Salmon Dial Watches and Limited Editions by Hodinkee and Revolution

Last week Hodinkee introduced a limited edition Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire, and Revolution & The Rake announced a limited edition Chopard L.U.C 1860. Both superb dress watches, time-only, white metal case and… a salmon colour dial! Now, I’m a sucker for salmon dials, especially in a white metal case and I think both these limited editions are to die for. And both actually pack more than meets the eye, so all the more reason to have a closer look.

As said, I love watches with a salmon dial, preferably in a white metal case. This colour of dial is quite rare and maybe not for everyone. And may I add, getting the exact right colour salmon is very important. A tad too pink and it goes wrong, and a tad too brownish and again, it goes wrong. Some years ago I was lucky to be able to pick up this lovely Daniel Roth dress watch, with, in my opinion, a stunning salmon colour guilloché dial. To this day, this is my only watch with a salmon dial, but the hunt for another one continues.

When I saw the recent announcements from Hodinkee and Revolution, my collector’s heart beat a little faster. Both watches look awesome. For both watches some rather interesting choices have been made and both come with the desirable combination of a white metal case and a salmon dial.

Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire Limited Edition For HODINKEE

The Hodinkee limited edition Grönefeld 1941 Remontoire is, in all honesty, the Remontoire that I always wanted to see from Grönefeld. Although I love the fact that the Horological Brothers (Grönefeld) added a governor to control the speed of the rewinding of the 8-seconds remontoire, I am just not a fan of holes in dials. Only in very exceptional occasions, like the Montres-KF Spirograph, I like a hole in the dial, but usually I prefer a closed dial and seeing the beauty of nicely finished movement parts exclusively on the reverse side of the watch. I guess Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer and team thought similarly and they even asked Grönefeld to rethink and re-engineer that part of the movement, in order to have a closed dial.

I’m sure not everyone concurs, but this version of the 1941 Remontoire, with a closed dial, no applied hour markers, but much more subtle printed Arabic numerals, looks absolutely fab. The shaped case that Grönefeld introduced with the 1941 Remontoire is very elegant and also size-wise it’s just perfect. For those interested, I’m afraid you’re already too late as this stunning limited edition of twelve pieces sold out within a day. My compliments to Hodinkee’s Ben Clymer and his team, and to Bart and Tim Grönefeld for a creating this version of the 1941 Remontoire.

Chopard L.U.C 1860 Limited Edition for Revolution & The Rake

Now here’s another stunning piece in white metal with a salmon dial and it has just been announced, so it might not be sold out yet! Chopard, or better, the brand’s owner and CEO Carl Friederich Scheufele, accepted the challenge from Revolution’s Wei Koh to recreate the first L.U.C with the legendary calibre 1.96 that Chopard introduced in 1997. Again, there are no technical changes, like in the Hodinkee version of the Grönefeld, but there is something else that’s also rather unusual. Wei Koh wanted to see the recreation of this watch in the exact same size, 36.5 mm in diameter, and with the exact same movement calibre 1.96.

Personally, I’ve been searching for just this watch, the white gold Anniversary Edition with a salmon dial and superbly finished micro-rotor calibre 1.96, but without success. So when I saw the announcement of the recreation of exactly this watch, in exactly the same size and with exactly the same movement (later versions of this movement, like calibre 3.96, are not finished to the same level) I jumped for joy. What a lovely piece and so good that Wei Koh and Mr. Scheufele agreed on the original dimensions and calibre. Kudos! But wait, only ten pieces will be made, so best to hurry up to reserve one before these will be sold out! Here at the Revolution website you can register your interest.

Concluding words

When I started this online magazine, already eleven years ago, there were various reasons to call it MONOCHROME. The number of steel watches with a black dial, in my collection, certainly contributed to my motivation to do so. I always preferred steel watches with a black or anthracite dial. It looked cleaner, maybe stronger and more masculine. Until this day, my collection is comprised of mainly steel watches with a black dial. Except the old Daniel Roth (see above) and a rose gold Lange 1815. I notice that I’m much more particular in liking a watch with more colours and it always seems easier to like a monochromatic design.

What do you think, should we?

As a collector I love what Hodinkee and Revolution & The Rake have done with their limited editions. Like many of you, we are always discussing new models and what could be improved or changed on a specific new watch. That’s just part of the fun. On the other hand, I’m still not sure whether we should be doing limited editions for MONOCHROME, similar to HDK and Revo, to be sold via e-commerce. What do you think, should we? Please share your ideas with us about this in the comments section below. Thanks!