Ressence Type 5 BB – not your ordinary diver's watch

Text/photo: Aleksandar Mladenovic

The Belgian independent manufacturer Ressence, or "horological start-up" as they call themselves, has since being founded in 2010 won the hearts of many watch enthusiasts. A young brand with a very different approach to classic watchmaking. For one week Eqotime's editorial team had the opportunity to try out their diver's watch Type 5 BB.

Ressence founder, the Belgian Benoît Mitiens, had as his thought behind Ressence – what would the mechanical watch look like if it was invented in the 2000s? The answer became a new interpretation of how you show the time, without traditional hands, and it is called ROCS, which stands for Ressence Orbital Convex System.

The patented solution consists among other things of different rings that spin around which indicate the time. That is why at first glance it can be a little hard to understand what you are looking at when you hold a Ressence in your hand for the first time. But as soon as you have understood the thought behind it, it becomes something of an "aha experience". Everything is constantly in motion, just like moons orbiting a planet.

What really put Ressence on the map and what became a big talking point within the watch world was when they in 2013 introduced the first mechanical watch that was filled with oil. For those who have heard of Ressence before it is usually the Type 3, as it is called, that you think of. Filling the upper half of the watch with exactly 3.75ml of oil results in a watch that is readable from all possible angles. Anyone who has ever gone swimming with their watch knows that it can be hard to read off the time on the watch under the surface of the water, it requires you to look at the watch "straight on" to avoid the reflections and what makes the watch act more like a mirror. This is exactly what makes the Type 5 such a good diver's watch, it is always readable under the surface of the water.

A diver's watch without a screw-down crown

For many a diver's watch is synonymous with a robust case in for example steel and with a screw-down crown. For Ressence it is exactly the opposite. A light case in titanium and no crown, at all.

Without going too much into the laws of physics and above all hydraulics, the oil in the watch compensates for the pressure it is exposed to under water. And as for the absence of a crown, everything is controlled through the back where you turn a disc both to set the time and to wind the watch. It is tricky at first and it takes a little while before you get the spin of it (no pun intended).

The Type 5 is, unlike other models in Ressence's range, water resistant down to 100m (compared with generally 10 or 30m) and it manages that thanks to their Ressence Compression Lock System, or RCLS. On the side of the case you see the text "Lock" and "Set". When you have set the time on the watch and turn back to the "Lock" position the watch is sealed thanks to a gasket that is compressed.

On the wrist

The watch is big, 46mm in diameter and 15.5mm thick but weighs only 87g thanks to the titanium case. It clearly demands its wrist and it is a watch that draws looks thanks to its distinctive appearance.

The time is read off through the large dial which indicates hours while the long "hand" that runs out from the centre indicates minutes. The watch has a seconds hand that indicates 90 seconds and so it jumps forward at even intervals instead of sweeping or ticking. This made us on the editorial team a little nervous initially as we thought we had happened to break something. But since the seconds hand also acts as a shock absorber everything was in order. This is because the watch's hands and discs are not driven by mechanical parts as in a traditional watch but rather by magnets (yes, you read that right), and if the watch is exposed to a shock these are disturbed and a difference arises between the magnetic discs that belong to the movement and those that belong to the ROCS. That is why the back of the seconds hand's disc acts as a sort of hydraulic brake.

The combination of Ressence's way of indicating time from their Type 1 combined with filling it with oil as in the Type 3 thus results in a diver's watch out of the ordinary. It also meets the requirements for ISO 6425, which means that it is "a real diver's watch". A real diver's watch that is always readable under the surface of the water.

You will find Ressence at Bo Berggren Urhandel in Stockholm, which is the sole authorised retailer in Stockholm.

Technical specifications

Brand: Ressence
Model: Type 5 BB

Diameter: 46mm
Thickness: 15.5mm
Case material: Titanium, grade 5 with black DLC coating
Water resistance: 100m

Dial: Convex dial in grade 5 titanium
Strap: Leather and nylon strap
Buckle: Black "ardillon" buckle in titanium

Movement: ROCS 5 (basically a reworked 2824/2)
Complications: hour, minute, 90 seconds hand, oil temperature indicator
Power reserve: 36h
Winding: Automatic

Price: 423,000kr (29,500CHF plus VAT)

Read more about the watch at Ressence