Practical beginnings: Retter Mistral dress watch

While the brand's first watch launched two years ago was an integrated stainless steel bracelet watch, Retter took things in a decidedly dressier direction with its follow-up release for 2024. While the original model from Retter was loosely based on the design of the Vacheron Constantin 222, the brand's second iteration, drawing on the historic Swiss manufacturers' famous Corne de Vache dress watches from the 1950s for its aesthetic inspiration. Debuting in three different colorways, the new Retter Mistral offers a refined and elegant profile and features a slim, multi-component case paired with a highly structural dial and Swiss hand-wound movement.

Made from stainless steel, the Retter Mistral's case features sculpted Corne de Vache style lugs, although to achieve the look and finish Retter desired, the lugs had to be separately attached components instead of being hand-machined. from the same block of metal as the middle case. While the standard method would be to solder the lugs onto the case, the Retter Mistral opts for a two-piece caseband, where the lugs are part of a midsection surrounded by a ring-shaped outer component that forms the sides of the case. the case. The bezel and case back are then mounted on either side of the watch to hold the two case parts together and hide any connection points. This approach allows for contrasting finishing styles and clean transitions that would not be possible with a single component. case construction. The sides of the case are brushed, while the top surfaces and bezel are polished, and thin bevels that measure just 0.2mm wide run along the edges of the horn-shaped lugs.

In terms of dimensions, the Retter Mistral's case measures 38mm wide by 6.8mm thick, and its sculpted lugs are spaced 20mm apart and extend to create an overall lug-to-lug profile of 42.4mm ( or approximately 45mm if you include the pointed tips of the horns). Once you take into account the double-domed sapphire crystal with anti-reflective treatment that protrudes slightly above the edge of the bezel, the overall height of the watch rises to 7.4mm, while the reverse is fitted with a caseback screwed box. which preserves its particularly thin profile. A signed winding crown sits at 3 o'clock, water resistance reaches 100 meters (which is very respectable for a dress watch), and the downward curvature of the Mistrals' horn-shaped lugs helps promote a incredibly flat and comfortable watch. wrist experience. An important detail is that even though the lugs are 20mm apart, the location of the spring bar holes is close enough to the case to aid aesthetics and comfort; However, this means you will need to use curved spring bars if you plan to explore third-party strap options.

At the time of launch, the Retter Mistral is available in three different colorways, including gold, silver, and the green version shown here. Aside from the colors of their dials, hands and straps, all three models are otherwise identical and they feature the same multi-layered textured dial style. A central section with deep vertical grooves occupies the middle of the display, surrounded by a raised section that contains the applied indexes. A contrasting angular flange with a printed minutes track is mounted on top of the dial around the periphery of its display, while a running seconds sub-dial with a grain-textured finish sits at the 6 o'clock location and is recessed into the central section of the dial, slightly intersecting the raised ring and applied index at the bottom of the screen. Although the majority of the dial is green on this particular version of the Mistral, its contrasting minute ring is silver, which complements the various polished elements that appear in the form of its hands, indexes, applied logo and the thin circular. frame for the current seconds subdial that occupies the bottom half of the screen.

The Retter Mistral features two partially skeletonized alpha hands in the center of its dial to display the time, while a smaller alpha-shaped seconds hand sits in the recessed subdial at 6 o'clock. Personally, I find this vintage-themed style of handset works very well with the refined old-world aesthetic of the Mistral, although my only real issue with the watch's design concerns the proportions of its minute hand. Although the difference in size between the hour and minute hands is enough to avoid readability issues, I ultimately would have liked the minute hand to be a bit longer so that its tip was closer to the indexes minutes track correspondents. While the Retter Mistral is definitely a rather dressy watch, it still offers luminous elements to aid visibility in low-light conditions, and all hands and indexes receive an application of X1 Super-LumiNova to give them a blue glow. the darkness.

The Retter Mistral is powered by the brand's Caliber 2105 hand-wound movement, based on the basic architecture of the ETA 7001. While the Retter Cal. 2105 still operates at a frequency of 21,600 vibrations per hour (3 Hz) with a power reserve of approximately 42 hours, its bridges have been completely reworked and finished in a significantly more elaborate manner. The micro-blasted skeletonized bridges are mounted above a rhodium-plated plate, with visible perlage under the balance wheel, and all upper bridges are secured by hot-blued screws, with the entire movement visible through the flat window in sapphire in the case back. Just like the ETA 7001 which serves as its basis, the Retter Cal. 2015 does not offer the convenience of a seconds hacking mechanism, although it is regulated beyond the standards of a premium ETA 7001 at -/+10 seconds per day, and the brand explicitly states that most watches will keep time much better than theirs. -paper settings.

The Retter Mistral's horns are fitted with a custom-made two-piece bracelet produced for the brand by French manufacturer Jean-Rousseau. The straps are made from dyed goatskin with an Alcantara lining and feature a tapered structure to match the profile of the lugs. As well as tapering from 20mm at the case to 16mm where they connect to their signature stainless steel pin buckles, the strap padding also tapers from 3.5mm to 2.5mm d thickness, and both sides connect to the housing with a set of curved loops. Quick release springs integrated into strap ends. The straps in the Retter Mistral collection match the colors of the watch faces, and the soft goatskin leather creates an incredibly comfortable experience on the wrist. Additionally, although I wear the standard length bracelet on its smallest hole size for my 6.5-6.75 inch wrist, Retter also offers a short version of the bracelet that customers can select when placing their orders.

I'm generally drawn to casual, utilitarian watches, although I have a deep appreciation for dress watches, because I find it fascinating to see what brands create when they don't have to worry about providing worthy depth notes. 'a dive or maximum resilience levels. With that in mind, many of my favorite dress watches are way out of budget, and since the majority of affordable independent brands have historically focused on sports and tool watches, potential buyers don't have quite the same range of options when it comes to accessible pieces that offer refined and dressy designs. With an official selling price of $1,595 USD, the Retter Mistral isn't exactly in the realm of budget watch novelties, even though it costs a fraction of what it takes to buy a dress watch from the big luxury brands. Additionally, given its svelte profile, multi-component case, and aesthetically pleasing hand-wound movement, the Retter Mistral ultimately represents a very compelling offering that provides plenty of visual intrigue in a very well thought. For more information on the Retter Mistral, please visit the brands website.