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- Ressence has unveiled the TYPE 10 DN (Dark Night). This 100-piece limited edition is the Belgian brand’s first oil-filled watch powered by its own in-house movement.
- The watch uses the new RW-04 self-winding calibre (60-hour power reserve) to drive the patented ROCS 10 display, which sits in oil while the movement runs in air.
- A monochromatic Dark Night finish unites the polished Grade 5 titanium case, dial, and integrated rubber strap.
- It’s priced at CHF 45,000 (approximately AUD$78,100) excluding taxes and arrives in November 2026.
The Ressence TYPE 10 was born as a scattering of sticky notes on a computer monitor. It’s a modest beginning for such an exceptionally ambitious watch; one that contains oil, magnets, and a titanium membrane just 0.1 mm thick.
Revealed at Watch Time New York, the TYPE 10 DN (Dark Night) is the culmination of a process started all the way back in 2022. Ressence founder Benoît Mintiens set himself a simple brief. He asked what a mechanical watch would look like if it evolved according to the laws of nature rather than those of engineering.
The answer he came to is among the most intriguing and elegant watches I’ve seen all year. The caveat being that I haven’t actually seen it in the flesh (yet). However, given i’m familiar with Ressence’s work, I suspect this is something quite special indeed.
Ressence TYPE 10 DN Key Specs:
- Case: Polished Grade 5 titanium with HarDeCo hard coating
- Diameter: 41.5 mm
- Dial: Convex Grade 5 titanium, 75 mm diameter
- Display: Patented ROCS 10 module (oil-filled)
- Functions: Hours, minutes, GMT, 120-second runner/shock absorber, oil temperature indication
- Movement: In-house RW-04, self-winding
- Power reserve: 60 hours (two barrels)
- Frequency: 28,800 vph
- Water resistance: 50 metres
- Strap: Integrated rubber, with a polished Grade 5 titanium buckle
- Weight: 82 grams
- Limited edition: 100 pieces
- Price: CHF 45,000 (approximately AUD$78,100) excluding taxes
The Evolution of Form
Mintiens describes the design process as a lasagna of ideas. While the TYPE 10 DN is a far more elegant proposition than that makes it sound, he’s referring to how he’d place a new Post-it on his screen every few months, each building on the last. What began as separate watch components gradually fused into one coherent whole.
The result is a watch in which the case flows into the strap, the sapphire follows the contour of the case, and the dial appears to rise towards the surface of the crystal. Ressence has long compared its watches to natural forms, whether the pebbles found on a beach or the same principles of seamlessness and hydrodynamics that shape animals in nature. Whether you buy the analogy or not, Ressence has always made superbly sculpted watches, and this one appears to take that philosophy to the nth degree.
Monochromatic Design
The DN in the name stands for Dark Night, a deep shade of blue shared by the case, dial and integrated rubber strap. The idea is to make the watch read as one monochromatic monolith on the wrist.
Oil does some of the heavy lifting here. Ressence uses it to fill the space above the dial, creating the visual effect that the dial is printed onto the sapphire. It’s not, but the effect is always uncanny, and here it showcases Ressence’s innovative and signature ROCS system in all its splendour, allowing the hours, minutes, a GMT, and 120-second runner to appear as if floating across one seamless surface.
Then there’s the minute track, which is made of 24 individual titanium segments. These alternate between small, sandblasted inserts filled with luminous paint and larger, linearly brushed surfaces. The brushing direction shifts by 30 degrees from one segment to the next. As a result, light travels around the bezel as your wrist moves. It’s the kind of aesthetic obsession I’ve come to expect from Ressence.
Hermetically Sealed
The oil-filled display presented a headache for Mintiens and Co. The RW-04 movement (more on that in a moment) needs to operate in air, while the ROCS needs to be immersed in oil, so each space needs to be sealed off from the other.
Ressence’s solution is two hermetically sealed chambers, one air-filled and one oil-filled. The RW-04 drives a disc fitted with micro-magnets on the air side, while a second disc mirrors it in the oil. Magnetic attraction drives the dial’s motion through the titanium case, so there’s no shaft, no opening, and no leak.
The two sets of magnets sit just 0.2 mm apart, separated by a 0.1-mm titanium membrane. Meanwhile, an expansion chamber absorbs changes in the oil’s volume as temperatures shift, preventing gas bubbles from forming as the oil cools. Each oil-filled Ressence is tested for an hour at 60°C and another at -5°C before it ships. Fortunately, if you keep the watch on your wrist, the odds of reaching temperatures that extreme are essentially zero.
RW-04 Movement
Powering all of this is the aforementioned in-house RW-04, a self-winding calibre configured specifically for the TYPE 10. Its 252 components deliver a 60-hour power reserve via two barrels.
All told, the TYPE 10 DN contains 538 components, 196 of which live in the oil-filled ROCS 10 module. It also has 49 gears, 47 jewels, and 8 ball bearings (7 jewel and 1 stainless steel).
Case and Wearability
Double-domed sapphire crystals, with an internal anti-reflective coating, top and bottom the 41.5-mm case in polished Grade 5 titanium with a HarDeCo hard coating. Water resistance is 50 metres courtesy of the Ressence Compression Lock System. That means this watch is fine for handwashing and rain, although I’d avoid diving headlong into the surf this summer, just to be safe.
More impressive is the weight, measuring in at just 82 grams. It’s remarkably light for a watch with so many mechanicals going on. That’s the titanium doing its job, along with Mintiens’ belief that as objects evolve, parts integrate and unnecessary weight disappears. If, as the brand claims, the intent is a daily companion that’s easy to wear, easy to read, and easy to forget, the TYPE 10 DN delivers.
Price and Availability
Ressence has limited the TYPE 10 DN to 100 pieces and priced it at CHF 45,000 (approximately AUD$78,100), excluding taxes. Sure, that’s a lot of money, but Ressence is one of those brands that’s truly at the cutting edge of horology, but in a way that feels contemporary and meaningful, rather than simply innovating for innovation’s sake.
With that in mind, I think the TYPE 10 DN is a fascinating release that feels like Ressence is taking its next great leap forward. It will be available from November 2026, and I hope I’m lucky enough to eventually see one of those 100 pieces in the flesh.
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