Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026
Head to Toe: Ressence’s New Type 11 Features Its First Fully In-House Design
At this year’s Watches and Wonders, Ressence unveiled its first model decked in the Belgian brand’s pioneering spirit from the outside in, thanks to the RW-01.
By Cait Bazemore
Contributor
I’ll admit – I was late to the party on Ressence. I knew the name. I could immediately spot one of the unconventionally designed displays, but I didn’t know the backstory. My knowledge really ended there until last year.
I was circling the booths at WatchTime NYC and decided to spend some time with the folks at Ressence. Here, I got a primer, and this year at Watches and Wonders, I finally took an appointment to dig deeper.
In these past six months, I’ve developed a whole new appreciation for the brand. At first glance, it may appear the Maison’s goal was just to make something avant-garde and futuristic that bucks watchmaking tradition. However, thanks to his industrial design background, founder Benoît Mintiens brings a fresh perspective to watchmaking.
Instead of asking, “How do we modernize the centuries-old art of watchmaking?” the brand asked, “What would a designer create if they were developing the art of watchmaking today?” The result is timepieces built from the outside in rather than the inside out, with a focus on an intuitive user experience and wearability.
That said, Ressence has long been using ETA base movements, until now. At Watches and Wonders, the Maison debuted its first in-house calibre, the RW-01, in three versions of the new Type 11.
Same Great Looks, Outside and Inside Too
Ressence uses the Type 11 as the canvas to showcase its first in-house movement. Here, you get the brand’s instantly recognizable configuration you know and love, offering a complete package: a patented power-reserve indication, a patented time display, a caseback window to observe the movement, a caseback lever for manual winding and time-setting, and 3 ATM water resistance.
While 41mm is on the larger side, the ergonomic pebble shape and lightweight titanium build align with the goal of being highly wearable, even on my petite 5.75-inch wrist. The Type 11 launches in three colorways – pine, sky, and latte – aka green, blue, and taupe, with the pine green being my personal favorite.
Each features its own palette of light- and dark-colored ceramic power-reserve balls and a color-matched seconds marker. In addition, each comes with four bracelet options to complete the look: leather, rubber, a leather-rubber hybrid, and a titanium Milanese mesh.
Getting down to the showpiece of the Type 11, we have the RW-01. In typical Ressence fashion, the calibre presents a deliberate departure from the round movements characteristic of watchmaking. Its distinctive triangular architecture is defined by three circles – two barrels and a central reference balance wheel – echoing the motif of a Ressence dial.
In addition, manual winding has been simplified: the RW-01 eliminates the winding zone, allowing the watch to be wound freely via the caseback without restriction.
Coming full circle, the Type 11 and the RW-01 set a new standard: full integration between the calibre and the ROCS. In every previous Ressence watch, the movement and the ROCS module have been physically separated because of using modified third-party movements, which necessitated a distinct boundary between the motor and the display mechanism.
Now, with its own design from the outside in, the components are shared, making for a more efficient, cohesive, and elegant piece of engineering.
Pricing & Availability
The Ressence Type 11 in each of the three colorways joins the brand’s permanent catalog and carries a price tag of $31,400. For more information, visit the Ressence website.