To commemorate our first participation in any major industry event – Dubai Watch Week 2023 – and by popular demand, we are proud to present the 29.01 Dubai Edition, a special worldtimer for our Arabic speaking (and reading) collectors.

Evolving the worldtimer‍

We’ve made a couple of design and functional tweaks to differentiate this new edition of the 29.01 from its sibling: firstly, the debut of a rose gold finish for our second generation Schwarz-Etienne for MING ASE222 microrotor automatic, and adjustments to the city ring.

By collector request, additional cities have been added to the dial with numbers and city names now in Arabic. Furthermore, we have added a third ring to provide differentiation for the cities that accommodate daylight savings time, in addition to an offset marker to indicate time in these zones when DST is active.

29-series design principles‍

The watch of course follows the 29-series concept of liquidity, with an organic form and smoothly flowing lines. There is no bezel, but instead the top crystal merges into the case body with no steps and plays the role of a bezel. Continuing this idea, the dial is also seamless: cities, indices and hands appear to float at different levels over a 24-hour disc with varying brushed finishes to differentiate day/night and different indication zones on the dial.

This dial is mounted on and rotates via a peripheral ball bearing track, appearing completely seamless. We also retain our trademark inversion thanks to the use of a sapphire upper dial which carries the cities, as well as sapphire hands. Both are laser-etched and filled with HyCeram for great luminosity and night time visibility.

The 29-series case is sized at 40mm, but is visually larger due to the lack of bezel and the 34mm dial opening. Short lugs keep the watch comfortably wearable on a wide range of wrist sizes.

A deep sapphire box on the front serves as both crystal and bezel; it is bonded seamlessly to the grade 5 titanium case body. This case body carries the upper portion of the flying blade lugs that are a key feature of our second generation design language and shared with the 27-series and 20-series. Here they are polished and with an interlocking groove that keys into the caseback. This is secured with four Torx screws and also appears seamless from the underside. A polished top and bottom finish to the lugs contrast with the matte texture of the case sides, with dynamic sculpting continuously blending lug surfaces with case body. ‍

Second generation movement‍

Premiering in the original 29.01 Worldtimer, our second-generation version of Schwarz-Etienne’s microrotor automatic gained new bridge architecture to make it even more open and transparent, with many unique features that bring it in line with our latest design language. The barrel is fully skeletonized and more open than before for easier determination of state of wind; plates and bridges are now 5N rose gold coated with diamond cut anglage; the rotor guard is a whimsical four-level ‘staircase’ with anglage, and the rotor itself is a little larger with a new organic shape for higher winding efficiency. It has a new mounting system and ceramic ball bearings to improve winding efficiency and remains made of tungsten for density.