Whether it’s the wheel, jeans, a pair of white sneakers or a watch, reinventing an iconic product can sometimes seem like an impossible mission. Indeed, how do you reinvent a product that has already been revisited many times and has almost unalterable properties?
Since 2019, the young brand Serica has been striving to reinvent the toolwatch, this famous military-inspired tool watch, highly prized by men, but already present in the collections of many watchmaking houses. 4512, 5303, 8315… each new reference has allowed Serica to assert itself as “a player that counts”. On the eve of its fifth anniversary, the brand unveils its new 6190 M.S.L, a military-inspired watch presented as a “summit of precision and elegance”.
Serica, the French brand that is redefining the Swiss toolwatch
While some advocate for the fashion watch, stylewatch or dress watch, the trendy watch that can easily match their outfit or their outfit of the day, others prefer to highlight models with a timeless style, robust and reliable, which can follow us to the ends of the earth or a whole lifetime (or both!). It’s this gamble that Jérôme Burgert and Gabriel Vachette (also founder of Rhabilleurs) took when giving birth to Serica in 2019.
Announced objective: “to create unique mechanical watches, combining robustness and technical sophistication with a singular and refined aesthetic.” The general public is thus introduced to Serica with the first W.W.W, the Wrist Watch Waterproof, waterproof to 100 meters, topped with a mineral glass and powered by a manual winding movement. The initial foundations are laid, and subsequent models will never stray from them.
4512, 5303, 8315… With each new reference, Serica explores a new field: field watch, diver watch, GMT watch… We find the great classics of the genre, which can be found in reference brands (Hamilton, Oris, Seiko…), but with a multitude of details that make these models unique. Or rather different. And always very attractive. This is still the case with the new 6190 M.S.L which, without completely renouncing its military inspirations, displays “a new face that is ever more singular”.
The 6190 M.S.L stopwatch rhymes robustness with delicacy
A few seconds are enough to say that the new Serica 6190 M.S.L will be at least as comfortable at a cosmopolitan cocktail party as on the military field. Because this newcomer is undeniably one of the most elegant field watches of the moment. However, what it gains in refinement does not come at the expense of its resilience and Serica still presents its newcomer as an “ally of high exploration”. The 3 letters MSL are indeed there to remind us: Mean Sea Level, the average position of the sea surface or sea level, this reference measure that allows us to know the altitude at any point on the globe.
More concretely, this new iteration of the 6190 cannot deny its origins: it includes all the ingredients that have made the Parisian brand successful for nearly 5 years. And if the “historical three-hand mechanical has become an automatic chronometer watch”, the Serica watch retains all these small details that make a difference. This applies particularly to the dial, which incorporates the indices of the 5303 and the 8315 (but in appliques) while revisiting the California of the first-named 6190, or to the crown, which can be positioned at 3 o’clock as well as at 9 o’clock to satisfy left-handers.
But for the first time at Serica, the dial of the 6190 M.S.L dares to use color! So, no, not orange, Tiffany blue or pine green; we are staying here in natural tones worthy of a field watch. The deep and shining enamel black is accompanied by a very pure polar white and (especially) a storm grey that crosses grey, green and beige, a shade that reminds us of “the rock and sky in high mountains, when conditions worsen”. And in the premieres department, the “lollipop” type seconds hand is coated on its tip with luminous material.
The case, meanwhile, remains unchanged, with its small diameter of 37.7 mm and a thickness of 10.4 mm (glass included). The presence of a crown and a screwed base allows this tool watch to withstand a pressure of 20 BAR, or 200 meters depth. But as this diver’s watch remains just as comfortable on land, it dresses in the Bonklip bracelet dear to Serica, with its ultra-thin and ultra-flexible steel links that adapt to all wrists.
The COSC certification is still on the agenda for the movement that animates this 6190 M.S.L, specifically the automatic Soprod M100 caliber and its 42 hours of power reserve.
Beautiful in photos, Serica watches are even more so “in real life”. For those who want to form an initial opinion, it is therefore worth pushing the doors of the boutique located at 32 rue de Turenne, in Paris. Alternatively, the collections are available on the brand’s website, like the 6190 M.S.L, offered for pre-order at the price of 1090 euros for first deliveries expected in September 2024.
