Horologically Unique

Horologically Unique is the project of a single Singapore-based collector, who signs his notes only as 'A.' and describes himself as a guy who started a second Instagram page to sell part of his collection. That account, @horologically_unique, grew into a community, and he turned from selling vintage watches to making his own. He is explicit that the HU projects are not a brand or a business, there is no PR team, and the aim is accessible watches at the best quality he can manage. His brief for the first one was a clean, time-only dress watch that is affordable, thin, comfortable, and well made, with no logo on the dial, so the buyer pays for the watch rather than the label.

That watch was the HU-01 (November 2025), a modernised take on the Patek Philippe Calatrava Ref. 96, the early-1930s blueprint of the dress watch. The vintage Calatravas are 31–32mm; the HU-01 is 36mm by 9.1mm and 44mm lug-to-lug, in the classic three-part case with a flat coin-edge bezel, drilled lugs, a highly domed sapphire crystal, a snap-on see-through caseback, and 30 metres of water resistance. It came with a glossy black dial or a vintage white one with a recessed, snailed small-seconds counter, both with applied Breguet-style numerals and leaf hands. Inside is the hand-wound Peseux ETA 7001 (17 jewels, 21,600 vph, 42 hours) with blued screws, perlage, and Côtes de Genève. Each dial colour was limited to 100 pieces at S$1,800, and both are sold out.

The HU-01 Finale closed that chapter in May 2026. The case shrinks to a more period-correct 34mm by 10.1mm and 41mm lug-to-lug, which also moves the small seconds closer to the edge, and the caseback is closed with perlage inside, with a sapphire back included. The dials carry three baguette-cut and eight round lab-grown diamonds, as on rare gem-set Ref. 96s. The Finale has a brushed silver-grey dial and a brushed case (80 pieces, S$2,580); the Finale 'Yu' has a Burma jade dial ('Yu' means jade in Chinese) and a polished case (30 pieces, S$2,980). Both use the same Peseux 7001 and come on grey goat leather, and both currently show as out of stock. Monochrome and Worn & Wound covered the launch.

Each watch is checked by trained watchmakers and then personally by the founder, with a four-to-five-day timing test and a full quality check, and carries a 12-month warranty. Shipping is free, though customers pay duties and taxes, and limited editions and pre-orders cannot be returned. Prices are in Singapore dollars, from S$1,800 to S$2,980 (roughly US$1,400–2,350).