Did This Affordable Tool-Watch Brand Just Reinvent the Dress Watch?

I guarantee you’ve never seen a watch like the new Serica Parade before.

Published November 21, 2024

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Dress watches largely tend to follow the same basic formula. Smallish round or rectangular case, simple dial, leather strap, probably shiny. That’s pretty much it.

They aren’t usually daring, nor are they robust. They’re delicate and slender and are meant to look elegant, staying hidden away under a shirt sleeve until being called upon.

But what would happen if a brand that had only ever made tool watches decided to make a dress watch? Well, we now have an answer, as Serica has just launched its first-ever dress watch — and it’s a complete reinvention of the form.

a serica dress watch on an olive safari shirt next to a pair of sunglasses and some postcards — Serica’s first dress watch feels very on-brand, which means it looks like nothing else out there.

Stadium Paradium

First of all, it should be stated that Serica is far from your average tool-watch brand. The French microbrand, founded in 2019, has a unique design language all its own. Its existing lineup of tool watches — a field watch, diver and GMT — are all more unique and elegant than pretty much anything else on the market.

So it stands to reason that the brand’s first dress watch would also boast a bizarre design and a certain level of attractiveness, and I can unequivocally say the new Serica Parade absolutely fulfills both of those criteria.

a serica dress watch on a black table cloth — The stunning vertically brushed bezel recalls the brand’s very first watch, the original Serica Field Watch.

The most unique thing about the Parade, or ref. 1174 in Serica’s fun reference number parlance, is its case shape. Here, the brand has gone with a shape never utilized for a watch before. They call it a stadium case, and it’s essentially an ellipse with straight sides.

The case also features a stepped design with varying brushed and polished finishes, leading to a dramatic, tall, vertically brushed bezel with mirror-polished sides. It’s incredibly striking and truly looks like nothing else out there. It’s also well-sized at 35 x 41mm, which it turns out is a sweet spot for this unique case shape.

a serica dress watch on a mans wrist seen from the side — The stepped “stadium” case wears wonderfully on the wrist.

Typically, when Serica designs a watch, the brand first determines how to make it robust enough for whatever tool-watch functions it needs to perform and then figures out how to make it “sexy.” But for the Parade, brand co-founder Jérôme Burgert tells me they essentially had to work backwards. As in, we have this beautiful dress watch design; now, how can we make it as robust as a tool watch?

Doing so required some clever engineering. The Parade looks and feels like a dress watch, including its slender thickness of just 8.2mm. But it’s also surprisingly robust, with a 100m water resistance rating despite its slenderness and the lack of a screw-down crown.

a man shows the caseback of a serica dress watch — The closed caseback is screwed through the midcase and into the rear of the bezel, helping to secure the watch’s 100m water resistance.

This was accomplished thanks to a clever case design wherein the caseback was secured not just to the midcase, but to the rear side of the bezel itself, creating a tightly sealed “sandwich case” that increases the compression on the waterproofing O-ring gaskets.

The watch is powered by a Soprod Cal. M100, which is the same shock-resistant automatic movement found in the brand’s Diving Chronometer and Field Chronometer. The only difference here is the movement in the Parade is not COSC certified.

But fear not: Burgert tells me that’s only because a seconds hand is required for COSC certification, and the Parade lacks one. The movement is exactly the same one Serica typically uses, it just isn’t certified as a chronometer.

a closeup of a serica watch strap buckle against a linen background — The buckle on the parade’s strap mimics the shape and finishing of the bezel for a cohesive design.

The Parade comes on a calfskin leather strap fitted with a pin buckle that mimics the stadium shape and finish of the bezel, which shows some nice attention to detail. If you want to make the watch even more of an all-rounder, it’s also compatible with Serica’s proprietary Sport Straps, which look like leather but are actually made of vulcanized rubber.

Pricing and Availability

This is one of my favorite watches of the year. It’s so unique, so fun and so beautiful that it’s hard not to love. Serica is a brand that oozes coolness, and while I’m not typically a dress-watch guy, I would make an exception for the Parade. It’s just too damn cool.

The watch is available in two colorways, Satin Black and Brass. Both dials feature a sunray finish and a radial guilloché pattern for a bit of texture, along with teeny tiny applied dots for indices and mirror-polished stainless steel hands.

The Parade is available for preorder now from Serica’s website, with deliveries expected in March. Thankfully, like the rest of the brand’s catalog, the Parade offers tremendous value. The watch’s SRP is just 1,340€ for non-European Union customers (1,490€ including VAT if you’re in the E.U.), which converts to $1,400 and change.