After almost two years of development and delays, Atelier Wen has revealed the Atelier Wen Perception, the proudly Chinese-made follow-up to its wildly successful debut Porcelain Odyssey.
The Release
The Atelier Wen Perception comes in a somewhat angular 904L steel case is 40mm wide with a 47mm lug-to-lug and is just 9.4mm thick. The case is brushed with a polished chamfer that extends on top and bottom on each side, up from the lugs, around the case, and down the other lug. A screwdown crown allows for 100m water resistance. The bracelet fits perfectly into the case, giving the appearance of being integrated, but in fact featuring quick-release pins to allow swapping to the similarly fitted rubber strap. The bracelet features a polished chamfer that continues from the case, as well as a folding clasp with on-the-fly adjustability; the rubber strap features a custom deployant buckle in the form of the brand’s logo.
The dial is surrounded by a round polished bezel which holds a double-domed sapphire crystal. The dial is hand-turned guilloché available in copper, blue, or grey, and each takes eight hours to complete and is done by one artisan; it is affixed with applied rhodium-plated markers. The hands are hand bent and rhodium-plated (heat-blued for the grey dial), and filled with Super-LumiNova BGW9 lume, which is matched in the stylized chapter ring.
The caseback has a high-relief design with a small sapphire aperture showing off the movement, the Dandong SL1588. While the movement features 32 jewels and is compensated for heat and cold, Atelier Wen has proceeded with a number of modifications: a slimmer profile, regulation down to -/+ 10 seconds per day, and a longer 41-hour power reserve. Further, the brand hopes to remove the ghost date position and add hacking functionality. The movement itself is decorated with perlage, anglage, and striping, while the tungsten rotor is black rhodium-plated with circular striping.
Our Thoughts
The first thing I noticed was the price, about $2,087. Smaller brands can have issues with how they position themselves in the market, but also with maintaining that position. With many microbrands, once they establish themselves at the sub-$1k price (as most do), they are stuck there unless they want to awkwardly or brazenly jump around a bit. Atelier Wen’s debut Porcelain Odyssey was priced around $750 retail (thought it was available for as little as $518 on Kickstarter), and a $1,300 jump for the Perception is not nothing. In fact, it puts the Atelier Wen well into an entirely different competitive sphere: they aren’t competing with microbrands anymore, but larger, more established independents and some conglomerate brands. Pushing a brand upwards—repositioning it—isn’t unheard of. Oris has done this with by introducing an in-house Caliber 400 and a price increase along with it, while the small brand Orion Watches made a similar jump from its the Seiko-equipped Orion 1 to its ETA-equipped, curved-back Calamity (one of the most comfortable watches I’ve ever worn).
The key to success in pushing upmarket is justifying the increase in price, and I think Atelier Wen has done that handily. The highly customized (I’m honestly shocked by how much the brand has been able to change), thermocompensated movement looks great and the guilloché here is stunning. The fact that there’s only one guy who’s able to do the work by hand in all of China makes it even more special. Atelier Wen’s proud and full-throated commitment to Chinese production is admirable, especially at a time when most brands want to hide any connection to China. (Atelier Wen is not the first small brand to take the approach: Maison Celadon and its companion brand Celadon HH have created beautiful watches entirely in China.) Though the big brands don’t want you to know it, China produces a huge amount of their watch components; Atelier Wen has created a watch that publicly showcases the country’s ability, instead of hiding it like some shameful secret. Hopefully the Perception and the brand’s subsequent watches will open peoples’ eyes and give Chinese craftsmanship the respect it so clearly deserves.
Availability
The Atelier Wen Perception is priced at $2,088 for preorders with a final retail of $2,588 and production will be limited, though numbers have not been specified. It’s available for preorder now, for delivery in October 2022, on the Atelier Wen site, which also has more photos and information on the craftsmanship behind the watch.