COMPANY: DIETRICH
WEBSITE: www.dietrich.luxury
MODEL: OT-1
SPECIFICATIONS:
Modified automatic mechanical movement Miyota 82-S-7 with an open view on the escapement dial side.
Hour, minute, small second and 24 hour hands.
Water resistant up to 50 meters / 5 ATM.
Length: 48 mm / 1.89 in.
Width of case: 46 mm / 1.81 in.
Total width including the crown: 49 mm / 1.92 in
Height: 13.7 mm / .51 in.
Weight with leather bracelet: about 128 gr.
Comes with a double layered, reinforced, black nylon strap with, stainless
steel buckle
Length: 240 mm / 9.5 in.
Width: 24 mm / .94 in. at buckle
Custom cut Sapphire glass.
Crown sealed with double O-ring.
Case, frame and bezel, 316L steel, case and frame micro-bead blasted and coated with black PVD, bezel micro-blasted and brushed.
4 layered dial: first and third layers, sun brushed dark grey, second and
fourth layers vertical brushed dark grey.
Bright green night luminescent »Super-Luminova« on hands and indexes
underneath the sapphire glass and for the 24 hour indicator.
Black PVD coated, steel hex screws on bezel and engraved back.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE DESIGNER FROM THE DIETRICH WEBSITE
Born in Besançon, the historic watch capital of France, in 1969, Emmanuel Dietrich has had a long love affair with timepieces. Influenced by his birthplace’s culture of masterful design and technique, Emmanuel left for Paris to formalize his design education.
Graduating from the prestigious Parisian design school, the Ecole Boulle with a diploma in Interior Design, Mr. Dietrich’s creative endeavors led him to the world of product design.
After 20 years of designing for some of the world’s most prominent brands, Mr. Dietrich wanted to magnify his artistic scope and invite his audience into his own universe.
“As a designer, an object-obsessed-daydreamer, you spend your life collecting visual impressions. My mind and imagination are saturated with images and experiences that echo and mix ultimately laying the groundwork for my designs. This was the case with the conception of the ORGANIC TIME.
The ORGANIC TIME is the translation of my singular world. It is the expression of my desire for balance, a b
THE PACKAGING:
The first thing that I noticed about the OT-1 packaging is how flat the box is. It felt like an encyclopedia in terms of size at first I really did think that is was a hardback catalog or book. It comes in a plain white outer cardboard box and inside is a large grey two-toned box. The magnetic fastened lid is a dark grey and the outer edges of the inner box is a lighter grey. The lid is covered in old text book like covering which is really well done. I really like the look and size of the box. It’s is not your traditional watch box and the overall flatness of the box is perfect for storing. It fits perfectly on a bookshelf in a line up of books. When you open the lid to the box it’s nice to see a watch that is laying completely flat, not wrapped around a watch pillow. The watch is in a very soft pouch that closes with a draw string. The pouch is grey with black stitching around the edges. The pouch is also signed with DIETRICH and the Dietrich logo. Also included inside the packaging is a hardback book with instructions inside and a metal warranty card that contains the purchase date, dealer information and serial number. The packaging definitely gets my approval.
THE WATCH CASE:
The case is 48mm L, 46mm W, and 13.7mm thick and the case, frame and bezel, 316L steel, case and frame micro-bead blasted and coated with black PVD, bezel micro-blasted and brushed. The case is really unique on the OT-1, it’s full of detail I don’t even know where to start. It’s truly a work of art, like the whole watch as you will soon discover. In the 4 corners of the dial side of the case are 4 hex screws that are doing some multi tasking. Right now I will just touch on what they are doing for the case itself and go into further detail when I get to the dial section of the review. The 4 black hex screws secure the micro bead-blasted bezel to the black case frame. The bead-blasting and brushing is well done and even. The case itself is basically lugless in the traditional sense which allows the watch to wear smaller than its actual size suggests. The lugs on the OT-1 create a frame like structuring which are two loops of black PVD coated stainless steel that allows the strap to slide through reminiscent of how a NATO strap essentially works when the strap pins are left in the lugs of a traditional watch lugs. The crown is signed with the Dietrich logo and functions as a traditional push/pull crown. The non crown side has a small protruding plate with the model name on it ‘OT-1’. The bottom part of the case is PVD stainless steel which creates a beautiful contrast to the top part of the bead-blasted brushed case. The hexagon shaped case is a nice departure from traditional case shapes.
THE DIAL:
If you thought the case was a work of art, wait until you see this dial. It is pretty impressive in terms of detail. First I will go back to the black hex screws that are on the 4 corners of the watch case. Not only do they hold the case together, they also function as a secure point for the top layer of the dial which reminds me of the old Swatch Watch rubber protectors that attached to the case and strap. (See attached photo.) it’s more of an X shape though on the OT-1. I like the 3 dimensional feel it gives to the dial of the OT-1. Typically I don’t personally like “skeleton dials” but the OT-1 dial works for me. I think because it has so much texture and unique variations such as the gold star that is a 10 small seconds counter or the black mesh like 24 hour counter sub dial. Everything on the dial has a very organic, plant like vibe. I love the combination of mechanical and organics. The green hour and minute hands are leaf like in texture, which are coated with super-luminova. The black 24 hour counter sub dial is read by a small arrow pointer that is attached to a labeled plate with ’24 hour counter” The plate itself is attached to the dial by two small screws. The plate protrudes from the dial itself giving yet another small detail to the 3 dimensional dial. Just like the 24 hour counter, the gold star small second counter is also labeled on a protruding plate, with some nice circular detailing that can be seen when it catches certain lighting. The plates are held in place by ‘flat head screws’ that heads appear to be polished and when they hit certain light they appear to glow. The dial only features the 12 and 6 for hours and 10 and 40 for the minutes which keeps the dial from getting to cluttered especially for the amount of detail this dial already has. The text on the dial is Dietrich at the 12 o’clock position, OT-1 at the 6 o’clock position and Automatic at the 2 o’clock position. The balance wheel can be viewed as well through the dial side which is something that is always cool to see. I am glad that Dietrich went with a solid case back for the OT-1 for various reasons. One reason is that the way the strap works is that it would completely cover the exhibition back if it had one and another reason I think it would be overkill since the dial is already skeletonized. The case back features a very simple, yet very cool engraved fish and 50m water resistant. The caseback also is engraved with Dietrich, Organic Time, Stainless Steel and the serial number. Another real unique feature of the OT-1 is that the hour markers are applied lume that are painted on the inside of the sapphire crystal. I have never seen a watch that had the hour markers on the crystal itself. It gives the dial a 4 dimensional look and feel. It’s really cool when the lume glows in the dark, they appear to be floating. The lume when fully charged lasts through the night(I tested it for 8 hours and it continued to glow well after that.)
THE MOVEMENT:
The inside the OT-1 is the Miyota 82-S-7 which has a -20/+40 seconds per day accuracy rate and a 40+ hour power reserve. Miyota makes reliable movements and it’s a less expensive alternative to an ETA movement. There’s not much I can write that hasn’t been written before on the Miyota movement. To set the time on the OT-1 is very simple, just pull out the crown until it stops, and then rotate the crown to set the hour and minute. The 24 hour counter automatically adjusts as you set the primary hour and minute.
THE STRAP:
This version of the OT-1 came with a nylon strap which is like a NATO strap on steroids. It is pretty substantial in the sense that it is well made and would be well suited for a tool style watch. That’s how rugged and sturdy this strap is. The strap is quite stiff out of the box, but after about a month on the wrist it loosens up pretty nicely. It’s comfortable and balances the weight of the watch itself. The strap slides through the two loop style lugs just like a NATO strap and fastens with a buckle style clasp. The signed buckle is black PVD stainless steel which matches the bottom half of the OT-1 case.
WRIST SHOT:
Reference my wrist is 7 1/2″
CONCLUSION:
If you are looking for a nice alternative to the usual watches out there, the OT-1 may be the watch that you are looking for. I find myself always leaning towards dive/tool watches and I found that the OT-1 is a really nice break from what I normally wear. I really like the dial and the case shape. You can tell that every detail was well planned out and a great deal of thought went into the design. Despite the size and weight of the OT-1 it is extremely comfortable. If you are concerned that telling the time is difficult on such a unique dial, don’t be. Time telling on the OT-1 is very easy to read and there is relatively no adjustment time to get use to it. The OT-1 comes in right around the $1300 price point, which might keep the curious away, but you do get a very nice watch, with a reliable movement and a very unique style watch. I recieved multiple complements daily when I wore this watch during the review process.
A very special thanks to Emmanuel Dietrich for the honor of allowing me to conduct this review and for the wonderful communication. It was an absolute pleasure meeting and talking with you.
THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR READING.
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