When I accept a watch for review, I usually know what I’m getting into. Dive watch, Submariner-style case, Sellita SW220-1? Got it. Field watch, canvas strap, Miyota 9015? Check. Racing chronograph, 70s vintage dial, Seiko VK64 MechaQuartz? Yep. I’m not saying they are all the same, only that I pretty much know what to expect when I open the box. And then, there are watches like the Yonger & Bresson Le Singulier, a tonneau-shaped, skeleton dial, … sports watch? I honestly had no idea what it would be like. After wearing one for a few days, I can confidently say that not every watch needs to be pigeonholed. Some watches are just uniquely, delightfully weird.
Yonger & Bresson is a French company that was founded in 1975 by two brothers named neither “Yonger” nor “Bresson” (eh, c’est la vie). Today, it is under Swiss-French ownership as part of the Ambre Group that also owns Yema. The Franck Muller design team designed the Singulier under the leadership of Gabriele Guidi, a Swiss watch designer with a resume that includes Longines, Tissot, Bulova, and Universal Geneve. The watches will be assembled in France and launch on Kickstarter in October for an Early Bird price of just $250. Full retail will be $500.
There will be three watches in the collection: silver, gold, and black. I sampled all three. I will note that there were all prototypes, and while they accurately represent the final product, they likely have been opened up and tinkered with quite a bit, so please ignore any odd bits of dust on the dials.
The Singulier has a tonneau case with a curved crystal. It doesn’t take much to see some Franck Muller Cintree Curvex influence, but the Singulier definitely goes in its own direction. Its brushed stainless steel case measures 35mm wide without its polished crown guards, 50mm long, and a whopping 15mm thick from the case back to the top of the domed K1 crystal. These unusual proportions already make for a unique case, but when you see the flow of the bowed sides, the rounded ends of the lugs, and the long, smooth arc of that crystal, it all begins to make sense.
It has an organic plumpness that is really quite pleasant. It isn’t just a steel blob; the character lines that carry up and over the case from the inner edges of the lugs, the blade-like shape of the lugs themselves, and the way that rectangular bezel frames the crystal all impart a necessary and satisfying element of tension. The overall effect is more streamlined than bulbous.
You don’t often see polished crown guards on a brushed case, but you do here, along with a polished crown and bezel. It works. Without that bit of shine, the watch would look a bit too sober. It needs some reflective surfaces to add a dash of life and better wed the case’s look to that of the intricate dial.
I found the Singulier to be a comfortable fit on my 6.75″ wrist and, somewhat surprisingly, not at all top-heavy. I didn’t even try to stuff it under a buttoned cuff. I know the limits of the shirts in my wardrobe, and a watch that is 15mm thick is pretty well beyond them. If you are wearing a Singulier in cool weather, might I suggest a sweater?
When I sent the above photo to The Time Bum team, Mike called it a “wrist zeppelin,” and I can see his point. This timepiece has mass and presence that will rival your burliest tool watches, and why not? Despite its ornate dial, it is not a dress watch. The Singulier is rated for 50m water resistance and has useful (if not dive watch potent) lume. The lugs are drilled, although interestingly, only on one side of each lug, because now that I think of it, why do you need two?
The black rubber strap underscores the sporting aspect. I initially thought the utilitarian strap was an odd mismatch with that fanciful dial, but again, this isn’t a dress watch. A rubber strap is an appropriate choice for a sports watch, and this one works rather well. It is 20mm at the lugs, tapering to 18mm at the signed deployant clasp, and has the Y&B crown logo molded in. It’s also a lint magnet, but that is to be expected.
I found the strap worked best on the black model, but I suspect I’d seek out something in leather for the silver or gold variants.
Now, let’s examine those dials.
I must confess, I am not a great fan of skeleton dials. They tend to look cool in pictures, but they can appear gimmicky in real life and are often impossible to read. I had no such issues with the Singulier. For one thing, the dial is more stylized than many open dialed watches, featuring a polished cutaway design that echoes the clockworks below it, in addition to an outer dial with grooves that radiate from its open center. For another, the designers really took advantage of the open dial concept by printing the 1975 crown logo and “Automatique” label directly onto the crystal. I love the floating illusion it creates and the fact that when the light is just right, you can catch its reflection in the polished brightwork beneath it.
A perfectly functional chapter index carries all the markers. The handsets on each of the variants provide sufficient contrast to remain legible against the intricate background. Arguably, the black model affords the best view of the time with its high-contrast white-on-black index and white-lumed hands over the dark mechanical innards beneath, but the black second hand all but disappears.
The gold watch features gold hands on a gold overlay and a gold dial. It is clearly the dressiest of the three. Like the black model, it relies heavily on that lume fill for its legibility while offering far less contrast between the hands and the dial. As someone who does not often wear gold watches, I was surprised by how much I liked it, even though I found I needed to look more closely to read the time. It’s pretty, but it has sacrificed some function for that form.
The silver one was the clear winner for me. The blued hands look fabulous and are clearly visible against that complex and shiny backdrop.
As long as we have a good look at the hands, check out the crown counterweight on the second hand’s tail. Very nice, although for those counting crowns, that’s five so far: second hand, crystal, crown (the one you wind with), and one on each length of the strap.
While you get a glimpse of the movement up front, you can also flip the Singulier over for a better look at the Miyota 8N24 (21.6k bph, 42-hour reserve) skeleton automatic. A signed and drilled custom rotor is a nice touch, but really, it’s the patterned case back that caught my attention. If you’ve been counting crowns, you can stop now. That’s a lot of crowns. Still, I dig the effect.
As I said at the beginning, the Yonger & Bresson Le Singulier is difficult to categorize. Your choice of color (and possibly your decision to swap straps) will determine just how sporty or dressy you care to go. It is a watch with everyday utility and, better still, an everyday price tag. I know it isn’t a Franck Muller, but it is wild that you can get some of that Franck flavor for just $500, let alone the crazy low $250 Early Bird price.
If the fun and funky Singulier speaks to you, head over to the Yonger & Bresson website and sign up for Kickstarter notification. I doubt those Early Bird slots will last long.
