Watches

Smiths × AV86 · Limited to 67 pieces

Raqeeqa. 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 one who wears it, man or woman. 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 suits anyone — 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 on any wrist, his or hers — 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. Thirty-three millimetres that sit as naturally on his wrist as on hers, worn on green leather.

An STR Labs Project · AV86 × Smiths × Tokei Ronin

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.

Amalfi — named for the Italian coast where white stone meets blue water. A white panda dial on the GranTurismo Chronograph 39 platform: the Seiko VK64 meca-quartz pairing quartz accuracy with a mechanical chronograph module — true sweeping chrono hand, instant flyback reset. 39 mm of 316L steel under domed sapphire, water-resistant to 100 m, on Naga's hand-finished integrated snake-scale bracelet with hidden butterfly deployant.

Veloce — Italian for fast. A red panda dial on the GranTurismo Chronograph 39 platform: the Seiko VK64 meca-quartz pairing quartz accuracy with a mechanical chronograph module — true sweeping chrono hand, instant flyback reset. 39 mm of 316L steel under domed sapphire, water-resistant to 100 m, on Naga's hand-finished integrated snake-scale bracelet with hidden butterfly deployant.

The 39mm Runde in a vintage register: copper and salmon tones on a sunburst dial, with black small seconds at 6 beneath double-domed mineral glass. Swiss Ronda quartz keeps time inside, and the caseback is engraved like a ducat from the Rundeskatten, the treasure found off the island of Runde.