Hands-On With The De Rijke & Co. Guy Allen “Land” From The Amalfi Series

What could you do to make a time-only watch distinctive? How about letting the case rotate up to 90° to adjust the dial to the ideal position when driving? You don’t even have to be a petrolhead to appreciate Dutch independent watchmaker Laurens de Rijke and his latest collaboration with Guy Allen.

Designs make watches different, and changing a design is the least you need to do to have a new watch brand. That’s why we have tons of watch brands today. Then there are those who look not only at a watch’s design but also its function. And those are the watchmakers I admire the most. They started not because they didn’t find a watch they would like or because they wanted to “get into the watch business.” Many times, that’s the last thing they wanted; they just found themselves in the business along the way. They all have one thing in common, though: they couldn’t find a watch that did what they needed, so they simply decided to create or invent one.

Solution design

Jon Weber had to wake up six times a night to care for his prematurely born baby boy Gabriel. Seeing nothing but darkness, he had no clue what time it was. That’s why he decided to invent the “always-on” battery-powered illuminated Par Weber wristwatch. Nava Krishnan, the founder of Ardra Labs, realized that he couldn’t use standard GMT complications to easily tell time where his family in South India lived. He would have to round down by 30 minutes because the traditional movement couldn’t display the unusual GMT +5:30 time zone of Indian Standard Time. To solve this very personal problem, Nava designed the Delta Type watch, which can display the correct time in non-standard time zones with 30- and 45-minute offsets.

De Rijke’s journey begins

Eleven years ago, Dutch adventurer Laurens de Rijke embarked on a long trip that many wouldn’t be willing to make in a comfy Range Rover. His resilience and determination show the most through the fact that he rushed through Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan on his 50-year-old Vespa. During this trip, Laurens bought his first mechanical watch at a flea market in Georgia. It was an old Vostok that he still has today. Nevertheless, an 11,000km trip that didn’t let his hands rest nearly as much as they would’ve behind a steering wheel was plenty long enough for him to realize the watch wasn’t the best match for the job.

A sufficient watch did not exist

“I like the slogan of 1960s gentlemen drivers: race your car on Sunday, drive it to work on Monday. I think you could apply this mantra to my watch,” said Laurens when I asked him if watches with turned dials were not good enough. He knew about them, but he felt they were unnecessary. “I really wanted a watch that I could use as a normal watch and rotate the angle whenever I found it necessary.” And that’s why the De Rijke & Co. Amalfi, a watch that allows you to turn the dial at your convenience, was born.

The design process

Laurens says that if you start drawing up an idea for a rotating watch case, you realize you must put the lugs incredibly low so the crown can move over them. Laurens didn’t like that solution, so he came up with a slot. The whole challenge was to integrate the function and keep the watch elegant. To allow the case to rotate to the desired angle, Laurens developed an innovative construction. The “lug case,” which is sandwiched between the case front and case back, has a slot in which the crown can move. Once you unscrew the crown, you rest your finger on the lug and press another finger against the crown, causing the inner case to rotate within the lug case. It’s so genuinely simple that I almost wonder why no one made it before Laurens did.

Hidden beauty

The Amalfi’s case has been manufactured to the highest standards. If you told me there was a watch with a rotating case, I bet I could imagine it in a second. I would expect the case to be different and the rotating mechanism to be apparent. And that’s the most beautiful thing about Laurens de Rijke’s design. I showed it to my watchmaker and asked what was special. He couldn’t tell! There isn’t a gram of extra steel mass. There is no disturbing “oddity” in the watch’s dimensions or proportions. The best thing is that the rotating parts fit so precisely that you simply won’t realize what’s in your hands.

Durability

The lug case also has ribbing inside. A tiny 0.4mm spring moves through the ribbing of the lug case and provides a nice and firm click. I have to say I put the watch through some hard times during my three months of testing. It arrived in early July, just about the time I left the office for my summer adventures. During that time, the Amalfi Series Guy Allen “Land” sat behind eight different classic cars’ steering wheels. That means it encountered some unexpected adventures that only a 1975 Land Rover Series III could provide, such as an engine breakdown in the middle of a long trip at 11:00 PM.

A few times, I forgot to set the position of the dial before I sat behind the wheel. I wasn’t sure if I could adjust it while driving since I couldn’t properly focus on where I put my fingers and how I put pressure on it. This made me wonder, “How durable is the rotating system? Could I damage the stem by pressing the crown incorrectly or too much?”

Contrary to the first De Rijke & Co. Amalfi, the Guy Allen “Land” has a screw-down crown. “The essence of the screw-down crown is that it detaches from the stem because of the clutch mechanism. When you rotate the case and use the screw-down crown, the force is omitted to the crown tube and the case round. We have never had crown tubes coming off. The crown tube is press-fit together with a special Loctite, which is also how Omega does it,” explains Laurens.

Usability

A tight sandwich construction means more friction. Therefore, do not imagine that if you touch the crown with your fingertip, the case will start spinning like Evgeni Plushenko. Rotating it may require more force than you would expect and may result in slight confusion or a feeling that the rotation is not smooth enough. Laurens realized this too, but it was a conscious decision. “Anything else but the sandwich case would make the watch thicker. As a consequence, it is a bit harder to rotate it when worn on the wrist. These are trade-offs; in this case, I valued the aesthetic over the function.”

As with all special tools or instruments, you will find your knack for effortless rotation over time. Likewise, you will get the hang of cleaning the case. Of course, the side of the case is not flat, and you have to be ready for some dirt to accumulate in the slot where the crown moves. It’s nothing dramatic; you just need to be aware that you will clean the De Rijke & Co. Guy Allen “Land” more often than you clean your Omega Speedmaster.

Guy Allen returns

After the successful launch of his second model, the Miffy Double Moonphase, Laurens decided to go back to his roots. Thinking of a set of illustrations he commissioned to help promote his watches, Laurens came back to British freelance illustrator Guy Allen with an idea to do a watch together. “He loved the idea, and off we went,” says Laurens.

Air, Sea, and Land

De Rijke and Guy Allen’s cooperation resulted in a trio of watches with beautifully designed and artistically crafted dials. Having a bunch of classic cars myself made it easier for me to choose which one to ask for. The orange, red, maroon, and pale sandy combination won me over completely. All three have champlevé enamel dials and idyllic engravings on their case backs. They’re also limited to just 25 pieces per model.

Champlevé dials

De Rijke & Co. used 925 silver as a base for the dial. Champlevé is a fancy (French) term for cavities created by removing metal, usually by hand. In this case, the silver is removed with a fiber laser in the Dutch brand’s workshop. The dials then travel to the UK to the hands of master enameller Andy Roberts. A big part of the finishing of the enamel is done back in the De Rijke workshop upon their arrival from the UK. “To finish the enamel, we bought a lapping machine, and we also developed a new way of applying the dial feet,” says Laurens. De Rijke & Co. also does the pad printing on all the dials in-house and by hand.

Guy Allen’s illustration that you can find engraved on the case back

The auto-motive

There are many cult-classic Lancia cars, so why does the Lancia Aurelia capture Laurens’s fascination the most? “Choosing a Porsche 356 or 911 would have been the more commercial, easier choice. But it’s not me; it’s too ubiquitous. The Aurelia was the first GT ever, and I love the idea of a Gran Tourer, driving to the South of France or Italy in a fast, excellently built, and very elegant car. A GT, for me, stands for traveling in speed and comfort. It was also the first production car with a V6, and it had a transaxle gearbox for weight distribution. It’s a perfect car to drive to Amalfi,” says Laurens.

A (time)piece of art

That is why there is a miniature Lancia Aurelia on the dial. To illustrate a car on such a miniature scale and make it in enamel is not an easy task. Anytime I look at the dial, I am stunned. It’s impossible to say if you’re looking at perfect glass, polished marble, or fresh liquid. The metal does its job and separates islands of captivating colors in a way that evokes a real 3D experience. The colors reflect wildly under different light, and sometimes, the metal edges have an almost glowing effect. With the car on the road in front, the scenery receding in the back, and the cloud hanging in the burning sky, it’s a sight to behold. Kudos to Guy Allen and the enamellers.

Legibility

My core issue with pictures on watch dials is that the hands passing over them often ruin the effect. Laurens and Guy seem to have understood that and opted for a minimalist hand design. Pleasingly, the skeleton hour and minute hands perfectly match the silver lines left on the dial. If there is something I would object to, it’s the hour and minute track, which sits raised above the dial. I had no problems reading the hands, but I sometimes got lost around the dial, and it took more time than I wanted to recognize the hour markers. Yes, these indexes are shiny metal and considerably bigger than the printed minute marks when you study them closely. Unfortunately, I lost that impression while driving.

Wrist time

I wore this watch a lot during the summer and matched it to different vehicles, from sports cars to tiny city strollers and heavy-duty pickups. It fits easily with anything, and the dial color is not distracting. The 38.2mm diameter is sweet, as is the 11mm thickness. I tried to wear it under my wrist with the case rotated at a 45° angle, but I didn’t find it more practical.

The only annoying detail I remember was that the strap keeper kept getting stuck under the seesaw-like buckle every time I put the watch on. I could’ve solved it by removing the strap and sliding the loop off, but I figured I’d just let it be. Plus, I never had an urge to change the strap. It’s soft, and it has a decent structure and a nice round end, a detail I like very much. I felt the same way about the super short lugs; they remind me of devil’s horns. They’re a small but striking detail that only underlines this vivid watch’s character.

The manufacturing process

I’m so grateful to Laurens for being open with me and sharing many details about the watch’s production. “The crown and crown tube are made to our specifications by a specialized crown manufacturer. The lug case is made here in Utrecht, Netherlands. With this company, we developed a way to produce this part on a 10-axis mill because it can grab the part and rework it from the back, all in one operation.”

The case round is difficult to produce, and it is made in Japan by the specialist company YUKI. As you can see in the detailed shot above, it is about 1.3mm thick but still has six 1mm screw threads in its wall. Along with that, it has to have essential tolerances for pressing in the crown tube with a tolerance of -0.01mm. The case back is also made by a specialist company, but the laser engraving and finishing happen in De Rijke & Co.’s workshop.

Putting bread on the table

As a journalist, it was interesting for me to learn about the business side of the De Rijke & Co. story. Finishing the first Amalfi series watch took Laurens four years. To be able to do that, he worked part-time as a car restorer at Casa Fulvia. This allowed him to work for two or three days per week on his watch at home. He learned all the basics, geometry (including tolerances), milling, turning, polishing, and a few more tricks from working at Bruno Ninaber van Eyben’s studio. As in every good microbrand’s origin story, Laurens started in his basement, where he managed to place a full-size Schaublin 102 VM lathe. To do that, he had to sell his beloved Vespa. Fast-forward to two years ago, and Laurens was able to quit his job as a product design engineer. He now works exclusively on De Rijke & Co. watches.

Last thoughts

The De Rijke & Co. Guy Allen “Land” can be yours if you are willing to wait about three months and pay €3,395 plus taxes. It houses a 25-jewel Sellita SW300 movement, a go-to caliber for microbrands. If I consider the original rotating case, the enamel dial, and high-standard production quality, this is fair, even attractive pricing for a truly limited timepiece.

For more information on this watch and the other Guy Allen collaborative models, visit the De Rijke & Co. website.