When you buy a watch, you often start looking for a look. We will, for example, look for a solid form, a perfect appearance for every day, and a good build quality. Usually, when you look for a watch like that, you stumble upon a usual looking timepiece, but today we are gonna take a look at a very interesting piece from Italian micro brand called Atto Verticale. I found their brand when I was reading my fellow watch reviewers blog from France called “La Petite Trotteuse“, an interesting blog by the way, even if you don’t understand the French language, at least you could discover some really interesting brands and look at nice pictures. The watch we are looking at today is their newest release, the Tonneau series watches. And just like their first watch from the Origin series, it features a crazy design.

So let’s talk about Atto Verticale. Their watches are designed by the Masera Design, which is an Italian design studio based in Shenzhen, an economically very interesting area, outside of Hong Kong. Many people probably know this place for making counterfeit watches, but real watch people will know that many Chinese micro brands that make some really amazing watches are based there.

Tommaso Rodolfo Masera, a graduate of the Milan Polytechnic School. For some time, he has been designing mainly watches. And it is after his many participations in exhibitions and other events that he made himself known and launched his brand AttoVerticale. 2016 was the year that marked this designer, both in terms of his professional activity and in the affirmation of his talent.

So let’s look at the watch. Let’s start with the packaging as I never seen such an interesting packaging before. Maybe the only watch brand that competes with this is the Botta watches from Germany which I reviewed a couple of years ago. The box is this big tower like thing. You slide the lid up and reveal the inner structure of the bo which looks like some kind of tower construction/frame. And inside that construction you have the watch, it almost floats in the air. So what you get inside, the watch, of course, instructions and warranty.

The case of the Tonneau is made of aluminium. The case is anodized in silver colour. They have also black, blue, red, gold, pink, green, yellow colours from what to choose, so you really can pick up the colour you want. But I picked the silver one and it looks more in my style, I don’t like bright colours when it comes to the case, in my mind it makes the watch look cheap. The case is very well made, all the lines are sharp and machine work is done very well. Anodizing is also done pretty well. The case has a rectangular shape, with hidden lugs behind the case. Watch feels very light due to aluminium, but my concern is how it will last, aluminium is pretty soft metal and when it falls, the scuffs show more on this metal, especially it being anodized. But so far had no problems, I’ve been wearing it for about a month. It feels very comfortable on the wrist due to the hidden lugs and very light case. The case size is 47mm in length (with crown), It is 32mm wide and thickness is 12,9mm. Lug width is 22mm. The crown on this watch is in an unusual place, it is positioned at 12 o’clock. The push/pull crown is nicely signed. When the watch is off the wrist, it is pretty easy to pull the crown out and set the time, but when it is on the wrist you have to work your way with only the top port and use only one finger wind the movement and set the time. Th exhibition case back is also made out of aluminium, but it is anodized in bright orange colour. Case back is held on with four little screws. The case back crystal is a sapphire with matte finishing showing the silhouette of the movement, which is a very interesting look and quite functional design. Especially for such a hairy guy like me, skeleton watches don’t look so good on my wrists, but this being matte, you cant see through it the details, everything looks blurry, so it doesn’t look bad on my wrist. On top, we also have a sapphire glass with AR coating. Watch is rated at 3ATM (30m), so only light rain or splashes of water are suggested, no swimming with this one.

The dial….well there isn’t one. This is a skeleton watch, so that means there is no conventional dial. All you see is the movement. In this case, it is a bridge movement positioned vertically. The movement has nice Geneva lines, and plus it is very interesting looking at the moving parts when it ticks away. Behind the movement you will see that there is a chapter ring, yes, it is behind the movement, quite an odd feeling saying that haha. The chapter ring seems to be a part of the case back as it is anodized in the same orange colour and comes off with the case back. On the chapter ring at 9 o’clock you will also find an Atto Verticale logo. The arrow style hour and minute hands are in light grey colour. The hands are partially skeletonized and lumed. The lume isn’t the best one, as it doesn’t last long, but it does its job well in the first hour.

The movement inside is the same that came in the Thomas Earnshaw Bridge watch that I reviewed a year ago, only the decoration was different, but essentially it is the same. The movement powering the Tonneau is JQR-005. Of course, the movement is Chinese made. I know that it doesn’t mean it is bad, as such Chinese manufacturers like Sea-gull has really good quality moments. This one isn’t automatic so you will have to wind it up from time to time. On the internet, there isn’t a lot of information on these movements, but the one in the Earnshaw watch is still working and keeping a good time, we will see where it sits after a couple of more years. It has a 36-hour power reserve once fully wound and runs at 21.6k bph. The accuracy isn’t the best one, I got about +20 to +30 seconds a day, but it isn’t a big deal. Only hardcore watch geeks are concerned about precision, to me that isn’t important, even if the watch loses 5min a day, it isn’t a big deal to me.

The strap that came on my Tonneau is a tan brown leather one-piece strap. The leather feels pretty good. The strap has a semi-gloss finish. The leather is very soft and supple, so will easily take the shape of your wrist without the break-in period. Stitching is done also pretty good, don’t see any loose threads. Underlining is done in pastel blue colour leather and looks pretty good, works very well with the tan brown top. The only issue with this is that the strap slides out of the watch due to the design of the back case and how it attached to the watch. Every time you take off or on your watch, there is a big possibility that the case will slide off the strap. They could easily overcome this by making the one piece strap thicker or just fit on a two-piece strap. I would suggest putting this on a thicker one piece strap or on a two-piece strap to be sure that the watch doesn’t fall off and get damaged. The tang buckle is made of stainless steel with brush finishing. On the buckle, you will also find engraved the Atto Verticale logo.

Overall the watch is really interesting, there are some design element that to me as a designer spoke with me. Like for example the back crystal with matte finishing showing the silhouette of the movement, that is such a cool idea in my opinion. Another good mention is the positioning of the crown is another thing that I like. I’m kind of a sucker for interesting crown positions. The watch on the wrist wears very well, it is super light due to the aluminium case, also the strap helps a lot being made of nice leather. When it comes to the price, I think it is priced fairly, it isn’t a lot at all. So if you liked the design, go check them out, they also have a similar looking watch, but with round case.

Price 294€ @ attoverticale.com