For just about any watch, the dial is its most recognizable part. After all, that’s where you look to tell the time, so it makes sense that watch companies would go out of their way to make their dials stand out. Increasingly, it seems, brands are turning to unique treatments and exotic materials for their dials to try and get a leg up on the competition, resulting in some truly stunning dials.
From classic techniques like Grand Feu enamel and guilloché to using slices of natural stones and meteorite to high-tech dial treatments from frickin’ laser beams, there is a veritable arms racing going on between watch brands when it comes to creating memorable dials.
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Lately, one dial style that’s gaining steam is aventurine dials — those glossy, midnight blue dials that emulate the night sky with their flecks of silver and gold. Once strictly seen on very high-end watches from brands like Arnold & Son and H. Moser & Cie., aventurine dials have been popping up in more affordable watches in recent years, while also becoming more popular among luxury brands. Below, I’ll go over just what exactly an aventurine dial is, while also offering up a few of our favorite aventurine dial watches currently on the market.
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Just what is an aventurine dial?
First, let’s go over what an aventurine dial is not — or, at least, when it comes to the type of aventurine dial we’re talking about. There is a type of natural stone called aventurine. It’s a type of quartz, usually green but found in other colors as well, that contains flecks of chrome mica that give it a sparkly appearance. Some watch brands do use natural aventurine for watch dials, most notably Rolex and Omega, but it’s a lot less common than the type of aventurine dial we’re discussing.
The more popular version of an aventurine dial is actually made of glass that’s been infused with flakes of copper oxide (or, more rarely, other elements like cobalt) while still in its molten state. Also known as goldstone, the Aventurine has been produced in Venice’s world-famous glasswork capital of Murano since at least the 1600s, and possibly even earlier. Like the natural stone, aventurine glass can be produced in a variety of colors depending on how it’s produced, but watch dials almost exclusively use dark blue glass with copper flecks that appear either silver or gold when reflecting light.
The resultant material resembles a sky, which makes aventurine dials a natural home for moonphase complications. But, as you’ll see below, there are plenty of other uses for aventurine dials that don’t include a moonphase (and, of course, some that do).
Zelos Eagle 2 Ti Aventurine
ZelosZelos Eagle 2 Ti Aventurine
Specs
| Case Size | 39mm |
| Movement | La Joux Perret G100 automatic |
| Water Resistance | 100m |
Pros
- Fantastic lume
- Lots of bang for the buck
Cons
- Lugs are long for the case size
- Sandblasted case finishing looks out of place next to the sparkly dial
These days, you don’t even need to spend a thousand bucks to get an aventurine dial on your wrist. Singaporean microbrand Zelos probably deserves some credit for helping to democratize the material, as it’s been churning out aventurine-dial iterations of several of its models for a few years now.
This limited-edition pilot’s watch, in typical Zelos fashion, is a total specs monster despite its low price, with a titanium case hardened to 1,200Hv, sapphire crystals on both front and back and a unique Swiss automatic movement from La Joux Perret (i.e., it’s not just another Sellita SW-200).
Venezianico Nereide Avventurina
VenezianicoVenezianico Nereide Avventurina
Specs
| Case Size | 42mm |
| Movement | Sellita SW200-1 automatic |
| Water Resistance | 200m |
Pros
- Not a lot of aventurine-dial divers out there
- Unique tungsten bezel insert offers good scratch protection and action
Cons
- Branding comes across as cheap
- Very generic design outside of the materials used
Hailing from Venice, Italy, Venezianico hasn’t been around as a brand for long, but it’s already become known for its stark and unique dials. One is the brand’s “Ultrablack” dials that absorb 99.4 percent of light, and the other is its aventurine dials — the latter being a natural fit given the Venetian heritage of both the brand and the material.
One of a few “Avventurina” watches offered by the brand, the Nereide stands out for the fact that it’s a 200m capable dive watch sporting the starry dial. It also features an Italian-made rubber strap perfectly fitted to the case, along with a heavy-duty Tungsten bezel insert.
Christopher Ward C1 Moonphase
Christopher WardChristopher Ward C1 Moonphase
Specs
| Case Size | 40.5mm |
| Movement | Christopher Ward Cal. JJ04 (Sellita base) |
| Water Resistance | 30m |
Pros
- Looks far more expensive than it is
- The glowing Globolight moon is quite a sight
Cons
- Difficult to tell the time
- Wears large due to the all-dial design
Between the start of November 2022 and the end of October 2023, Christopher Ward had a pretty remarkable run wherein it released the chiming Bel Canto, the integrated bracelet Twelve and this stunner, with all three offering more luxury for their respective genres at their respective price points than had previously been achieved by anyone.
The C1 Moonphase utilizes CW’s in-house JJ04 moonphase module in its purest way yet. There are no indices, no logo, no text on the dial outside of a minuscule “Swiss Made.” It’s just starry skies courtesy of dual layers of aventurine glass and a massive glowing moon (well, two technically, but just one in view at a time) made from Globolight — a mixture of ceramic and Super-LumiNova — that’s been screenprinted with a photo of the actual moon.
Omega Speedmaster Blue Side of the Moon
OmegaOmega Speedmaster Blue Side of the Moon
Specs
| Case Size | 44.25mm |
| Movement | Omega Cal. 9904 automatic chronograph moonphase |
| Water Resistance | 50m |
Pros
- Stands out from other Seamasters
- Wears smaller than its mammoth case size suggests thanks to a restrained sub-50mm lug-to-lug
Cons
- There's maybe a little too much going on
- While it wears smaller than you'd think, 44mm is still too large
As the flagship watch of the brand, Omega makes a ton of different variations on the Speedmaster. And, over the years, a number of references have featured moonphase complications — which makes sense, given that the watch was worn on the moon. Naturally, with aventurine being a natural mate to moonphases, that means we’ve also seen a few aventurine dial moonphase Speedies in our day.
The current take on the form is the Sedna-gold trimmed version of the “Blue Side of the Moon.” Like the Dark Side and Gray Side of the Moon Speedmasters, the Blue Side gets its name from its colored ceramic case. Here, the ceramic seamlessly transitions to the blue aventurine dial, with the Senda gold accents — especially the hammered gold moon on a separate aventurine glass disc — giving the watch even more sparkle.
A. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin
A. Lange & SöhneA. Lange & Söhne Saxonia Thin
Specs
| Case Size | 39mm |
| Movement | A. Lange & Söhne Cal. L093.1 hand-wind |
| Water Resistance | 30m |
Pros
- Exceptionally thin at just over 6mm
- Breathtaking dial
Cons
- Blue alligator strap is a little matchy-matchy
- Crown is very small for a manually-wound watch
As one of the world’s premier watchmakers, Lange doesn’t do anything the easy way. This iteration of its Saxonia Thin dress watch is powered by a Lange-made manually wound movement that measures just 2.9mm thick yet manages to pack 72 hours of power reserve. The slim movement allows the case to be svelte as well, with the Saxonia Thin ranking as the thinnest watch from Lange at 5.9mm.
This version is .3mm thicker, and it’s all due to whatever wizardry Lange has going on with that mesmerizing dial. The brand also makes its dials in house, and its version of aventurine is more luxe than anyone else’s. The base dial, even though you’ll never see it, is made from solid silver, with copper-flecked blue glass paint then applied on top of it. That’s then topped with hands and indices made from solid white gold to match the white gold case, create one seriously elegant dress watch.
Ulysse Nardin Freak S
Ulysse NardinUlysse Nardin Freak S
Specs
| Case Size | 45mm |
| Movement | Ulysse Nardin Cal. UN-251 automatic |
| Water Resistance | 30m |
Pros
- Tons of innovation packed into a single watch
- Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie
Cons
- It's 45mm of gold and looks like a spacehip; you're not going to find many appropriate opportunities to wear it
- Just 75 made
Ulysse Nardin’s wild Freak watches do not feature traditional dials or hands. Instead, a flying carousel escapement functions as the defacto minute hand while a pointer on a rotating disc serves as the hour hand, both literally being a part of the visible movement. So how does a dial-free watch end up on a list of aventurine-dial watches?
For the Freak S, UN applied black aventurine glass to the mainplate of the movement itself, creating an outer space backdrop for the watch’s otherworldly complication. A big step up from your average Freak, the Freak S’s flying carousel — which resembles a starship — is driven by not one but two escapements, both of which are loaded with silicium parts (the original Freak was the first watch to use silicon parts two decades ago) that have been coated with artificial diamond for durability. And powering it all is an entirely new type of automatic winding system UN calls Grinder that’s twice as efficient as a standard rotor and winds the movement with just the slightest movement of your wrist.