We have had many successful Kickstarter products introduced on our website and today we have another one, DWISS Watches. We were lucky enough to have an interview with the founder and if you’ve missed the interview, you can still read it here. The watch we will be reviewing for the extensive collection is the RC1-BR quartz. Let’s find out how it fares.

The story of DWISS Watches

The company was founded in 2011 by Rafael Simoes Miranda, who has been designing watches since 2006. A former watch design teacher in Milan, Italy, Rafael has designed watches for more than 15 different brands, winning various international design along the way such as the Red Dot Design Award,

The reason behind starting DWISS Watches is to create a new way of selling watches. Rafael wanted to cut out the  distributors and retailers’ margins, making prices affordable and to have also deal directly with the founder himself.

Since the launch of DWISS Watches, the company has gone on to win major international prizes. Its latest award is the 2019 European Product Design Awards.

DWISS RC1-BR Features

First Impression

When the watch came, the packaging was not outstanding. We were expecting something which was going to blow our mind away. However the packaging is just a rectangular box and very simple.

Despite the actual size of the casing, the watch looks a bit small. This is maybe because of the width of the watch. However, the design of the watch did leave a lasting impression on us. It is new, unique and very alluring.

Casing

The diameter of the DWISS RC1-BR is 40mm. It is a decent size and the watch and does not take much of the space on the wrist. The watch will stand out for sure on the wrist because of the index. The casing is flat. With a width of 8mm, the casing does not stick out from the wrist. The curved lug also helps to push the casing down to the wrist.

Comfort wise, the watch feel great on the wrist and movement of the wrist is perfect.

A special feature on the casing is the bezel. With a dark black colour and 4 screws to hold the bezel together, it gives the watch an edgy look. From the side, the bezel does look slightly thick in width and this makes the dial looks a little further away.

The crown is a push and pull and it has been engraved with the DWISS logo. One criticism about the crown is does stick out slightly. A more flatter crown along with some cutting design, resembling the screws, to the crown would have made it look better.

The watch is does quite light and you cannot feel it much on the wrist. If you love light watches, you will love this watch, however we like to feel the weight of the watch on our wrist.

Dial

There is a lot going on with the dial. Let’s start with the classic railroad track on the outer index. You have 5 minutes increment on the railroad track and gives the dial a traditional look amongst the retro feel from the rest of the features. The inner index has roman numeral numbers and they are all large in white fonts. The legibility of the index is great however not during low light. The numerals are not lumed. Lumunious numerals would have been stunning on the DWISS RC1-BR.

The next feature on the watch is the centre. There is not much there however it has been well though of. The hands have been given their own ‘island’ and they have been separated from the index and surrounded with text about the features of the watch.

The hand design used are similar to plonguer hands. The design suit the watch as it reflects the modern side of the watch. However, they are a little too thin. A bolder hands would have suited the watch better. The hands are also lumed but they are weak.

The window hand is located at the 6 o’clock position. The window is large enough however it is in a way engulfed by the large numerals.

Strap

The strap is made from genuine Italian cowhide and it is a great choice. The strap is supple, soft and does not need breaking into. The strap does wrap around the wrist well and the sits very comfortably. There are also enough holes for smaller wrist which is always a bonus.

The strap also has quick release pins to quickly exchange them for one of their other strap.

The only issue with the DWISS RC1-BR strap is the side colour of the strap. The side of the strap is exposed and the colour is different. We are not really sure about this. We would rather for the whole strap to have the small colour throughout.

Movement

The DWISS RC1-BR uses a Swiss manufacturer Ronda 714 quartz 5 jewels. Because of the quartz, you would expect the time accuracy to be spot on and it is.

A smart move from DWISS is not using a second hand. By not doing so, it makes the watch look as an automatic.

Buy, Shortlist or Avoid?

First let’s discuss the price. The RRP of the DWISS RC1-BR is $390/ £310/ €350. The price is reasonable given the design of the watch. For sure you may get more established watch brand for similar prices, however none of them is a DWISS watch and their design are not comparable.

Our conclusion is to definitely buy this watch. It has a lot of great features and the design of the watch is really stunning. One feature DWISS watches can improve on is to produce watches with larger dials. We want to see show off the design to other people!

If you would like to see the different DWISS watches, do visit; https://www.dwiss.com/

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