The Rosenbusch Horizon Offers Accessible Dress Watch Style in a Hexagon Case

Rosenbusch are a German microbrand who kicked things off confidently a few years ago with The Quest wristwatch, a modern reinterpretation of classic 1970s integrated sports watch design featuring a curved, hexagonal dial. For their latest release, they’re riffing on that hexagon shape in even stronger fashion while at the same time taking it in a completely different aesthetic direction. The Horizon is one of the most distinctive dress watches I’ve seen in a long while – coming to Kickstarter on March 4^th.

Starting with the case, the Horizon measures 39.5mm in diameter in stainless steel with a thickness of 8.1 at the edges and 9.8mm the centre of the curved sapphire crystal. Here the case itself is fully hexagonal with rounded corners in contrast to The Quest, which had a round case with a hexagonal bezel and dial. By slimming the design down to just the polished hexagon, the Horizon feels dramatically more refined, especially around the lugs which are no longer in the integrated style.

I’m trying to think of iconic dress watches with unusual case shapes like this and there really aren’t a huge number. There are a handful of ellipses, retro TV style shapes and (perhaps most common of all) cushion designs but even then, none of them capture the distinctive smooth angularity of the Rosenbusch Horizon’s hexagon. Plus, with 100m water resistance and an accessible price tag, the Horizon is practical enough to be a daily wearer if you don’t fancy saving it for formal occasions.

There are four version of the watch being produced and each of them has a completely different interpretation of the dial, with a variety of finishes, colours and hour markers on display. First up is Black Pearl, which has a Musuo Black dial with applied indexes coated with lume. Musuo paint absorbs 99.5% of light giving it an incredibly dark appearance like the void of a black hole. It’s essentially an accessible alternative to the Vanta Black used by haute horology brands like H. Moser. This edition also does away with the 6 o’clock date window present on the other three.

Second is Copper Sun, which presents the Rosenbusch Horizon in salmon with a vertically brushed finish. It has the same set of indexes as the Black Pearl (am I the only one thinking about Pirates of the Caribbean with that name?) but here they’re presented in gunmetal grey instead of brighter silver. Next is Canvas White, a linen dial interpretation with Arabic numeral hour markers. As the name suggests, linen dials have a light cross-hatched style texture that emulates the texture of summer fabrics.

The last of the four designs is Urban Blue, the least dressy of the quartet. It’s denim blue with a vertically brushed centre and stepped hour scale with Arabic numerals. Matching the dial, it’s on a denim style strap to complete the casual, urban explorer vibes. Although it’s not as if there’s no precedent for luxury denim watches after Patek Philippe created their own ode to denim with the Ref. 5980/60G.

Inside is the Sellita SW210, visible through an exhibition caseback. It’s a manual winding piece with 45-hour power reserve and accuracy of +/-7 seconds per day. It also has Sellita’s elaboré grade finishing with straight line Côtes de Genève across its plate. Thanks to it being a manual piece, there’s no rotor to obscure the view either, giving you full access to admire its inner workings.

The Rosenbusch Horizon is available on Kickstarter from March 4^th at a price of €875, a 30% discount from its final retail price which will be €1,250 (approx. £725/£1,035). For a steel dress watch with a manual elaboré movement and a diverse array of finishing and colour options, that’s great value. Whether you’re a fan of Musou, linen, denim or salmon dials, there’s something here for everyone, all wrapped up in that distinctive hexagon case.

More details at Rosenbusch.

​Oracle Time 

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