[VIDEO] Hands-On: the Raymond Weil Millesime Collection

Sometimes the little moments inform our collecting more than the big ones. A big moment might be the first time Dad trusted you to wear his watch. While formative, there’d be a lot more two-tone bracelets on Instagram if those moments drove purchasing decisions. My “big moment” came on my seventh birthday. After weeks of begging for a digital watch, I opened a package to be greeted by black resin and the coolest digital screen I’d ever laid eyes on. The subsequent victory lap through the kitchen resulted in a trip to urgent care. Though I still have the scar to remember the watch that unleashed the horological nerd within me, my watchbox is currently void of a single digital watch. On the contrary, little moments are constantly influencing how I think about and consume watches. These are often as simple as offhand remarks I hear at a meetup or a comment I read on Reddit.

One of these little moments came while I was listening to Rico’s Watches Podcast a couple years ago. A RedBar chapter head was the week’s guest, and he made some brief, unflattering remarks about Raymond Weil. Sharing a story of buyer’s remorse, he cited a lack of demand on the secondary market and a design language that was an amalgamation of other brands rather than something original. These quick quips stuck with me. As a newer collector, I’d already discerned that anything with “mall watch” vibes might not receive the nod of approval from my enthusiast peers. And, having personally noticed the less-than-subtle Cartier influence on some of the impressively low priced Raymond Weil offerings available at Jomashop and Costco, his comments resonated.

A Fresh Start

A typical review starts with an overview of specs and design, touches on a bit of history, and then concludes by sharing if and why you should consider purchasing the watch in question. I’ll get to that review stuff shortly, but I’m going to start with the conclusion because the Millesime collection represents something more than simply a few watches worth discussing- they represent a fresh start for the brand. Forget everything you think you know about Raymond Weil. Set aside any of those little moments that left a sour taste in your mouth. Those moments are tied to the Raymond Weil prior to 2023, before the Millesime small seconds was crowned the GPHG 2023 challenge prize (designated for watches under CHF 2,000) winner.