Atelier Wen Perception ‘Millésime’ 睦(Mù)

This limited version of Perception bears the name ‘睦(Mù)’ and launched as brand's first non-collaborative limited edition. Like their previous limited editions, it will feature a case and bracelet in full grade 5 titanium, with a stunning purple dial.

This release marks the beginning of a new, special project for our brand that is our Millésime edition — a yearly release that will be community-driven and released in a limited format. The name of this 2024 iteration, 睦(Mù), captures this in its essence, meaning amity, kinship or closeness, and representing our admiration and appreciation for the community that has grown around our brand.

Purchasers of the Millésime will also be automatically entered into a special “tantalum” ticket draw. 3 lucky, randomly-selected customers will receive the same purple guilloché dial encased in a full-tantalum prototype instead of the titanium watch they would otherwise be expecting. Our work with the material marks a significant step in our brand’s trajectory, with this extremely rare metal being notoriously difficult to work with and traditionally confined to use in high-end watchmaking maisons. There has also been no precedent for a serially produced, full-tantalum braceleted watch.

An Edition for the Community

Before this release, the limited editions we had launched were capped at a fixed number of watches agreed upon with our collaborative partners, and not everyone who wanted to purchase a piece was therefore able to.

The Millésime project is our answer to this — as a still-exclusive yearly launch, that those in our wider community do not have to outcompete each other for.

We owe much of our growth to the strength and solidarity of our community, and we wanted to ensure that this community aspect was not left untended.

The limited launch window for 睦(Mù) will reflect this spirit, upholding the idea of a yearly vintage that, once gone, will never be available again. At the same time, it also ensures that anyone who wants one will be able to purchase it within the said window.

About the Watch

Perception 睦(Mù) will be delivered with several elements that have long been on the community’s wish-list:

The colour of 睦(Mù)’s dial will be executed in a shade of purple that took 3-4 rounds of trials to arrive at. It shifts mysteriously between a regal, deep purple and vivid shades of ultraviolet under different lighting conditions, and is achieved through the use of physical vapour deposition (PVD). It will feature our signature écaille de poisson — or fish scale — guilloché pattern on its dial, maintaining a sense of continuity with our principle Perception variants of 缥(Piāo), 影(Yǐng) and 霞(Xiá).

This purple dial is perfectly complemented by the darker hues of its grade 5 titanium construction, resulting in an array of harmonious interactions between dial, case and bracelet. Our grade 5 titanium offerings have previously been exclusive to limited edition collaborations, but with this release, we are finally introducing the material into a series that is entirely our own.

Furthermore, this will be the first time the V2 updates — which we implemented into our 904L steel lines in January 2024 — will be fully incorporated into a titanium variant of Perception.

Each 睦(Mù) will be individually numbered on the caseback, and carries with it a subtle indication of the Millésime’s distinction in the form of a minute CNC engraving of the Atelier Wen seal that has been filled in with traditional Chinese lacquer in purple.

How 睦(Mù) Came to Be

The Millésime project was something we had discussed since the release of Perception in early-2022, and the decision to launch this specific first edition came about, in part, as a result of our time in Geneva during Watches and Wonders 2024.

The purple dials were initially just trials that we had conducted and showcased in Geneva, as placeholders within the tantalum proof-of-concept prototypes that we brought with us. As our final dials for the tantalum release were not yet ready, these were meant to distinguish the prototypes from our main Perception line and highlight their experimental and differentiated nature.

At that point, we had no concrete plans to introduce the purple dials into the Perception line-up — though they were nonetheless the product of a long and challenging process to arrive at this specific shade of purple.

However, the attention and excitement for these dials to make it into an actual edition grew unignorable very quickly. Within the first two days of our exhibition, our email, WhatsApp and Instagram messaging channels were already overflowing with requests and queries about the variant.

This quickly became a constant topic of discussion within the team throughout our time in Geneva, and as the conversations continued after the exhibitions had ended. It became very clear that this clamour for the purple dial was not a heat-of-the-moment frenzy, and something that the community genuinely and earnestly wanted.

We therefore decided to kick off the Millésime project with this very watch as a means to give back to them in the best way we know how.

The Tantalum Tickets

In addition to all the above, this delivery of 睦(Mù) also comes with a very special twist for three lucky collectors. While the watch will launch officially in a titanium construction, this special trio, selected 100% at-random, will open their boxes to unveil a prototype of the same watch in full-tantalum — one of the rarest, densest metals around!

To distinguish these 3 pieces, we have also milled out 3 tickets of solid tantalum that will be included in those 3 boxes, as a fun reference to Willy Wonka’s memorable campaign in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for a gamified and potentially extremely rewarding element for the members of our community.

We will ultimately be the very first brand to go to market with a non-limited full-tantalum timepiece on a bracelet very soon, and these prototypes are refined versions of the ones we exhibited in Geneva back in April during Watches and Wonders.

Our official tantalum release will be markedly different from what is showcased in this tantalum raffle, and this raffled configuration of Perception is not and will never be for sale.

An Additional Leather Perk

Additionally, we are extending a further perk for a number of customers who purchase the watch, both in-person and for the early-bird orders online.

The first 88 online customers, as well as all pre-orders at our upcoming slate of exhibitions, will receive a complimentary integrated full-grain leather strap specially designed to fit Perception’s case.

This will be the first time that the brand is releasing Perception accompanied by a leather option, and as this particular strap has been specifically created for 睦(Mù), it is an exclusive perk for those who purchase the edition. It will never be sold and will not be available again.

Exhibitions 2024

• The Watch Paddock — Singapore — 20-22 September
• Toronto Timepiece Show — Toronto — 27-29 September
• WeLoveWatches — Paris — 12 October
• Wind-Up Watch Fair — New York — 18-20 October
• Spring, Sprang, Sprung — Singapore — 18-20 October
• Dubai Watch Week, 10th Horology Forum — Hong Kong — 22-24 October

Perception ‘睦(Mù)’ will be available to pre-order directly on atelierwen.com from 7-21 October (9PM SGT/2PM CET/9AM EST), as well as at our in-person events and exhibitions listed below. It will retail for US$3,588 (excl. VAT), with delivery expected in May 2025.

Technical specifications

Atelier Wen Perception ‘Millésime’ 2024 睦(Mù)

Limited production, available for pre-order from 7-21 October, 2024

Case

• Material: Grade 5 Titanium (3 pieces in Tantalum)
• Dimensions: 40 mm at widest point / 37mm at narrowest point
• Thickness: 9.4 mm
• Lug-to-lug: 47 mm
• Glass: Double-domed sapphire crystal with 10 layers of anti-reflective coating
• Screw-down crown, signed
• Caseback: Hammered texture surrounding raised stone lion motif
• Semi-display sapphire crystal window showing balance bridge/rotor,
• Deeply CNC-engraved, 3D lettering on all text, 10 layers of anti-reflective coating
• Water-resistant to 100m/10ATM

Dial and hands

• Purple hand-crafted guilloché dial with intricate écaille de poisson pattern, turned by the atelier of China’s sole guilloché master craftsman, Cheng Yucai.
• Four-layered dial construction, inspired by ancient Chinese architectural tenets of Sunmao (friction/imbrication through mortise and tenon joints)
• Chinese huiwen-patterned chapter ring, printed in Super-LumiNova ®, X1 grade
• Applied rhodium-plated indices
• Voluminous, rhodium-plated, leaf-shaped hands with Super-LumiNova ®, X1 grade
• Hand-bent minutes and seconds

Movement

• Customized Dandong SL1588A
• Automatic movement
• Thickness: 3.4 mm
• Number of jewels: 32
• Frequency: 28,800 vph (4Hz)
• Power reserve of 41 hours
• Tested exhaustively by the Horological Institute of Light Industry (HRILI)
• +/- 10s per day, with further adjustment in 5 positions and for temperature fluctuations

Finishing

• Circular Côtes de Genève, perlage and generous anglage
• Polished jewel and screw sinks, heat-blued screws
• Tungsten rotor in purple rhodium plating

Functions/Indications

• Hours, minutes, seconds

Strap and buckle

• Grade 5 Titanium bracelet
• Individual chamfers on all sides of all links
• Aggressive taper from 22mm at the lugs to 18mm at the clasp
• Gradual thinning of the bracelet from lugs (3mm) to the clasp (2.6mm)
• Clasp: Proprietary, patent-pending, on-the-fly micro-adjustment system
• Telescopic deployant clasp blade for enhanced comfort and wearability

MSRP: USD 3'588 (excl. taxes)

For more information, please visit atelierwen.com