I am fine with that. As porcelain is hard to work with about 80% of the dials that do not make it through all the steps they go through have to be thrown away. 

Finally we have a 2mm thick sapphire crystal that is domed with five layers of anti reflective treatment. 

Movement

Inside the watch ticks an automatic Peacock SL-3006 which is a variant of the SL-3000 which in turn is a clone of the ETA 2824. The movement has been modified so that the date mechanism is removed and they promise an “accuracy” of +/- 10 seconds per day and the movement is tested in five positions.
It ticks along at 28,800 bph and has a power reserve of about 40h. 

For me this is a first experience with a Chinese movement and so far it has delivered according to the specifications. 

Bracelet and buckle

My example was delivered on a blue leather strap in salmon leather. A fun touch with salmon, even though I personally would have preferred their smooth strap in calfskin. The strap has so called quick release which makes it easy to change to whichever strap you prefer. The strap width is 20mm but unfortunately not tapering. To my mind they would have given the watch a more elegant touch if it tapered to say 16 or 18mm.
The strap is unfortunately quite thick too, something that could be improved in the future. 

The buckle is in stainless steel and it feels rather inspired by Patek Philippe's buckles. They alternate a brushed finish with polished and it feels well worked. 

Summary

In summary I am impressed by Atelier Wen. They have managed to deliver a lot of bang for the buck with traditional influences from Chinese culture, a good finish on the case, a very nice dial in porcelain plus a sensible automatic movement.

There is some development potential in for example size, thickness and on the strap front but for a young brand and their first model it is clearly a very good pass. 

For the money I clearly recommend them for the one who is looking for something a little more exotic in the price segment. 

Technical specifications

Brand: Atelier Wen
Model: Porcelain Odyssey ”Ji”

Diameter: 39mm
Thickness: 11.7mm
Lug to lug: 47mm
Case Material: Japanese stainless steel, 317L
Dial: Blue porcelain dial with rhodium plated indexes and hands
Water resistance: 5 bar (50m)
Strap: 20mm wide strap in either blue salmon leather or blue calf leather with a stainless steel buckle

Movement: Peacock SL-3006 automatic movement
Complications: Hour, minute and second
Power reserve: 41 hours
Winding: Automatic

Price and availability: HK$ 5,450 approx. €605
Limited to 250 examples