There are many types of watch enthusiasts. Some just want that one grail piece, those who collect within a specialised niche, be it a brand, a style or even a model of watch (like those folks who have twenty versions of an F-91W for example) or people like us who want the most diverse collection possible: different colours, shapes, complications, dials and styles. And you don’t really know who you are until your tastes evolve. At least that was my finding as I tumbled through being a “chrono guy” to a “dive watch guy” into what I am now, which is just a complete watch tart who just wants a bit of everything.
Well, if you’re the same, then the VERSA by Singapore-based microbrand Vario (Varry-oh? Vary-oh? Mariah Carey, no!) is a watch worth considering, especially if you’ve found yourself in a cul-de-sac of dive watches or some other niche where the collection is starting to get a bit samey.
On the face of it, the VERSA is a formal-looking dress watch with a thin-but-chunky footprint that evokes thoughts of the Cartier Tank with its narrow case that extends vertically across your wrist. It’s small, but it’s got an immediate visual impact, very much a gentleman’s watch with a vintage appeal, and a look that is steeped in history. In an age of dive watches, minimalist digitals and smartwatches (spit!), this watch delivers a look that gazes back through the decades, as far as the 1930s in many ways.
But, we’re not even scratching the surface here because this watch hides an exciting secret that you’re going to have a lot of fun with and one that might provide additional benefits to the more diverse watch collector out there, because this watch is, in fact, reversible. That’s right, what you have here is two watch faces, and they sit in a framed case that allows you to flip them vertically.
This inevitably brings to mind the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso, one of the true classic watches and its inspiration for the VERSA. The original Reverso’s mechanism was designed to allow Polo players to shield the vulnerable face of the watch by flipping it over to reveal a blank plate, tucking the face away from any potential balls or sticks. Eventually though, Jaeger introduced a version with two faces, the Duoface Reverso, albeit in 1991, some sixty years after the original Reverso and if you want one of those, you’ll be looking at relieving your wallet of £12,500 (but at least you’ll have two ways to tell the time when you’re eating raw ramen noodles out of a shed). Remember that because it’ll be important later.
When asked about the inspiration for the VERSA, the watch’s designer, Ivan Chau, simply said, “I like the Cartier Tank and JLC Reverso, but I find it hard to take out my wallet, and so I made a reversible myself”, and while the watch certainly represents a departure for the brand, and something of a bolt out of the blue for microbrands generally, Vario already had form for quirky, historically-inspired watches with vintage looks. When compared to the rest of their catalogue, this feels like the logical next step and an evolution of what’s come before. Even so, it’s still one of the boldest microbrand watches we’ve seen.
The watch arrives in a branded cloth bag that contains a rather nice little travel case, a similar material and strength to the cases you get for gadgets like portable hard drives and handheld consoles, but with a nice, rounded doughnut shape. Within the case is the watch and a buckle that you can install as an alternative to the already-attached deployant clasp. You also get a warranty card, a sticker and another card with a little bit of blurb about the watch.
We enjoyed the first impressions of the watch. The vintage appeal is right there, undeniable and confident, but our concerns about its thickness evaporated immediately. Sure, the VERSA reminded us of a piece from a chunky chocolate bar, its clever, thoughtful design means it feels a lot sleeker in the hand, and on the wrist.
The watch arrived silver side up, and this might be what you consider the business side with a two-tone sector dial, with a flat white rectangular inner sector in the middle that contains just one detail: Vario’s logo. Separating that inner sector from the outer dial is a chemin de fer (French for ‘railroad’) minute track that marks out minutes individually while emphasising them in groups of five.
Outside the track, you get a brushed silver sector which catches the light very nicely and offers a nice, but subtle, contrast to the inner part. The look is then completed by Western Arabic numerals (the fancy ‘watch guy’ way of saying ‘numbers’), applied in a nice Art Deco font.
Indeed, while Art Deco might be the style, Vario have actually utilised an evolved version of the form known as ‘Streamline Moderne’ which followed the original ‘20s (oh God, we’re in the ‘20s again, but now everything’s gone to Hell) Art Deco movement a decade or so later. This is apparent in the slightly rounded corners of the edge of the case, with everything being a little softened compared to classic Art Deco.
It all looks particularly swish. Sure, it’s not packing the same level of detail as a true Reverso, but it certainly echoes one, even down to the blue hands, a very nice detail that I didn’t pick up on right away, and a lack of any type of seconds hand. The hour and minutes are thinner than a Reverso’s, though and instead of having the full 1-12 set of numbers, here we just get 3, 6, 9 and 12 with thin line stick indices everywhere else. It makes for a cleaner, more symmetrical look, though, especially as Vario have given each face its own crown, both being placed at 12 o’clock of their respective dials, further enforcing the symmetry (as opposed to the crowns sticking out at the 3 o’clock position).
The other side of the watch is similarly minimal but different in a few key ways. You’ve still just got the two hands and Vario’s logo appears in the same place as before; however, the minute track has now been pushed to the outer edge of the dial, still marking out single minutes in groups of five one but now with a little emphasis on the 3, 6, 9 and 12 o’clock positions. It’s subtle, though, with the logo and minute track marked out in white while the small diamond-shaped markers are in gold.
This ties into the rest of the face with golden paint-like flecks placed, almost randomly, over the deep reddish-purple face. In the same gold colour is a symbol which continues Vario’s flair for the historic. It’s the Chinese character ‘mǎ’ meaning ‘horse,’ a reference to this being the Year of the Fire Horse in the Chinese calendar (this variant of the VERSA being the limited edition ‘Year of the Horse’ version). What’s even cooler is that the writing style is that of Wang Xizhi, a master of calligraphy who died in 361AD.
Despite the history lesson, this is the party side of the VERSA. The red and gold present a completely different vibe from the sharp silver of the other watch face. But really, either side can be used as and when you see fit. Instead of switching moods, you might just see it as switching colours. The dials are, after all, quite small, so instead this watch could just offer that pop of red or silver to accessorise whatever you might be wearing. However you see it, though, you’re truly getting two looks for one watch here. Very practical if you’re maintaining a limited watch box, for example.
But that’s not actually the main driver for having two faces on a watch. Instead, the primary function is for it to serve as a dual time watch. Literally two faces showing different times, that’s as simple as it gets (especially as I don’t like having a fourth hand on a watch – the reason I own zero GMTs).
However, the much, much, much more expensive Reverso models operate very differently to the VERSA, and that’s down to the movement. Or movements in the VERSA’s case. A Reverso has one automatic movement that controls both sides, and with one crown. To separate your time zones, JLC employs a level on the edge of the case, which lets you set the hour hand on one side only.
Here it’s a lot simpler. Each face has its own movement: the Ronda Slimtech 1062, which is a well-regarded quartz movement known for being reliable and ultra-thin. And, of course, each movement has its own crown. So you can set completely independent times on each watch, allowing you to even catch half-hour time zones such as India, Iran or Afghanistan. So, perfect for the least comfortable road trip of all time.
The movements only support two hands, hence the lack of seconds, and offer up six years of battery life (a benefit of having only two hands). These are the one jewel versions of the movements, which means they qualify as “Swiss parts” calibres (the four jewel versions are the “Swiss made” versions). These aren’t high-end models, but that doesn’t matter too much as there’s no second-hand and so no high-frequency sweeping to consider.
The two movements are thin enough that you can cram them into a case that is 12mm thick that makes this a little chunky in relation to its other dimensions (case width: 26mm, case length: 39mm) but taken as a whole, it’s all very wearable. Part of that is down to the flipping mechanism itself. You see, while the thickness of the watch itself is 12mm, the outer part of the case – the part that contains the hinge that the faces flip with – is just 9mm, and that gives a two-level effect. So, when looking at it on the skin, you see the 9mm part first, and that’s what you feel too. Certainly, on the wrist, this doesn’t feel unusually robust.The flipping motion is a lot simpler than what the luxury dual-face watches offer. Hinged at 9 o’clock to 3 o’clock, the watch flips vertically. You just press into, or from behind, either the bottom or top half of the watch, and that’ll release it slightly from the outer part of the case, allowing you to flip it like some sort of fidget toy (2019, the new nostalgia – how far we’ve fallen).
Obviously, the JLC and Cartiers of the world have more engineered mechanisms, but this works just fine with just a couple of metal nubbins in the case, allowing it to click securely into place at the end of a flip, ensuring that your watch doesn’t float about freely during regular use. We did enquire if there is any indication of how many flips this watch will be able to handle before the metal wears out, and while there is no estimated figure, Vario assure us that they have extra parts for replacements. That said, it’ll take a long, long time to loosen up this mechanism to the point where it is any kind of problem.
While this isn’t a luxury watch and isn’t claiming to be, the build seems to be decent throughout. The inner part of the case, the bit with the faces, has a clean, polished stainless steel construction, while the outer part has a nice vertical brushed finish. It’s always good to have contrasting looks.
If we’re being picky, it’d be nice if the four corner screws on the silver face were all aligned but these are working screws that allow you access to both movements, rather than being decorative, so it’s not a massive problem (especially if you own a small screwdriver).
What we really like is the strap. Made of ‘veg tan Italian leather,’ a material where organic materials such as bark and leaves are crafted into leather-like substances and are often used in luxury goods. To be honest, we’d never worn this material before, but on the wrist, it feels soft and comfortable while having a robust, thick quality to it. It’s also meant to patina nicely over time, stretching, scarring and softening with use. It certainly seemed to conform to the wrist more easily than any of the real leather straps in the collection. It’s also colour-matched very nicely to the red side of the watch but compliments the silver side nicely too.
The strap comes with a deployant clasp attached. We’ve recently struggled to size a couple of bracelets (the type that have a sliding clasp rather than ones where you remove links), but this was infinitely easier. You just open the snap-over latch, feed in the strap to where it’s the right size and then snap it closed and you’re done. At that point, you press the two push-buttons on the clasp to release the butterfly mechanism. The only minor faff is doing that while also trying to feed the end of the strap through the keeper, but thankfully, the leather is soft enough to permit this, and it gets easier with further use.
However, if you don’t want to deal with all of that, Vario also includes a regular pin buckle that you can install onto the watch instead. You’ll need one of those link removal tools, though, as a spring-loaded pin holds these watch fasteners in place. Oh, and you can also purchase an ‘elastic metal bracelet‘ from Vario too. That won’t be me though. I remember how much those things pinched back in the ’80s and I’m never going back to them.
Having worn the watch for a couple of weeks, we can safely say that I’m surprised by it. The initial appeal was in the gimmick of it, the two faces offering up some genuine interest while also providing a genuine use case. Two watches in one, two looks for the watch box. The dual time thing didn’t apply as much (I haven’t flown since a really sketchy flight in 2019, and I’m not looking to get back up there any time soon), but it still intrigued. And while I love the inspiration behind the watch, I only really got into that when researching the review. So, yes, the gimmick was what sold me.
But it was wearing the watch that really brought home this watch’s appeal. It’s comfortable, very stylish, has a vintage look that’s so different from everything else in the collection, and it has real versatility, as a core feature behind the whole concept of the watch.
While we’re absolutely understanding behind the reasons for not having a second-hand or any compications, we did miss there being any kind of lume. Sure, the hands are too thin to really support any painted lume, but we wonder if perhaps one of the faces could have allowed for it. It might have made sense for the white/silver side to have some, just to give the watch some utility at night. That said, while the Reverso Duotimes are lumed, the Cartier Tank Basculantes aren’t. In the end, it becomes a design decision, and in the context of the watch, the decision here is for the watch to be confident in what it does. You can forget about what it doesn’t.
Forget lume, forget diving with it (although you do get 5ATM of water resistance, about 50 feet). The VERSA is for two things: business and pleasure. Or three, the last being showing it to people, getting an ‘oh, that’s nice’ and then flipping it. Instant approval every time.
Which brings us to the price. The VERSA retails for £321*, which, by any metric, is a complete steal for a watch that, maybe more than any other similarly priced watch, will bring so much joy, interest, and flair. Obviously though, watches often receive discounts, so even if that’s out of your range for now, it’s worth signing up. US buyers will need to consider the tariffs as usual but, hey, you voted for the fucking guy.
* Please note: while we did purchase this watch, we made the initial approach to the manufacturer and were then offered an exclusive discount to enable the review. However, all opinions are unaffected by this, and Vario will not see this review prior to publishing, nor will they have any say in the content.
The ‘Ten Watch Box’ Verdict: Okay, here’s the truth. I originally thought it could go 50/50 with this one. I ordered it hopeful that I’d like the feel of it but wasn’t sure that a vintage-style dress watch would be for me. Also, with the discount, I always had the option of selling the watch on and recouping more than what I paid. But now that it’s in the collection, it’s already pushed out my Casio which now lives in the B-box. I think this one is a keeper.
JUST THE FACTS
Availability/Options: As a limited edition (of 100), these might not be around forever but for now you can get them for £321. Or you can go for one of their other options such as the limited edition Easter Arabic Gunmetal-Green (which commemorates the start of Eid) or the original silver/black, gunmetal/white, silver MOP/black or silver MOP/white versions. Not going to lie though, the version we’ve got is clearly the one to go for.
Brand: Vario
Model: VERSA
Style: Dress
Case Size: 39mm x 26mm
Movement: Ronda Slimtech 1062 1 Jewel (x2)
Material: 316L Stainless Steel
Band Width: 20mm
Band Type: Veg Tan Leather
Price: £321