The Time Bum doesn’t review many women’s watches, but I have set a new record in 2019 by reviewing not just one (the Phobos Sea Nymph), but now two! The Eliana Timekeeper Twilight Glint is a small, automatic dress watch coming to Kickstarter on January 8. [Update: the campaign is live and runs through February 8!] I took a turn evaluating a rose gold prototype.
Sherrie Han is the founder of Eliana Timekeeper. A lawyer and mother in Singapore, she started her quest for a mechanical women’s watch after taking a day-long watchmaking class. She soon discovered that most women’s watches were either too expensive, too overdone, too masculine, or quartz. We have heard this story before, “I could not find a watch that satisfied me, so I designed my own” is a microbrand cliché right up there with “We wanted to disrupt the industry,”; however, in this case, it is true. Affordable, mechanical women’s watches are not common and are mostly downsized unisex designs. Moreover, the vast majority of microbrand watch companies are owned by men who have little desire to wade into what is perceived as a risky niche market.
Right out of the box, it is clear that the Twilight Glint was designed for women. Its stainless steel case measures just 28mm wide, tapering to a 24mm case back, with 14mm lugs attached to the barrel by a slender bridge. It is far smaller than any contemporary men’s watch and distinctly feminine. Showing it on my furry paw would be awful, so I have instead taken a frame from the Eliana Timekeeper launch video. You’re welcome.
The more I examined the case, the more I liked it. While it is only 11mm thick, the tiny diameter makes it appear far stouter, giving the otherwise diminutive watch a surprising presence. It seems this is both a blessing and a curse. Where I found the thickness appealing, Mrs. Time Bum did not and would have much preferred a lower profile.
Fine coin edges on both the bezel and the case back provide a welcome dash of decoration without going over the top. The crown is similarly appointed along with a synthetic onyx stone set at the head. While small, the crown is not comically undersized as they often are on women’s watches. My wife owns a Movado with a crown so shallow and featureless that I would swear was designed as a joke to prevent you from operating it. The Twilight’s crown suffers no such handicap,
operating smoothly and comfortably with more than adequate grip.
Water resistance is 30m, which is on par for an everyday dress watch. You get an anti-reflective coated sapphire crystal up front, and an exhibition window out back to show off the 21 jewel Miyota 6T28 Automatic skeleton movement.
The watch will be offered in polished steel or rose gold PVD cases with gray linen pattern or Singularity Black dials. The press loaner was black or in the parlance of Spinal Tap, “none more black.” You see, Sherrie chose a nanoparticle coating for the dial that absorbs 99% of light. I must confess that my eyes could not discern any additional blackness, but it does have an appealingly rough texture to the surface and a deep matte finish. Four Swarovski Crystals mark the primary hours. It is an attractive layout, but not without its issues.
As you no doubt recognized in the photos, the Twilight Glint is an open heart design. Regular readers may recall that I am generally critical of most – but not all – open heart and skeleton watches (I liked the Whytes 150M series so much that I bought one for myself and wear it often), yet I took no issue with the porthole because, given the watch’s reason for existence, it makes sense to show off its mechanism as much as possible. Mrs. Time Bum disagreed, citing the window’s position. As it stands, the open heart window is roughly in the 5 o’clock position and edges into the lower left quadrant right over the 6. If it were centered at 4 or 6 o’clock, she would have been fine, but the fact that is not quite entered anywhere was a deal-breaker for her. Of course, neither of those options is possible with this movement if you want to keep the crown at 3 o’clock.
We both agreed that the yellow gold movement was not a great match for the rose gold case. This would be easily remedied by ordering the other case, although after poking around the Eliana Timepiece gallery, I think my favorite would be the
striking linen dial in the steel case with the plain, non-gilt movement.
Buyers will have the option of a calf leather strap or the bracelet shown here. Given the case proportions, I’d lean towards the bracelet, which features an attractive combination of polished ends and satin-brushed centers, and a signed, low-profile butterfly clasp. Drilled lugs and quick-release spring bar facilitate swapping.
In the end, I liked the Twilight Glint. The overall aesthetic is feminine but not garish, modern, but not sterile. I love the silver/linen combination. Then again, I am not the target market – Mrs. Time Bum is, and the watch left her cold. To her, the appeal of a mechanical movement did not outweigh the additional thickness required. Ironically, I think a broader case might have swayed her as just a couple more millimeters would have spread it out just enough to make the watch seem slimmer and less top-heavy.
Mrs. Time Bum’s misgivings aside, I think Sherrie is on to something here. I have spoken to several female watch aficionados who have lamented the relative absence of mechanical microbrand watches for women and the Eliana Timepieces Twilight Glint is an excellent first entry into that underserved market. If the launch is successful, I hope to see more variants (a solid dial, perhaps?) and new models to draw more women into the hobby.
The Eliana Timepieces Twilight Glint will launch on Kickstarter on January 8 with a starting pre-order price of just $350 US, about 45% of expected retail. For more information and to get on the announcements list, visit elianatimekeeper.com.
