Author: Marina Coelho

Geneva Watch Days 2026

The Discipline of Simplicity

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The Discipline of Simplicity

PARALLÈLE / GENEVA WATCH DAYS 2026
IN FOCUS · MINASE

The Discipline of Simplicity

The Mastercraft J3 does not try to reinvent Minase. It refines the idea.

At Geneva Watch Days, the Mastercraft J3 stood out for a reason that was less obvious than a new complication or a dramatic design shift. It felt smaller, more compact, more immediate. The proportions had changed, but the identity had not. That balance is central to the watch.

The Mastercraft J3 takes its inspiration from the M3, a model associated with Minase’s early idea of “ultimate simplicity,” and reworks it into a more compact, contemporary format. The case diameter has been reduced from 38.8 mm to 37 mm, while the thickness moves from 10.8 mm to 9.9 mm. The changes are modest on paper. On the wrist, they are more meaningful.

A return to simplicity

Minase’s earlier M1, M2 and M3 collections were built around restraint. The Mastercraft J3 returns to that starting point rather than adding complexity.

Its cushion-shaped case frames a round dial opening with a clear, almost architectural simplicity. The proportions are smaller, the profile is thinner, and the overall effect is more refined. What matters here is not minimalism for its own sake. The simpler the watch becomes, the more visible the execution is. There is nowhere for the finishing to hide.

What changes when the proportions change

The shift to 37 mm is perhaps the most important decision in the watch. It makes the Mastercraft J3 easier to wear, but it also changes how the design is read. The cushion-shaped case feels more compact. The dial occupies the space differently. The relationship between the polished steel, the round opening and the textured surface becomes more balanced.

At Geneva, that was one of the reasons the J3 attracted attention. It offered a more approachable entry into Minase without abandoning the characteristics that make the brand recognizable. The watch is still unmistakably Minase. It simply asks for less space on the wrist.

The simpler the watch becomes, the more visible the execution is.

The details that remain

Reduction does not mean simplification of the craft. Sallaz polishing remains one of Minase’s defining characteristics, with the bezel meticulously hand-polished to create mirror-like surfaces and sharply defined edges. The technique places considerable emphasis on the quality of the case finishing.

The dial follows the same restrained approach. The Mastercraft J3 is available in white, beige and grey, each with a sand-textured surface designed to create subtle shifts in depth depending on light and viewing angle. Sharp-cut hands sit above the dial, while both the hands and indexes are treated with blue luminescent material for visibility.

There is less visual information than on some of Minase’s more elaborate creations. That makes the smaller details matter more. The grain of the dial. The transition between polished surfaces. The shape of the case. The way the light moves across the steel. This is where the watch finds its character.

A Japanese movement, for the first time

The Mastercraft J3 also marks a mechanical shift. For the first time in the brand’s history, the J3 series uses a Japanese movement: the Miyota 90S5 automatic caliber, produced by Citizen. It runs at 28,800 vibrations per hour, uses 24 jewels and offers a power reserve of approximately 42 hours.

That decision fits the broader logic of the watch. The Mastercraft J3 is intended to be a more accessible expression of Minase, and the movement supports that position without changing the emphasis of the piece. The watch remains centered on proportion, case finishing, dial texture and wearability. The mechanics are there to serve the object rather than dominate it.

A more accessible Minase

The Mastercraft J3 feels important because it lowers the threshold without diluting the identity.

It is offered with a stainless-steel bracelet, calf leather or rubber straps, all using a quick-change system, giving the watch a level of flexibility that suits its more everyday character. That versatility matters, but the larger point is simpler. Minase has not tried to make the J3 more accessible by making it less Minase. The Sallaz polishing remains. The textured dial remains. The attention to surfaces remains. The Japanese approach to detail remains. What changes is the scale. And perhaps that is the point of the Mastercraft J3: not to add more, but to make the essential parts easier to see.

Minase has not tried to make the J3 more accessible by making it less Minase.

Geneva Watch Days 2026

The Other Side of the Watch

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The Other Side of the Watch

PARALLÈLE / GENEVA WATCH DAYS 2026
IN FOCUS · SCHWARZ ETIENNE

The Other Side of the Watch

The 1902 Petite Seconde Heure Dorée makes its first impression in black and gold. Then you turn it over.

At Geneva Watch Days, the reaction was remarkably consistent. The dial caught the eye first: deep black, warm gold accents, compact proportions. Then the watch was turned over, and the conversation changed. That second moment is perhaps the more revealing one.

The 1902 Petite Seconde Heure Dorée is limited to eight pieces and combines a 39 mm Grade 5 titanium case with a deep-black multi-layer DLC coating, a black dial articulated by 4N PVD gold-toned details, and Schwarz Etienne’s manufacture ASE 300.00 automatic micro-rotor caliber.

But the interest lies less in any one specification than in the way the watch is built around contrast: black and gold, surface and depth, dial and movement, first impression and second look.

Black, but not flat

The name Heure Dorée evokes the golden hour, when daylight takes on a warmer tone before fading. Schwarz Etienne uses that idea not as a decorative theme, but as a way of structuring the watch.

The dial combines a silky grained center with a black opaline upper plate. The contrast is subtle at first, but more apparent when the watch moves. Light catches different surfaces differently, preventing the black from becoming visually flat.

Against it, the applied indexes, logo and lancine-style hands appear in 4N PVD gold tone. The hands themselves combine sandblasted and polished surfaces, allowing the gold to shift in intensity depending on the angle. The minute track and small seconds display at six o’clock continue the same warm tone across the dial. The effect is controlled rather than dramatic. Black provides the depth. Gold provides the interruption.

Even the case works with the same idea. This is the first time the 1902 collection has combined Grade 5 titanium with a deep-black multi-layer DLC coating. At 39 mm in diameter and 10.90 mm high, the proportions remain restrained, while satin-finished and polished surfaces create small changes in reflection as the watch moves on the wrist.

From the front, it feels coherent and relatively quiet. Then comes the reverse.

When the movement takes over

Through the transparent caseback, the ASE 300.00 caliber changes the character of the watch. Its architecture is organized around six slender bridges, giving the movement an open, almost structural quality. For this edition, the caliber is presented in anthracite tones for the first time within the 1902 collection, extending the black aesthetic from the dial into the mechanics.

Then, once again, gold interrupts the darkness. The micro-rotor is finished in 4N gold tone, reserved for this series, echoing the indexes and hands visible on the front. It is small in scale but visually decisive, a warm point of light inside an otherwise darker architecture. This is where the watch begins to explain itself. The front and back are not two separate design exercises. They follow the same visual logic.

The dial uses gold to reveal the black. The movement does the same.

The details behind the architecture

Look closer and the movement becomes less about contrast and more about construction.

The mainplate is sandblasted and rhodium-plated, with polished bevels. The bridges carry circular and concentric Côtes de Genève. The micro-rotor combines sandblasted and satin-finished surfaces with a hand-polished bevel and a chevron motif inspired by the natural surroundings of the Manufacture.

The ratchet wheel adds another detail: a hand-polished drop, an engraved indication that the watch is limited to eight pieces, and lettering filled by hand with matt black lacquer. The caliber itself is composed of 191 components, runs at 3 Hz and offers an 86-hour power reserve.

These are the details that reward the second look. And they also explain why the movement became such a strong part of the reaction in Geneva. One editor’s comment captured it simply: The movement should be the dial. It was not really a criticism of the front. It was a recognition of how much was happening on the other side.

Built from the movement out

That emphasis is important for understanding Schwarz Etienne.

The Manufacture traces its roots to 1902 and remains independent, with in-house expertise in mechanical movement development and production. The ASE 300.00 is conceived, developed and assembled in La Chaux-de-Fonds, within an integrated approach that places movement architecture at the center of the watch.

That independence matters here because the 1902 Petite Seconde Heure Dorée is not simply a color variation. The black DLC case is new to the collection. The anthracite movement treatment is new. The 4N gold-toned micro-rotor is specific to this edition. Each of those choices continues the same idea from one side of the watch to the other. The result is a watch that reveals itself in stages. First, the black. Then the gold. Then the movement. And perhaps that is why, around the table in Geneva, people kept turning it over.

The dial made the first impression. The movement changed it.

Geneva Watch Days 2026

Around the Table

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Around the Table

PARALLÈLE / GENEVA WATCH DAYS 2026
GENEVA NOTES · 02

Around the Table

At some point, after enough presentations, you stop watching the watches. You start watching what people do with them.

A watch moves towards the window. Another is turned over, then back again. Someone reaches for a loupe. Someone else asks to see the same dial for a second time. Around the tables in Geneva, these small gestures often said more than the first reaction.

Geneva Watch Days was busier this year. More brands, more appointments, more people moving from one part of the city to another. But somehow, it still left room to stay at the table. Perhaps that is what distinguishes it.

There is intensity, certainly, but less of the pressure that surrounds some of the industry’s larger gatherings. Conversations have space to wander. Appointments run over. Familiar faces appear between meetings. And sometimes, the most interesting part begins once the presentation is technically finished.

THE INSTINCT TO LOOK CLOSER

With Artisans de Genève, it often began with a pair of gloves. The watches on the table were not novelties waiting to be sold. Artisans de Genève does not produce watches; it works closely with clients to personalize watches they already own, transforming them through a process shaped around each client’s ideas and wishes.

Not a new watch. A personal one.

Once that was understood, the questions changed. What was the inspiration behind the personalization? What did the client want to achieve? How was this done? Skeletonized movements were examined. Gem-setting drew people closer. Hand-finished details revealed themselves one after another. And, repeatedly, a version of the same reaction: I didn’t expect to see this.

Perhaps because personalization can sound deceptively simple until the object is in front of you. At Artisans de Genève, the process can take eight to ten months, with the client deeply involved throughout. What sits on the table is therefore not simply a personalized watch, but the result of months of conversations and decisions between the client and the atelier.

With Minase, people moved. Quite literally. Watches were picked up and carried towards the window, where Geneva’s natural light could do what press images and hotel lighting cannot.

The Yusai dials shifted in tone. Pigments created by a Japanese artist from materials including soil and flowers revealed nuances that seemed to change with every angle. Urushi lacquer, tree sap and gold leaf invited the same instinct: turn the watch, move it towards the light, look again.

Then came the loupe. And often, eventually: Can I see that one again? There was another change around the Minase table this year, too. More people arrived already knowing the name. Some knew which model they wanted to see. Others came looking for particular dials or techniques. For a brand that, only a few years ago, was largely unfamiliar outside specialist circles, that recognition felt significant. Discovery was still happening. It was simply starting from somewhere further along.

And then there was Schwarz Etienne. Here, the choreography was consistent. First, the dial. Black and gold. Immediate. Graphic. Then the watch turned over. And stayed there.

The six-bridge, pocket-watch-inspired architecture and gold micro-rotor of the 1902 Petite Seconde Heure Dorée changed the conversation. Watches went from dial to movement and back again as people tried to decide which side deserved their attention.

One comment captured it particularly well: The movement should be the dial. The dial brought people in. The movement made them stay.

The dial brought people in. The movement made them stay.

THE CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN WATCHES

But not everything around the table was about watches.

Emily from The Secret Diary of a Watch Girl arrived without a scheduled appointment. We found a way to sit down, and what began as her first encounter with Artisans de Genève became a twenty-minute conversation that moved from a Spike Lee watch to New York, Brooklyn and the cultural world around it. The watch opened the conversation. The conversation went somewhere else.

There were reunions, too. Beth Doerr brought the humor she always does, while Thomas Brechtel brought his eye for photography and generously turned the camera on us for a moment. There was also time to reconnect with Wei Koh and exchange thoughts on the industry and the brands we represent.

Secret Diary of a Watch Girl

Beth Doerr

Jason Gong

Pietro Pilla

And then there were the encounters that happened without any plan at all. Running into Danar Widanarto, known as Chronondo, became a conversation about his concierge world, our experiences with unconventional brands, and plenty of laughter in between. No formal appointment, no photograph to document it. Just the kind of spontaneous exchange that reminds you why being in the same place still matters. With some people, the watches eventually become secondary. You catch up. You laugh. You talk about life. That, too, is part of watch week.

AFTER ENOUGH PRESENTATIONS

Present the same watch often enough and something changes. The first presentations begin with the selling points. Then the script loosens.

You learn who wants to understand the mechanics first. Who responds to design. Who wants the story behind the craft. Who already knows the brand well enough that the formal presentation can last five minutes and the rest of the appointment can become something else entirely.

There is no perfect sentence that makes someone stop. Our role is to give context. To notice what matters to the person sitting opposite us. To make the story accessible and then, perhaps, know when to get out of its way. Because eventually the object has to do the rest.

The watches carry the emotion. But around the tables in Geneva, they also do something else: they give us a reason to sit down. Sometimes the conversation lasts ten minutes. Sometimes twenty. Sometimes it continues over a drink, at another event, or months later in another city.

The watch may be what brings us to the table. What happens around it is often what builds the relationship.

Geneva Watch Days 2026

When the Watches Become Real

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When the Watches Become Real

PARALLÈLE / GENEVA WATCH DAYS 2026
GENEVA NOTES · 01

When the Watches Become Real

A lighter mood, familiar faces, new encounters, and the pleasure of finally seeing the watches beyond the press images.

Geneva, Day One.

There is always a particular energy to the first day in Geneva. Yesterday it felt especially noticeable.

Busy, certainly. Energetic, definitely. But also lighter.

Around the tables were journalists and friends arriving from around the world. Different languages, different perspectives, but the same reason for being here: watches.

And by mid-morning, one gesture seemed to be repeating itself: people leaning in.

Behind the perfect shot with Emily @secretdiaryofawawatchgirl

SCHWARZ ETIENNE

When an image becomes a watch

There is another small pleasure that comes with the first day of a watch fair: finally meeting the watches you have been talking about for months.

The black-and-gold contrast creates the first impression. Then the watch turns over.

The first impression.

Then the watch turns over.

“The press image creates the first reaction. The watch itself creates the second.”

MINASE

A different kind of surprise

Minase Yusai Dials

The Mastercraft J3 creates curiosity for almost the opposite reason. Its more compact proportions and restrained design offer an accessible introduction to the Minase universe, a bridge for collectors discovering the brand for the first time.

But look beyond that first encounter and what truly sets Minase apart is its approach to Japanese craftsmanship. Across the wider collection, intricate decorative techniques bring different expressions of the brand’s heritage to the wrist, giving each piece a distinctly Japanese character.

The Mastercraft may open the door.
Craftsmanship is what makes people stay.

Looking, photographing, asking another question.

AROUND THE TABLE

The conversations between the watches

Geneva isn’t only about what is sitting on the table. There is room to sit, room to talk, and room for an appointment to become something less formal.

Meetings, familiar faces and new encounters across Geneva.

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY

Curiosity beyond the table

One of the day’s highlights came away from the traditional meeting table, with Swiss television filming our clients as part of its Geneva Watch Days coverage.

BEFORE DAY TWO

What stayed with us

By the end of the first day, the appointments had blurred slightly into one another and there were already far too many photographs on our phones.

The mood feels lighter this year.

And after months of looking at watches through screens, there is still no substitute for putting one on the wrist, turning it over and watching someone else discover the detail you have been waiting for them to see.

Not everything that happened.
Just what stayed with us.

OPENING EDITORIAL

Geneva Watch Days, Three Perspectives

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Geneva Watch Days, Three Perspectives

PARALÈLLE . GENEVA WATCH DAYS. OPENING EDITORIAL

Geneva, Three Perspectives

Three very different ideas of what contemporary watchmaking can be

OPENING
GENEVA WATCH DAYS
PARALLÈLE

Geneva Watch Days is one of those weeks when watches stop being images.

They are handled, turned in the light, discussed across tables, compared on the wrist. Proportions become clearer. Finishing becomes more legible. Sometimes a detail that seemed minor on paper becomes the thing everyone wants to talk about.

This September, three very different stories will be part of that conversation.

One comes from an independent Swiss manufacture exploring the darker, more graphic side of one of its collections. Another revisits Japanese ideas of simplicity through smaller proportions and hand-finishing. The third is less about novelty altogether, and more about what happens when a watch becomes deeply personal.

Here is what we will be looking at in Geneva.

01 SCHWARZ ETIENNE

Darkness, depth and the architecture of a movement

Schwarz Etienne is about to reveal a new expression of its 1902 collection. An encounter between depth, light and contrast, shaped by the Manufacture’s independent approach to watchmaking.

It’ll be interesting to see the watch on the wrist and how the light plays with the shadows.

This is what we’ll be looking forward to seeing in Geneva.

The brand will be showcasing at the Watchmakers United new store at Grand-rue, 34, Geneva

02 MINASE

A Quieter idea of refinement

The Mastercraft J3 begins with reduction.

Inspired by the M3, Minase revisits its idea of “ultimate simplicity” through more compact proportions, a subtle 1970s character and the precise surfaces of its signature Sallaz polishing.

Available in white, beige and black, the J3 also marks a mechanical shift with the introduction of the Japanese MIYOTA 90S5 automatic calibre.

It is a watch that seems less interested in spectacle than in the details that reveal themselves slowly: proportion, finish and the way its surfaces respond to light.

03 ARTISANS DE GENÈVE

When the watch is only the beginning

Artisans de Genève comes to Geneva from a completely different perspective.

The independent atelier works at the request of private watch owners, transforming an existing timepiece through a deeply personal process of dialogue, design and craftsmanship.

Importantly, Artisans de Genève does not manufacture, buy or sell watches. It works exclusively on timepieces already owned by its clients and operates independently from the original watch brands.

There is no collection to introduce. Instead, each project begins with an idea, a memory or something the owner wants their watch to express.

In a week naturally focused on novelty, Artisans de Genève offers another perspective: what if the most interesting watch is the one made more personal?

WHAT WE WILL BE WATCHING IN GENEVA

Beyond the watches themselves.

What editors notice first. The details that become apparent in person. The pieces that stay on the wrist a little longer than expected. The conversations that continue after the presentation ends.

Those are the moments we will be collecting in our Geneva Notes.

Not a diary of everything that happened.

Just the things worth remembering.

PARALLÈLE IN GENEVA

Geneva Watch Days 2026

This story opens our Geneva coverage.
Follow PARALLÈLE for Geneva Notes, closer looks at the watches and conversations from the week.

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