Mother-of-pearl dials popped up all over the watch world in the summer of 2025, but one French brand waited until the autumn to say, “Hold my champagne.”
Yema bested the entire field by expanding the naturally iridescent material from the dial onto the bezel. To my knowledge, this is the first time it has ever been done, and the result is stunning.
Yema’s Navygraf was already a respectable retro diver, but this unprecedented application of the watch industry’s favorite mollusk-derived material gives it a luxury-tier elegance.
The dial and bezel insert are topped with thick slices of mother-of-pearl, creating a strong interaction with light. I caught a sneak peek of the uniform combination at Windup Watch Fair NYC, and even the brand’s professional marketing images hardly do it justice.
The Navygraf Pearl is available in two remarkably similar colors. The lighter option, referred to by the brand as Blue, is a limited edition of 200 pieces, while the darker version is a regular production model.
The limited-edition reference shows more turquoise and seafoam green, while the darker regular production model skews more toward navy blue and deep purple.
