Watch magazine Hodinkee and watchmaker Ressence have teamed up to create a one-off timepiece with a special 3D printed case. It will go on sale at the Only Watch charity auction in Monaco, in November.

The world of high-end timepieces is somewhat complex. Which is rather funny, given that in the more elaborate examples, additional features and mechanisms are known as complications.

Horology magazine Hodinkee knows this far better than we. And for the latest in their line of limited watch collaborations, they’ve caught our eye as a 3D printing publication.

In addition to a German silver dial consisting of many independently rotating sub-dials and a nifty winding mechanism incorporated into its back, this timepiece has another unique characteristic. Indeed, the Type 12OW “Only Watch” features what Hodinkee and the watch’s maker, Ressence, refer to as a “sintered case”. More specifically, a “Sintered Grade 5 Titanium” case.

Direct Metal Laser Sintering for Style

Metal laser sintering is a process that creates solid, mechanically functional parts most often for heavy industry. It’s rare to see it employed in an object and field typically renowned for handcrafted finesse.

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But still, it’s a direction Ressence and Hodinkee took, opting for a design direction that stylistically tells the story of how this branch of 3D printing actually works. Looking at the case side-on, there are grooves that give the appearance of stacked, incomplete layers.

It’s a cool design, and one that gives an unusual glimpse of a process at the cutting edge of modern manufacturing.

And better still, for an estimated asking price of €18- 22,000, one dedicated watch aficionado will be the owner. When it goes on sale in November at the Only Watch charity auction in Monaco, that it. The cause benefiting from the sale is Association Monegasque Contres les Myopathies, an association driving research on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophe.

Source: Hodinkee