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Editor’s Note: Watches & Wonders (formerly SIHH) has moved online and Baselworld 2020 is canceled, but that hasn’t stopped watch brands large and small from debuting their new wares. Stay on top of this year’s best new watch releases here.
Microbrand watch companies might be known for value in general, but Singapore-based Zelos has consistently pushed the boundaries of what watch buyers can expect at certain prices. The brand has recently announced its most ambitious product to date: the Mirage, a watch with a Swiss-made flying tourbillon movement at the nearly unheard-of price of around $11,000. The catch? Only a handful will be made.
The movement is made by the Swiss company La Joux-Perret, a familiar name in the luxury watch space that produces movements for many prominent brands. Tourbillons are typically crazy-expensive: TAG Heuer made waves in 2016 when it announced its tourbillon-equipped chronograph at around $16,000 — and there are odd examples here and there of “affordable” Swiss tourbillons — but the Zelos Mirage is indeed notable.
Zelos has typically offered a combination of certain features and specs to drive its value proposition home, and the Mirage is no different: The Mirage features fully skeletonized treatment visible from front and back. However, the brand once again uses exotic materials, as it’s been known to do since the debut of its first watch back in 2014.
The Zelos Mirage will come in titanium as well as in materials called “Timascus” and “Mokume-gane.” Timascus is similar to damascus steel but uses different alloys of titanium (rather than steel) folded over one another, and Mokume-gane uses a similar technique with patinating metals that results in a colorful effect. The cases are 41mm wide and only 9.5mm thick (not including the domed sapphire crystal). Taken together, the skeletonized dials and patterned case materials make for a pretty wild effect.
Only a few of Zelos’s Mirage will be made in each version: two examples in titanium, five in Timascus and three in Mokume-gane. Prices start at $10,900 in titanium and go up to $11,900 for either of the other metals.
