About Vintage

Smiths × AV86 · Limited to 67 pieces

Raqeeqa — رقيقة. Delicate. A word too often said as though it were an apology. This watch says it as a fact, and holds your gaze while it does.

The idea began at Smiths: a watch about self-confidence — the kind that never raises its voice, because it has no need to. We took AV86's 33mm Capri, the small, softly squared mechanical, and gave it a burgundy dial that glows like pomegranate under the light and sinks toward black as it nears six. The hours are written in polished, applied Eastern Arabic numerals — the way we write them at home. Below centre, a black sub-seconds register cut with fine concentric grooves turns quietly, and beneath it sits a single faceted crystal: one point of light where a six would be, because one is enough.

Inside, a hand-wound movement. A few turns of the crown each morning and it runs for thirty-nine hours — a small ritual that belongs only to the woman who wears it. Polished steel, a domed sapphire crystal, a dark cabochon at the crown, and burgundy lizard-grain leather to carry the dial's colour around the wrist.

Sixty-seven pieces, unnumbered — none of them first, none of them last. Conceived and designed by Smiths in Kuwait, realised with AV86 of Copenhagen. Caseback engraving is complimentary, should you want your own words on it.

The purest reading of the shape. Polished steel, a clean white dial, numerals and hands with nothing to hide behind.

Without gold to soften it, you see the case for what it is: sculpted lines, a framed bezel, a domed crystal that bends the light at its edges. Thirty-three millimetres, hand-wound, on dark grey leather. The one that goes with everything — and means it.

The warmest of the three. Gold on cream, tone on tone: applied gold numerals in a flowing script, slim leaf hands, and a sub-seconds register that seems drawn rather than printed.

At 33mm it sits lightly — closer to jewellery than to instrument, until you wind it and feel the movement answer. Brown lizard-grain leather, and a blue cabochon at the crown.

Capri in its deepest colour. A 33mm cushion case in warm gold, a deep green dial, and a small seconds hand keeping its own quiet pace at six.

Wind it by hand each morning — a few turns, thirty-nine hours — and it becomes yours in a way no battery ever allows. Sized for a woman's wrist, worn on green leather.

An STR Labs Project · AV86 × Smiths × Tokei Ronin

«الكَشّافة» هي الفصل الأخير من STR Labs — المختبر الذي يجمع سميثس مع Tokei Ronin في إصداراتٍ قصيرة تُصمَّم بحرّية تامة وتُصنع مرّةً واحدة ولا تُعاد. وبعد هذه الساعة يُغلق باب هذا التعاون إلى الأبد.

ميناءٌ بنيٌّ بلون القهوة يغمق عند أطرافه، تعبره خطوطٌ رملية ذهبية ترسم خريطة تضاريس مجرّدة — لا مكان بعينه، بل هيئة الأرض حين تُختصر إلى خطوط. المؤشرات مطبّقة بالأسود اللامع داخل أُطُرٍ فولاذية: نقاطٌ حول الميناء، وقضيبان عند الثالثة والتاسعة، ومثلثان عند الثانية عشرة والسادسة. وأسفل المركز سطران بالخط الرمليّ نفسه: ‎N 29° 22.714' E 047° 59.438'‎، و‎200 m = 660 ft‎. والإحداثيات ليست زخرفة؛ إنها موقع مكتب سميثس في مدينة الكويت.

وحين يغيب الضوء تنقلب الخريطة كلّها إلى توهّج: كل خطٍّ من خطوط التضاريس مضيء، فتُقرأ الأرض في العتمة أوضح مما تُقرأ في النهار. يحيط بالميناء إطارٌ أسود غير لامع، تتوسّطه نقطة مضيئة واحدة عند الثانية عشرة، فوق علبة فولاذية بقياس 40 ملم بتشطيبٍ مصقول بالفرشاة.

مئة قطعة مرقّمة فقط، وكل قطعة قابلة للنقش. تصلك الساعة على حزام نايلون أسود واحد؛ أما السوار الشبكي وأحزمة FKM التي تراها في الصور فهي أمثلة على ما يليق بها — والساعة تتبدّل تماماً مع كل حزام.

STR Labs is where Smiths and Tokei Ronin build without a brief — short runs, made once, never repeated. Al-Kashafa closes it. After this watch, nothing else will carry the STR mark. Not a pause. The last one, forever.

The dial is coffee brown, deepening toward the edge, crossed by sand-gold contour lines that map no real place — terrain as an idea rather than a location. Applied indices sit in polished steel surrounds: dots around the hour track, batons at three and nine, triangles at twelve and six. Below centre, two lines in that same sand-gold — N 29° 22.714' E 047° 59.438' and 200 m = 660 ft. The coordinates are not decoration. They are the Smiths office, Kuwait City.

Kill the light and the map turns on. Every contour line lumes, the whole topography glowing at once while the dial falls away behind it. A matte black bezel frames it, broken only by a single luminous pip at twelve, over a 40mm brushed steel case. Two hands, no seconds — time read, not counted.

One hundred numbered pieces. Engraving available. It arrives on a single black NATO strap; the mesh bracelet and FKM straps shown in the gallery are suggestions, not inclusions — Kashafa changes character completely with a change of strap.

أزرق جليديّ بملمسٍ دقيق يتبدّل مع زاوية الضوء، تقابله عدّادات بيضاء تحفظ للميناء وضوحه. ثلاثة عدّادات لليوم والشهر والأربع والعشرين ساعة، ونافذة تاريخ عند الرابعة والنصف. إصدارٌ يحتفي بعشر سنوات من About Vintage.

Ice blue with a fine texture that shifts as the light moves across it, cut through by white registers that keep the dial legible. Day, month and 24-hour counters, with the date tucked in at 4:30. Marking ten years of About Vintage.

لون سماوي هادئ يقابله إطار سيراميك أخضر، تباينٌ جريء لا يفقد اتزانه. ثلاثة عدّادات موزّعة بدقة على ميناء مستوحى من حلبات الستينات، وإطار تاكيمتر يقيس السرعة كما كان يُقاس حينها. أربعون ملّيمتراً تجلس على المعصم بثبات.

Sky blue set against green ceramic — a contrast bolder than it first appears, and steadier. Three registers sit across a dial drawn from sixties circuit racing, framed by a tachymeter bezel built to read speed the old way. At 40mm it wears with intent.

A quietly textured white dial that catches the light with restraint, part of About Vintage's tenth-anniversary line. Day and month subdials, a 24-hour indicator, and a date window at 4:30 sit above an automatic movement and a domed sapphire crystal. Daytime elegance that knows the value of less.