Weird isn’t a monolith. There is weird that lacks cohesion, and is garish – we’ll call this “Invicta Weird.” There is also weird that, despite being a combination of elements that shouldn’t work together, merge to make something interesting. The new and vintage Porsche 911 Dakar models come to mind as the brand took one of the world’s preeminent road sports cars and turned it into an amazing off-road racing demon. While I’m not prepared to put Estrowerk’s Estro One into Porsche’s vaunted pantheon of delightful oddities, it is at least a member of the family.
There are two key elements that make the Estro One an oddity: the dial layout, and the case design. I keep a list of watches — both models and types — to help focus my purchases and avoid impulsiveness. I assure you that nowhere on this list did I make a note for a futuristic, sci-fi-styled regulator. Taking an esoteric display format as the basis for forward-looking timepieces is a bold move, and I can’t help but think that the team at Estrowerk knows this, as they’ve leaned heavily into the anachronism, and to great effect.
Regulator displays first appeared in clocks during the 18th century, and were used in a variety of functions that required the accuracy and legibility of the format, with their ability to easily read the minutes distinctly from hours and seconds. These clocks were used by watchmakers in their production of timepieces, and, most memorably to me, aboard sailing ships as tools for tracking the time needed to calculate longitude. In a way, the Estro 1 harkens to the exploratory nature of these ship-borne regulators of old, updated for an imagined future in which interplanetary travel is a common part of life. The hour scale, which employs a 24-hour format, is an example of this. It evokes a spacefaring existence in which sunrises and sunsets are no longer the arbiters of one’s circadian rhythm or daily activities. Yes, I know the measurement of time varies across the solar system and galaxies, but like much sci-fi, we are speaking romantically, not literally. The lume pattern and brightness on the Estro One will ensure that, even in the darkest depths of outer space, you’ll still be able to read the time.
To achieve the regulator layout, Estrowerk has utilized the Miyota 82S7. Typically, this automatic movement has a more traditional central hour hand, along with a 24-hour subdial, and a small seconds subdial. In the Estro One, the brand has left off the central hour hand, so the main hour hand is represented by the movement’s 24-hour subdial. I can already hear some of you questioning, perhaps even guffawing, at the presence of a Miyota 8 series in a watch costing close to $1,000. Though I do think movement quality matters, I don’t find it reasonable to look at just two factors (price and movement) to assess value. A watch is about much more than just the movement, and in this instance, a lot of the Estro One’s value is rooted in the design and execution of the case, the dial, and the integration of the bracelet into the case. While not a sexy choice, I’ve found the 8 series to be reliable in other watches, and I appreciate Estrowerk’s creativity in adapting a cost-effective movement into a higher-concept design.
Estrowerk made some compromises on the dial that put the design slightly ahead of function. You’ll notice the lack of a full-scale minute track, or even 5-minute intervals for the minutes function. Though the current composition of the minutes function is aesthetically pleasing, with a modern but restrained font for the 10-minute intervals, the lack of anything beyond 10-minute intervals is a functional oversight for a watch utilizing a display format designed for hyper-accurate readings. Similarly, the seconds hand diminishes the ability to precisely tell the time. It is quite an attractive execution, with its angular propeller look, but its symmetry means that you cannot tell which side is pointing to the seconds. When I asked about these details, they acknowledged that these were considered design choices, in which they elected to focus on simpler aesthetics over precise time telling. Given that the movement in use, as the brand acknowledged, is usually accurate to -20/ +40- seconds/day, it is a reasonable tradeoff of form and function.
I would be curious, nonetheless, to see a version of the dial with a couple of tweaks to these elements. For the minute track, timekeeping could be improved by keeping the Arabic numerals in their current positions and utilizing a hashmark layout for the remaining minutes that uses color or line length to emphasize the 5-minute intervals. For the second hand (and this may be beyond the manufacturing capacity available at this price point), finishing half of the hand’s perimeter in the accent color for each model would let you know which end is pointing at the present time. These changes and critiques are more in the realm of preference, though, and overall I find the dial very attractive, and in line with the watch’s overall design ethos.
Sticking with the dial, I absolutely love the depth and detail the brand has achieved. To some extent, we can thank the removal of the central hour hand, as doing so allows the dial furniture — and there’s a lot of furniture here — to be more elevated from the dial plate. The plate itself, which you see here as the dark gray metallic backdrop to the accent color, is finished with intricately detailed radial grooves. Within the subdials, these present as more typical radial patterns, but in the perimeter space between the 50 and 20-minute markers, you can see the excellent detailing where two radial fan patterns intersect. Under the 60-minute position, you’ll find the brand’s name in a font that is good, but not quite as on-point as that of the Arabic numerals on the dial. Given the brand’s focus on paring back the dial markings, I could see a symbolic logo playing better here, but I also understand the brand-building logic at play; it is probably a good idea to put your brand name on your first watch.
Estrowerk’s work (werk?) continues to shine with the case, where a lot of work has gone into making a fascinating case design, particularly for a watch under $1000. Truly, I struggle to think of another watch at or below $1k that does what the skeletal buttresses do for the Estro One’s look. The MHD SA2 comes to mind, but Estrowerk has taken the form further than MHD. The integration of the bracelet into that case illustrates the architectural intrigue, as the piece of the case that receives the bracelet offers two distinct views. From the top down, that portion of the case appears to float, with a small connection to the central case structure overlapped by the bezel. From the side, the same part of the case maintains a structural flow with the lines of the buttresses, interrupted mainly by the different colors of the metal for the core part of the case, and the cobalt blue buttresses. The overall effect reminds me of some of Porsche Design’s modern lineup but with a more brutalist language. That brutalist design belies how compact this watch actually wears, as it has moderate dimensions of 40mm x 49mm x 12.5mm.
Unlike some other integrated bracelet watches, the AP Royal Oak and Tissot PRX, for example, the lugs on the Estro One are compatible with third-party 20mm straps. This is much more akin to Autodromo’s Group B, where the integrated appearance comes more from the lower flange of the links that affix to the case, than from the case effectively serving as the first link in the bracelet, as with the aforementioned models. I’m glad Estowerk took this approach, as it makes the watch more flexible without having to shell out extra for bespoke straps.
The bracelet itself is nicely done and fits the watch’s overall temperament. The y-shaped links overlap, working from the watch head toward the butterfly clasp, so what you really see is more of a bandolier-style bracelet. The machining is well done, especially considering the sample I had in for review was a prototype and one that had been handled by others prior to my time with it. The links are affixed via a pin and collar system, and one of the good ones that doesn’t send you searching every corner of your home trying to find the collar that fell out during adjustment. I did take the bracelet off the watch and enjoyed it even more when worn on a woven single-pass strap. It won’t be straightforward to find a third-party strap with a fabric color that complements the Estro One’s more boisterous colorways, and you can forget about trying to color-match the hardware, but the wearing experience will make the hunt worthwhile.
What Estrowerk has done with their first model is pretty remarkable, beyond the quirky dial layout. Watches that look like this typically belong in the realm of high horology with De Bethune, Hublot, and Urkwerk. Though the Estro One is not to the level of watchmaking offered by those brands, it is a similarly bold and well-executed statement, a deviation from the mundanity of revisions and retreads that dominate the current watch market, a market that has left me a bit bored of late. Sure, there are lots of nice things, but little that has moved my emotive needle of late. Contrarily, the Estro One has been one of the more fun, purely enjoyable watches I’ve experienced recently. The watch isn’t perfect, but its ebullient nature obviates the need for functional precision, offering a refreshing deviation from the greatest hits retreads of the day.
Check out Estrowerk’s website for more info about the Estro One.
