People looking for a nice looking brown toned watch, that is made well and has a Swiss movement need look no further. With what can only be described as a metallic chocolate-colored face, Archimede’s new Arcadia Brown watch shines like a luxury form of rust. Actually, that whole range of browns, maroons, rusts, etc… can be very flattering and fashionable. Made in German, Archimede watches have Ickler cases, which are known for attention to detail, quality, and most importantly value. Few brands such as this make their own cases.
The Archimede Arcadia is a very classic type of watch from a design standpoint. A face as easy to read an IWC Portuguese, with properly sized hands, and a modern font used for the Arabic hour numerals. The clean inner dial is spiced up a bit via the hour and minute indicators around the periphery of the dial. New here for 2010 is the brown color of the timepiece. The case is in polished steel and is 42mm wide by 10mm thick (very reasonable).
It has a sapphire crystal and a mineral crystal caseback for viewing the movement. Inside the watch is a Swiss ETA 2824-2 automatic. Pretty much everyone loves the German spelling of “automatic” with a “K,” which is spelled out on the dial. The centrally-aligned date window is nice as well. Too bad the date disc could not have been brown as well (though that would have likely made it a bit harder to read). Overall the Arcadia Brown is a very well proportioned and balanced watch that is nice to look at with not much to fuss about – quite the German way.
Really not too much else to say about it. These images of the watch were taken as I checked the piece out myself. This is a watch that pretty much speaks for itself. If I had to make one addition to the design, I would add luminant to the hands. Otherwise, what you see is what you get. The watch is paired with a reptile textured brown leather strap, but is also available with a metal bracelet (which costs more). You can visit Archimede’s website to see this brown version of the Arcadia, as well as the other available models. Price is $595.