Did an Unexpected Brand Just Launch the Year’s Most Impressive Sports Watch?

When Atelier Wen launched as a brand and debuted its first watch on Kickstarter seven years ago, it did so with the stated goal of changing the perception of Chinese watchmakers.

Through its subsequent releases — the flagship Perception sports watch and the ambitious Ancestra dress watch — the brand has continually improved its quality and raised expectations for what a Chinese watch brand is capable of.

But I don’t think even the most fervent fans of Atelier Wen could’ve predicted the brand’s latest watch, the Inflection. Not only is it Atelier Wen’s most impressive watch by a wide margin, but it ranks among the most impressive sports watches launched by any brand this year.

Heavy metal

Atelier Wen

In the world of very high-end watches, tantalum has been something of a metal du jour over the past several years. F.P. Journe is arguably the best-known user of the material, with several of its models — including the ever-popular Chronomètre Bleu — featuring tantalum cases.

Why tantalum? Well, there are a few reasons for its growing popularity. It’s an extremely dense and heavy metal, weighing more than 18K gold and with a weight comparable to platinum. Heavy metals are often associated with quality and luxury, and tantalum passes this test with flying colors. It’s also a very hard and strong material, offering far better scratch resistance than those precious metals.

This hardness doesn’t just make tantalum practical for a watch, but it also makes the material notoriously difficult to machine. As such, any brand that can make a well-finished tantalum watch has the ultimate bragging rights.

Lastly is the way it looks. With a natural blue-gray color, tantalum has a unique, futuristic look that’s unlike anything else in the industry.

Atelier Wen

This brings me to the headline-grabbing feature of the Atelier Wen Inflection. The watch features both a case and integrated bracelet made of 99.9 percent pure tantalum. Atelier Wen has previously produced a very limited version of the Perception in tantalum, but the Inflection marks the first time that any brand has produced a non-limited, permanent collection of full-tantalum bracelet watches.

I’ve seen the Inflection in person twice now. I got hands-on with a prototype back in April at Time to Watches in Geneva, and then I saw the final product at the Windup Watch Fair in New York just last month. And this thing is seriously impressive.

The mix of brushed, sandblasted and polished finishing is remarkable, with the impeccably mirror-polished curved center links of the bracelet being a real standout. It’s hard to believe such a well-finished bracelet could be made of tantalum, but the weight makes it pretty unmistakable.

The design of the Inflection’s 40mm case and tapering bracelet are similar to the Perception, but it’s a bit softer with more curved edges and a lack of flat surfaces. The bracelet also features the same excellent clasp — one of my favorites of any brand — that incorporates an on-the-fly microadjust that’s activated by pressing a button shaped like the brand’s logo on the outside of the clasp.

The exquisite use of tantalum for the case and bracelet is obviously the main attraction of the Inflection, but the dial and movement also deserve their flowers.

Atelier Wen is probably known for its dials more than anything else, with its previous three collections featuring porcelain, hand-guilloché and hand-hammered grand feu enamel, respectively. For the Inflection, the brand has once again turned to grand feu enamel produced by China’s renowned Kong Lingjun’s enamel workshop, with custom-designed numeral indices by watch designer Lee Yuen-Rapati.

Atelier Wen

More impressive is the movement. With the Ancestra earlier this year, Atelier Wen used a French movement for the first time, moving on from the Chinese movements that were seen as a weak point in the brand’s earlier releases.

For the Inflection, the brand has gone with its first Swiss movement, and it’s even more impressive than the Pequignet Calibre EPM03 in the Ancestra.

The new watch is powered by a heavily customized Girard-Perregaux Cal. 03300, a highly respected automatic from one of the masters of the craft. You can find the same movement in many of GP’s Laureato and 1966 references, but for the Inflection, the Swiss manufacture created custom bridges and a rotor inspired by depictions of wind in historical Chinese paintings. The result is absolutely gorgeous and looks decidedly impressive in the metal.

Atelier Wen

Pricing and availability

With its full tantalum case and bracelet, insane levels of finishing, hand-crafted dial and custom Girard-Perregaux movement, the Inflection is — by far — Atelier Wen’s most ambitious watch to date. It is also, by far, the brand’s most expensive.

The Inflection is priced at a staggering $29,800 on the bracelet, though you can save a full ten grand by skipping the bracelet and getting the watch on a sailcloth and rubber strap. That’s a huge increase over the Ancestra’s $5,850 price tag, which previously was the brand’s priciest watch.

Still, for the amount of tantalum on display here and the level of finishing that’s been done to it, the price is considerably less than what any Swiss brand would charge for this same watch. What’s more, the Inflection is clearly made to be a halo piece for Atelier Wen, so while it isn’t a limited edition, its production is limited as a result of the difficulty in producing the watch at scale.

The Inflection will be limited to 100 pieces this year, with production incrementally ramping up in the years to come. 30 watches from the first batch are a special limited-edition featuring a hand-hammered green dial, with the rest being black and blue versions that are now part of Atelier Wen’s permanent catalog.

Atelier Wen

Atelier Wen Inflection

Specs

Case Size	40mm
Movement	Girard-Perregaux Cal. 03300 automatic
Water Resistance	100m

• $29,800 at Atelier Wen

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