Limited Editions

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.

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.

A diver in the fullest sense. A black lacquered dial with Wolbrook's signature arrow hour hand, white BGW9 Super-LumiNova® on every hand and index plus a luminescent pearl at 12. Under a glass-box sapphire crystal, inside a 316L steel case with HexapleX® shock architecture and a 120-click unidirectional steel bezel, water-resistant to 200 m. Driven by the Miyota 9015 automatic. The first 949 pieces — a tribute to Wolbrook's 1949 foundation — carry an individually numbered caseback, deep enamel-filled with the motto THE PROOF IS IN THE DIVING and two narwhals. On the military green Tropic rubber strap.

Born between sea and sky. This Aéro-Club de France Special Edition carries the club's emblem and C3 Super-LumiNova® across a deep blue dial, with a rotating bezel marked for world-city time zones. Cased in 316L steel with Wolbrook's HexapleX® shock architecture, water-resistant to 150 m, the automatic movement assembled in France — presented here on the blue Tropic NBR rubber strap: oil-resistant, water-resistant, ocean-ready. An officially authorised Aéro-Club de France piece.

Datejust 36 – Cherry Red Fumée

A cherry red fumée dial that burns bright at the centre and falls to near-black at the rim. Sunray-finished, so the red moves — glossy and sweet in direct light, deep and sober in shadow. Indian-Arabic numerals at 12, 6, and 9. Housed in a 36 mm stainless steel case with a fluted bezel and classic proportions. Limited to just 25 pieces.

Movement: Seiko NH Automatic Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Case: Stainless Steel Diameter: 36 mm Bezel: Fluted Crystal: Sapphire with Cyclops Lens Water Resistance: 100 m

Dial: Cherry Red Fumée with Sunray Finish Numerals: Indian-Arabic at 12, 6, 9 Bracelet: Jubilee, Five-Piece Links

Limited Edition: 25 Pieces

Datejust 36 – Lapis Lazuli

A genuine lapis lazuli stone dial, cut and set with an elegant vintage restraint — deep ultramarine veined with pyrite, so no two dials are ever alike. The stone that once ground the blue of illuminated manuscripts, now read at a glance. Housed in a 36 mm stainless steel case with a fluted bezel and classic proportions. Limited to just 20 pieces.

Movement: Seiko NH Automatic Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Case: Stainless Steel Diameter: 36 mm Bezel: Fluted Crystal: Sapphire with Cyclops Lens Water Resistance: 100 m

Dial: Genuine Lapis Lazuli Stone, Vintage Register. Jubilee, Five-Piece Links

Limited Edition: 20 Pieces

Datejust 36 – Camel Salmon Fumée

A first of its kind. A camel salmon fumée dial — warm desert sand deepening to dusk at the edges — set against turquoise Indian-Arabic numerals at 12, 6, and 9. Desert and sea on one dial. The sunray-finished gradient catches light with every movement of the wrist. Housed in a 36 mm stainless steel case with a fluted bezel and classic proportions. Limited to just 25 pieces.

Movement: Seiko NH Automatic Functions: Hours, Minutes, Seconds, Date

Case: Stainless Steel Diameter: 36 mm Bezel: Fluted Crystal: Sapphire with Cyclops Lens Water Resistance: 100 m

Dial: Camel Salmon Fumée with Sunray Finish Numerals: Turquoise Indian-Arabic at 12, 6, 9 Bracelet: Jubilee, Five-Piece Links

Limited Edition: 25 Pieces

On the second of August, Kuwait does not celebrate. It remembers — a day that wounded the country, and the same day that belongs to its heroes: those who were lost, and those still among us.

This is the first Arabic edition in William Wood's history — the only watchmaker in the world building timepieces from decommissioned firefighting material, and a house whose every release has been a salute to those who stand in the front line. Smiths has been its first partner in the Arab world for five years. That a Kuwaiti company should be the one to bring this piece home felt inevitable.

It takes the form of a diver because Kuwait is a country of sea and pearl-diving — and because the sea teaches what this people already know: patience, a long breath, and the certainty of surfacing again. The mirror-silver dial is heat-treated to graduate from the blue of the sea below to the clarity of the sky above, ringed by applied Arabic numerals in sunburst blue. At its centre sits the Kuwaiti boom — the dhow once carried on the nation's currency — with the word الكويت engraved and gilded at its heart.

The crown holds brass stamped from a retired firefighter's helmet. The strap is cut from genuine upcycled fire hose. Nothing on this watch sits far from the story it tells.

Fifty pieces. Not simply a watch for the wrist — something to carry.

Caseback commemorative coin — after the words of the late Amir, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah: "From Kuwait we begin, and to Kuwait we return."