I Review A Watch: The Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence Is Minimalism Perfected

Hey friends, welcome back to It’s About Time. Sometimes you can’t but admire how someone approaches designing a watch. Especially when the result is the Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence, which is really something else.

The Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence Is Minimalism Perfected

Full disclosure notice: No money has been exchanged in return for this review. Alon Ben Joseph from Ace Jewelers was kind enough to send the watch over for review and Ace covered the shipping bill both ways. That’s it.

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“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains”. I didn’t say that, I’m not that profound. Steve Jobs said that. And if there’s one person that knows what you can do with a minimalist approach to product design, then it’s Steve Jobs, who quite literally changed the world (along with a whole army of designers and engineers) when he introduced the first iPhone in 2007. Serious industry leaders at the time ridiculed the iPhone for not having a physical keyboard, like the popular BlackBerry. Some even criticised it for not including a stylus as an input device. Instead the iPhone was a black glass monolith, interrupted with just one button at the bottom. This, as we know now, was the only logical way forward, but the industry is sometimes so set in its ways that it can’t see what’s best for it. The competitors that made fun of Apple are either no longer making phones, or are completely bankrupt.

But to put the minimalism into more perspective, it’s better to see what Jony Ive, the legendary designer behind some of Apple’s best products had to say about it. “Why do we assume that simple is good? Because with physical products, we have to feel we can dominate them. As you bring order to complexity, you find a way to make the product defer to you. Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. For example, to have no screws on something, you can end up having a product that is so convoluted and so complex. The better way is to go deeper with the simplicity, to understand everything about it and how it’s manufactured. You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential.”

You have to deeply understand the essence of a product in order to be able to get rid of the parts that are not essential. This is all you need to know about good design. Removing stuff willy-nilly, without understanding your product — without understanding the industry and its history — will not necessarily result in bad design. You might get lucky. But if you do have this understanding, you are almost certainly guaranteed to create a beautiful product. And the simple fact is, Hakim El Kadiri and Alon Ben Joseph have this understanding. And the result is a watch that never ceased to surprise me, the Elka x Ace Jewelers D-Series Essence, a truly minimalist expression.

But first, what is Elka? While not a household name, it’s a fairly young brand (launched only in 2022) that makes some pretty unique watches. I, for one, was floored with the idea of a lake diver watch, as just the idea of one instantly transported me in my mind into an alpine setting. Elka was founded by Hakim El Kadiri, and its name is a result of a very interesting twist of fate. El Kadiri was always fascinated by watches, especially the aesthetics of the 60s, he finally rolled the dice on starting his own brand and borrowed his nickname — Elka — for the brand name. Only later, when he applied to trademark the name, did he realise that an Elka already existed. This defunct Elka Watch was named after Eduard Louis Kiek from Amsterdam. El Kadiri soon discovered that Elka watches were known for their strong designs had worked closely with other big names in the watch industry such as Ulysse Nardin, Heuer, Rolex and Minerva. It also went under right around the same time that El Kadiri is obsessed with — the 1960s. So, you could imagine the new Elka as the spiritual continuation of the old Elka.

On the other hand, you have the Amsterdam-based Ace Jewelers, their partner on this watch. The public face of this family-owned retailer in Amsterdam is Alon Ben Joseph, perhaps one of the most positive people in the industry. Ben Joseph is the co-host, with Rob Nudds, of The Real Time Show podcast. If you like watches, and are especially interested in the watch industry, this has to be the most important podcast you listen to as you won’t believe the caliber of industry legends they have as quests to reveal the inner workings of this world. Ace is also very good at collaborations, with Ben Joseph’s keen eye bringing fantastic details to watches. And this one is no different.

So, this watch is so devoid of details that we will get a chance to look at every one in immense detail. Based on the regular Elka D-Series, this one comes in a case that has been used by the company for some time. It’s actually a curious case. It’s super simple round shape, polished finish and interesting lugs that curve strongly before taking on an angular tip and sloping down radically give off an air of a dress watch. But the illusion of the dress watch is broken once you strap it two your wrist. Even I, with my 21cm diameter Shrek-wrists noticed that this is a large watch. It measures 40.8mm wide. However, I also strapped it to a wide range of wrists sizes that I could find in my vicinity and it actually wore pretty well on all of them. Even my wife’s, who has to have the smallest wrists. That’s mostly thanks to the 10.8mm thickness and the lug-to-lug of 46.5mm.

So, what else is there to talk about on the outside of this watch? We covered the case size and shape, I’ll also mention that it has a tiny bezel surrounding that crystal. And the minimalism allows us to focus on the crystal. It’s a highly domed Chevé type box sapphire crystal with anti-scratch and anti-reflective treatments. So, what’s a Chevé type crystal? Bombé, chevé and boule all mean concave, or dome-shaped. This was the go-to crystal shape in the 1960s, as it allowed for the largest viewing area of the dial, a classy look and a slight curve to keep things interesting. But in the 1960s, the most common material crystals were made out of were plexiglass, which was perfect for Chevé types. The beautiful curves could be achieved in moulds. On the other hand, synthetic sapphire can’t be poured into a mould. It has to be cut from a solid piece. And seeing how it’s probably the hardest material just after diamond, it’s quite a task to produce this piece of glass. And good on them, because it looks fantastic.

As you can see, I am a terrible photographer. I promise I will work on this and get better. However, this watch was not the one I would start practicing on. I’ve looked at other photos people have taken of it and it seems to be one of the most difficult watches to photograph. It’s because of the dial. Here, Elka and Ace pull their best H. Moser interpretation and create one of the best dials in the sub €5,000 range. A completely pure gradient blue color is incredibly mesmerising. It radically changes shades depending on the light, from a flake-filled almost liquid blue in sunlight, to a much paler and demure shade that sometimes seems grey indoors. It's also best enjoyed in the bright sunlight. When I say it looks liquid, I really do mean it. The gradient is absolute perfection, with it’s darker edges and lighter centre, as it makes the dial look like it dips in the middle, giving it way more dimensionality than you would expect.

Other than the color play, there’s very little else to the dial. Near the top of the dial is the Elka Watch Co logo, an “automatic” text and a barely visible Swiss Made all the way at the bottom. The hands are equally minimalist, polished and baton-styled. The thin central seconds hand features a counterweight shaped like an arrowhead. All of the hands have a barely visible curve to them to conform to the dial

Now, it’s pretty clear I like this watch. But I also subscribe to the idea that there are virtually no perfect products and that you can find a flaw in anything. And that’s a good thing. Perfect things are boring. However… The flaw I found here could be a dealbreaker. For me, at least. It’s the movement. On paper, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, it’s pretty great. It’s the La Joux Perret G100 automatic, essentially a Swiss made version of the Citizen/Miyota 9000 series, but slightly larger to be compatible with the size of the ETA 2824/Sellita SW200. It beats at 4Hz and has a pretty fantastic 68-hour power reserve, much better than you would expect from a 2824 clone. I guess it was accurate, but it’s hard to gauge on a watch that has zero markings for hours and minutes. That’s all great. The issue is the sound the single-direction rotor makes. This is by far the loudest watch I have ever worn. It’s actually a bit funny how loud it is. I was making scrambled eggs, using my left hand to move the spatula around, which caused the rotor to spin. My wife, who was sitting at the kitchen table, asked my why I was scraping the pan so vigorously. I wasn’t. It was rotor sound. I’m not exaggerating, but I’m also not complaining. You get used to it, as you would in the dozens of other watches that use the same movement, as evidenced by dozens of online posts pointing out the same. I wish LJP could do something about it.

One thing I find no fault with is the pretty nice strap. It’s camel color matches the blue dial just perfectly and it’s made out of nubuck leather and closes with a delicate silver pin closure. I will note that you will be wearing this on the last hole if you have 21cm diameter wrist, but it works just fine.

This watch went under the radar. When I sent wrist shots of it to people who are very familiar with the watch world, even they were surprised by its refreshing look. This could be a good thing, if you’re planning on getting one. Despite there being only 25 pieces made, it seems that they are still available on the Ace Jewelers website. It’s priced at €1,650, but without tax. That’s exactly the same price as the regular Elka D-Series. Can you find cheaper watches? For sure. Can you find a better dial? Maybe. But a dial like this at this price point? I doubt it.

-Vuk