PARALLÈLE / WATCHES & JEWELLERY
IN FOCUS · COL&MCARTHUR
When History Becomes Part of the Watch
From lunar meteorites to the Berlin Wall and America’s founding story, the Belgian brand explores what happens when watches carry more than time.
What if the most interesting detail of a watch had nothing to do with its movement? Not because the mechanics are unimportant, but because something else catches your attention first. A fragment of lunar meteorite. A piece of the Berlin Wall. Sand from the Normandy beaches. Or, in a recent collection, a small piece of material connected to the American Revolutionary War.
These are not the materials we usually associate with watchmaking. Yet for Col&McArthur, they are central to the idea behind many of its creations.
Founded in Belgium in 2013 by Sébastien Colen, the brand has developed a distinctive approach: choosing an event, a historical figure or a cultural achievement, then translating its story into a watch.
The result is a collection of timepieces that invites a different kind of curiosity. You don’t just look at the dial to read the time. You look closer to understand what is behind it.
The story comes first. The watch gives it a physical form.
A Belgian brand with a different starting point
Col&McArthur does not follow the familiar path of a watchmaker built around a signature case shape or a single family of complications. Its identity is primarily found in the subjects it chooses.
Space exploration, military history, scientific discovery, music and cultural icons all appear across its collections. Some watches incorporate materials associated with their subject; others use unusual displays, engravings or symbolic details to communicate the story.
The watches are assembled in Belgium, with Swiss movements used across several collections, including mechanical calibers from Sellita and quartz movements from Ronda.
The Lunar 1969 collection offers a particularly compelling example of this philosophy. Inspired by Apollo 11, its three-dimensional dial recreates the Moon’s cratered landscape, while a fragment of lunar meteorite at 12 o’clock introduces a physical connection to the subject. According to the brand, the material comes from the NWA 11515 meteorite, discovered in Northwest Africa in 2017. It is an unusual detail that captures what makes Col&McArthur different: the story is not simply illustrated on the watch. Sometimes, part of it is incorporated into the watch itself.
Four collections, four ways of telling a story
American history, on the wrist.
In 2026, as the United States marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, Col&McArthur turns its attention across the Atlantic. The Patriot 1776 collection explores one of the defining chapters of American history through the same combination of symbolism and physical material found in the brand’s other historical watches.
Its most distinctive detail is a fragment of a Revolutionary War musket ball, which the brand says was sourced through an American specialist in historical artifacts and incorporated into the small-seconds display. The surrounding design draws on the Liberty Bell, the original colonies and the founding of the United States.
It is an interesting development for a Belgian brand whose earlier collections have explored European history and space exploration. The Patriot 1776 connects its storytelling with an American audience at a moment when the country’s founding history is receiving renewed attention. And it illustrates the central idea behind Col&McArthur: a watch can become a point of entry into a much larger historical conversation.
A piece of the circuit, on the wrist.
Some places become part of sporting history. The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps is one of them. Inaugurated in 1921 in the Belgian Ardennes, it has witnessed more than a century of motor racing, becoming one of the most recognizable circuits in the world.
With Francorchamps 1921, Col&McArthur brings that history into watchmaking through an officially licensed collaboration. The dial is made from authentic asphalt taken from the circuit itself. In the automatic chronograph, the subdials incorporate material from the track’s curbing, while the pushers are crafted from steel recovered from the former Uniroyal tower.
The result is more than a motorsport-inspired watch. It brings together materials that have physically belonged to the circuit, creating a direct connection between the object and the place it celebrates. For a Belgian watchmaking brand, it is also a particularly meaningful tribute to its own heritage.
History you can hold.
The Normandy 1944 collection takes a more solemn approach. Commemorating the Allied landings of June 6, 1944, it incorporates materials associated with the liberation of Europe, including sand from the Normandy landing beaches and, in certain versions, material from an original American M1 military helmet.
These details are intended to establish a physical connection with the events and people being remembered. They also raise a broader question about commemorative objects. Can something designed for everyday use help preserve the memory of events that become more distant with each generation?
Col&McArthur’s approach is to make that memory part of the watch itself. The collection is not simply about military aesthetics. Its central theme is remembrance.
When watchmaking meets music.
Col&McArthur’s exploration of history is not limited to events that happened decades or centuries ago. Its Céline Dion collection introduces a more contemporary cultural dimension, celebrating an artist whose music has become part of the personal memories of audiences around the world.
The Tribute and Prestige interpretations bring the brand’s storytelling approach into a different universe, with details including mother-of-pearl and references to the singer. The significance of this direction lies in the way it broadens the idea of commemoration.
History is not always a distant event. Sometimes it is something we remember experiencing ourselves. For Col&McArthur, the connection between a watch and its subject can therefore be personal as well as historical.
Why these watches deserve a closer look
Col&McArthur occupies an unusual position in contemporary watchmaking. Its collections do not share a single visual language. A watch incorporating material from the Spa-Francorchamps circuit, a fragment of a Revolutionary War musket ball, sand from the Normandy beaches and a tribute to Céline Dion might not immediately appear to belong to the same family.
But look beyond their appearance and the connection becomes clearer. Each one asks the wearer to discover something. And this is where seeing the watches in person becomes particularly interesting.
Photographs can reveal the textures and details of a dial, but they cannot fully convey the experience of examining the materials, understanding their origins or seeing how the watches feel on the wrist.
It also creates opportunities for questions that are not always part of a conventional watch presentation. Where did this material come from? Why was this particular event chosen? What does this symbol represent? For a brand built around stories, those conversations are part of the experience.
More than a commemorative watch
There are many ways to preserve history. Books, photographs, museums and archives allow us to revisit events and understand the people who shaped them. Col&McArthur proposes something different: transforming selected moments into objects that accompany everyday life.
This approach will not appeal to every watch enthusiast. Some collectors will always prioritize movement architecture, finishing or traditional design codes. But for those interested in the intersection of watchmaking, history and personal meaning, the brand offers something worth discovering.
Perhaps that is the most interesting thing about Col&McArthur. The watches tell time, certainly. But they also give us a reason to stop and look closer.
Some stories are worth preserving, while others are worth keeping in motion.
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