Simple yet unconventional.
Best known for its octagonal-shaped dress watch, the Qatari brand formerly known as Albidaa has now gained a new name, Beda’a, but fortunately, the brand’s identity remains intact. Beda’a still focuses on producing simple yet stylish watches, and it has just unveiled its flagship timepiece, the Eclipse, featuring an unusual time display with a rotating hour disc and a “mystery” minute hand.
Still part of the Albidaa group, which produces a range of luxury items from fragrance to trunks to hunting tools, the new brand Beda’a represents a strategic move to increase focus and spotlight on the group’s watchmaking ambition.
The latest Eclipse arrives just in time for this change, and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. It features a relatively simple case and dial that emphasize a round or circular theme, with contrasting elements such as the flat and long lugs, distinct breaks between them, and the case. Overall, it boasts a deliciously compact size of just 37 mm wide and 8.1 mm tall, ensuring comfortable wear with a prominent, confident presence.
While the case is nicely executed, the highlight is undoubtedly the dial. In fact, it’s the dial that sets it apart from most of its competitors, which typically rely on traditional hour and minute hands for timekeeping.
The brand’s concept in designing the watch is to cover up most of the dial and reveal only the important part, hence the name “Eclipse.” This means dispensing with prominent hour markers and instead utilizing a large, greyish cover. The cover features a fan-shaped window at 12 o’clock, revealing a rolling disc with Arabic numerals for the hour, which can be read against the prominent marker above it.
The concept of the rolling hour is simple yet interesting. It essentially replaces the hour hand with an hour wheel, a concept found in predecessors like the MIH Gaïa, making it novel and interesting in today’s market.
Due to the large cover on the dial, the minute hand cannot be full-length. Instead, it is hidden under the cover, revealing only its tip, giving it a sense of floating, like a “mystery” hand.
Interestingly, there’s also a seconds hand tucked in at the fan-shaped window for the hours. But because of the limited size of the window, the scale for the seconds is 10 instead of 60. This means it serves more of an aesthetic purpose, as the moving hand is always interesting to have on a dial and indicates that the watch is running. While the hand is concealed under the cover, it can be inferred that it is centrally mounted with six spokes, each taking a turn to sweep through the 10-second window.
While the overall design is clean and minimalist, there are a couple of details that add visual depth and nuance. For instance, the cover on the dial features a fine frosted texture and polished bevel, while the minute ring has a coarser texture. These subtle changes in finish and color are pleasing to the eye, providing a good mix of different details that make the watch interesting.
The same design principle is extended to the case, where the lugs and case middle boast a mix of graining and polishing, further enhancing its visual appeal.
Inside the timepiece is a tried-and-tested automatic movement supplied by Sellita, the SW300, boasting a power reserve of 56 hours, an improvement from the ETA movement it was based on.
Movement: Sellita SW300; automatic; 56 hours power reserve
Functions: Hours, minutes, and seconds
Case: 37 mm x 8.1 mm; steel; water resistant to 50 m
Strap: Ostrich leather strap
