I must admit that I have never visited Venice but the more I look at Venezianico’s watches the more I want to. Venezianico, for those unfamiliar, is an Italian microbrand that takes its inspiration from the aquatic city it calls home. Surrounded by water as they are, their flagship watch is the Nereide, a cool dive watch available in a number of colours and styles. They also produce a dress watch and a chronograph. However, their newest collection is none of those things. Instead, it’s a somewhat sporty, industrial-chic watch with an integrated bracelet called the Venezianico Arsenale.
The name Arsenale comes from a famous building in Venice. The Arsenale was built in 1104 and is the major pre-industrial shipyard and production facility that crafted The Republic of Venice’s legendary trading and military fleet, which made the city a powerhouse in the Mediterranean. It was the industrial heart of the city employing around 2,000 people at maximum capacity. It’s where the hard work happened to turn the rest of Venice into the cultural centre of art and design as we know it today.
It’s this combination of industry and culture that inspired the Venezianico Arsenale. Starting with the case, it has a 40mm diameter in steel with an integrated bracelet design. Steel integrated bracelet watches were popularised in the 1970s by famous designers like Gerald Genta who created timepieces like the Patek Philippe Nautilus, Audemars Piguet Royal Oak and IWC Ingenieur. They tend to have bold, sporty shapes and geometric focusses that give them a quasi-industrial aesthetic and the same is true of the Arsenale here.
It has a round design with large, flat surfaces and sharply angled facets that lead directly into the bracelet. The bracelet itself is the latest generation of Venezianico’s Canova Concept, a style of H-link bracelet where the links alternate between being convex and concave. The facets of the design are further emphasised by the contrasting brushed and polished finishing on alternating surfaces. Matching that is the coin-edged bezel, which really shows the blend of refinement and industrial vibes.
Continuing that same concept is the dial, which has Côtes de Genève finishing available in either blue, anthracite or violet. Côtes de Genève, sometimes known as Geneva Stripes due to the vertical striped appearance it creates, is a form of elegant finishing often seen on a watch’s movement. It’s associated with the machinery and mechanics of a watch, not typically the main display. Industry presented as art – this watch has really nailed its theme. Beyond the finishing of the dial, it remains quite modest and restrained. It has understated baton hour markers, skeletonised dauphine hands and the brand’s Venetian cross logo.
Protected by a solid caseback that depicts an image of the Arsenale, the Venezianico Arsenale houses the Miyota cal. 9029. It’s essentially a two-hand version of the more widely used 9039 and has the same specs such as the 42-hour power reserve and -10/+30 seconds per day accuracy.
The Venezianico Arsenale will be available for purchase from September 26th at a price of €800 (approx. £675). At that price its main competition is the Tissot PRX, which is also an accessible integrated bracelet sports watch. With the Powermatic 80 I think the PRX wins the technical battle but in terms of style and exclusivity, the Arsenale takes it by a landslide. As a closing thought, I think this might be the closest thing to an accessible take on the Parmigiani Tonda PF I’ve seen to date.
Price and Specs:
More details at Venezianico.
