In the world of watch collecting, there’s a lot said about your grail watches. That one piece that you wait and save for, the end boss of the videogame so to speak. For normal collectors that usually means upping your game price-wise. Stepping into the luxury market with something like your first Omega or stepping up with a Rolex or something really high-end like a Breguet. It’s subjective really. Based on what you value and how much you value it.
Well, we’re not really about that. The nerves associated with wearing a luxury piece would spike our anxiety every time we walked not just through a city but even if we walked through a door frame. But we still like nice things and when Henry Archer started showing off the Tesseract, a unique variant in their Vesterhav line of slimline dress watches, we knew we wanted it. The thing is, there were two factors stopping us.
The first is that we’re maintaining a strict ‘one in, one out’ policy with our ten slot watch box and, more crucially, Henry Archer can only sell these as quick as they manufacture them. So with pre-orders stating a four month wait time, we diverted and picked up the blue Revelot Hexmariner 39. A very different watch but one that had enough key features in common with the Tesseract to temporarily scratch the itch.
Aside from being a similar size and both having that all-important date complication (which is somewhat of a must-have here at Watch Country), the main thing the Revelot and the Henry Archer have in common is that they both have a blue mother of pearl dial. And we’ve been happy with the Revelot in all aspects (apart from the bracelet which we never got on with). So, the Tesseract was going to have to wait. But we kept looking at the official page, and also eBay, in the hope that we’d eventually be able to pick one up. And then when it did come in stock we got somewhat screwed over when we bought a bass guitar from a company that then immediately went bankrupt. Argh!
But a grail is a grail, even if it’s a £526 one. And so we listed the Hexmariner on eBay and went for the Tesseract which then arrived and sat in it’s post packaging for a week. This is as grail-y as we’re likely to get for a while and so we were a little intimidated by it, not by the price which is fairly modest, but by the expectation. Would the dial pop in real life like it does in the photos or would it be duller in person, like a date with a Coldplay fan? Well, keep reading to find out (or just skip forward if mobile phones have ruined your attention span, either’s good).
The Tesseract is has a good set of specs on paper. Made of 316L surgical-grade stainless steel, the case sports a 40mm diameter with a 47mm lug-to-lug making it slim enough for most wrists but still substantial enough to make an impact. But it’s the 10.45mm thickness that we really liked. This is such a slim, elegant watch which looks sharp and serious but also eye-catching and not just because of that dial. You also get a sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating. So far we’ve had a couple of heart-stopping knocks against furniture but the watch isn’t showing any signs of it. Phew!
But yes, that dial. Holy shit, it’s nice. The blue mother of pearl certainly has all the reflective iridescence you’d hope for catching the light as nicely as we could have hoped for. But on closer inspection the details are even better. The dial is formed of hexagons and parallelograms which all catch the light differently, some will be flatter while others shine. Some will appear blue while others will catch pinks and purples. It’s just gorgeous but also an exhibition in sleek, minimal design.
With raised baton indices, polished on the edges, and complimenting baton hands, legibility is no issue on the watch and then everything behind that is small, colour-matched and tasteful. From the almost-hidden date at the six o’clock position to the cyan second hand, everything is carefully coordinated. The circular Henry Archer logo is tiny and detailed while the only writing on the dial is a small ‘VESTERHAV’ and even smaller water resistance value. A numbered chapter ring counts up in fives. There’s enough information on there to be practical but it’s all done in such a way as to not detract from that dial.
The back of the case is no slouch either with tiny engraved information about the specs and the watch’s Danish heritage and a nice display window showing off the watch’s Miyota 9019 movement which is, of course, a Citizen workhorse that offers a 42 hour power reserve, a 4Hz beat rate (which is impressively smooth) and offers the usual hacking and automatic self-winding. The movement is classed by Miyota as one of their ‘Premium’ offerings thanks to it enabling thinner case sizes thanks to it’s low hand clearance. It uses a screw-down crown with three positions (manual wind, date setting and time setting). Be careful not to set the date between 8:30pm and 2am. And don’t be taking this any lower than 200meters (660ft) in the water. Or, don’t be a literal psychopath, and start taking this beauty swimming like some sort of monster. It’s too pretty. But it’ll do a job if you insist.
We were very happy with the performance of the lume on this one. With just the indices and hour/minute hands coated, there’s not a lot of lumed area on here but it absolutely pops at night offering some of the best legibility we’ve seen on any watch. They’ve definitely used that BL10 X1 Swiss SuperLuminova well. We weren’t expecting much but it seems to last for hours and makes telling the time in the dark as easy as can be. Nice.
The bracelet is also decent offering a good amount of microadjust and not mangling our skin or arm hair once. Compared to some recent bracelets we’ve used, this is clearly a step up in looks and comfort. It also uses screw links which should be mandatory now. But if you want to swap this out for a strap, you’ll be looking for one with a 20mm width. And thankfully the bracelet here has a quick release on it.
When we were purchasing this piece, it was on the website for £526 just last month (March 2025) but is now sitting at £542 (and we think that’s gone up since yesterday). On the plus side you can usually grab a discount by signing up to Henry Archer’s website, we nabbed 20% off. And they seem to be able to manufacture these a lot quicker now as they’re no longer out of stock all the time. And for the price, this is just a superb watch. Great aesthetics, good materials and it’s Danish and who doesn’t like the Danish? From fantastic breakfast pastries to Lucas Anderson scoring a last minute thunderbolt for QPR over the weekend, we’re all in on Denmark, especially if Henry Archer keep putting out watches as good as this.
The ‘Ten Watch Box’ Verdict: So, will it hold down a place in our ten watch display case? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. The Tesseract is our best-looking watch and it’s been getting near-constant wrist time since we opened the box (only getting swapped out for a G-Shock at the gym because, again, we’re not monsters). It’s already our favourite and we can’t see that changing for a while. Or at least not until Henry Archer themselves top it.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: These are in stock right now. Just keep an eye on those prices as they keep fluctuating. We blame America. For everything. The Tesseract is the one that caught our eye but the whole Vesterhav range is really nice. From the bronze-coloured ‘Cosmic Ember’ to the Tesseract-but-black ‘Event Horizon’ (which is achingly gorgeous).
Brand: Henry Archer
Model: Vesterhav – Tesseract
Reference: MOS-150
Style: Dress
Case Size: 40mm
Movement: Miyota 1909 (Automatic)
Material: Stainless Steel
Band Width: 20mm (taper down to 18mm)
Band Type: Steel Bracelet
Price Paid: £474.30