Solune Pure: The 39 mm Dial-First Reinterpretation With Hand-Lacquered Rizière Dials

Schaefer & Companions introduced the Solune Pure in October 2026 as a 39 mm reinterpretation of its signature Solune, launching alongside the hand-lacquered Rizière Collection. The watch made its public debut at The HYPE NYC on October 17 and 18, 2026, pre-orders opened on October 17, and no independent hands-on reviews exist yet. The watch faces are unique looking, reading to my eye like a deliberate symbolic system rather than mere surface decoration.

What the Solune Pure is and why it exists

With the 39 mm Solune Pure, independent Swiss watchmaker Schaefer & Companions pulls the visual weight off the steel case and puts it all on the hand-crafted dial. While the brand’s earlier Solune and Octolune treated the case housing as part of the sculpture, the Solune Pure scales the watch down and treats the case as a quieter frame while keeping the original Solune crown and caseback.

• Model and origin: Independent Swiss mechanical wristwatch from Schaefer & Companions, created after collectors and enthusiasts asked for a smaller, more understated piece.
• Core design change: Replaces the heavy sculptural case geometry of the Solune and Octolune with a dial-first layout in the wide-opening Grand Art configuration.
• Hardware continuity: Carries over the original Solune crown and caseback while introducing redesigned, smoother lugs and slimmed-down hands.
• Debut series: Launches with the Rizière Collection, featuring multi-layer epoxy and gold-powder lacquer dials by French artisan Solène Rolland Huckel.

Most small independent watch brands build whatever loud, oversized case the founder wants and hope buyers adjust their sleeves. Schaefer & Companions went the other direction here. Collectors who liked the brand’s artistic collaborations kept asking for something smaller and quieter on the wrist. The 39 mm case is a direct answer to those conversations.

That word “Pure” in the model name can be misleading if you’re used to how big watch brands use it. Usually, it means an entry-level stripper model with the interesting parts removed to hit a lower price point. Here, it signals a re-prioritization of visual real estate. Instead of asking your eye to take in a heavily faceted metal sculpture and an artisanal dial at the same time, the watch pulls the case back so the dial artwork does the talking.

The brand frames this release as an extension of its philosophy rather than a departure from its identity. The watch itself supports that framing. You’re still getting one-off craft work from an outside specialist, packaged in proportions that don’t dominate the room before someone notices the dial.

The design pivot: the case steps back, the dial takes the stage

The Solune Pure separates itself from the Solune and Octolune by treating the metal case as a frame rather than a sculpture. Shrinking the watch to 39 mm forced a choice between aggressive case architecture and dial room, and the Maison chose the dial.

What Solune and Octolune did with the case

On the earlier Solune and Octolune models, the sculptural case was an integral part of the artistic creation. You weren’t just buying a dial inside a steel housing; the faceted metal geometry was half the show. For the Solune Pure, the brand launches in what it calls the Grand Art configuration, which opens up the bezel area to give the artwork maximum room. A Médaillon version is also in development for a later release.

What was kept, what was softened

To keep the watch recognizable as a Schaefer & Companions piece, the case retains the original Solune crown and caseback. Everything else around the perimeter got toned down. The redesigned lugs trace a smoother, more fluid silhouette on the wrist, and the hands were slimmed down so they don’t block the lacquer work underneath.

The Rizière Collection: rice fields as time in motion

The Rizière Collection dials take their undulating geometry from a photograph of lush rice terraces whose contours looked like ribbons moving in the wind, launching first in violet (Rizières Purple Lacquer) with green (Rizières Green Lacquer) and additional colors planned to follow. Lacquer artisan Solène Rolland Huckel translated that reference photograph into preliminary dial sketches, with atelier photography documented by Atelier Thomas K.

Founder Christophe Schaefer saw those rice-field contours as a metaphor for time in motion that never repeats itself, calling the pattern a vital, life-giving breath. In his read, the intertwined lines also represent family bonds, where every line is distinct but belongs to a larger whole, while echoing the curves of the Maison’s interwoven emblem.

Once you see that three-part logic of moving time, family ties, and the brand emblem, the dial stops looking like a random abstract swirl and starts reading like an intentional design. If you’re only used to flat printed dials, layered lacquer catches you off guard because tilting the watch under light brings out physical relief and color shifts that flat studio photos compress.

Solène Rolland Huckel: a three-generation artistic lineage

Solène Rolland Huckel is the French lacquer artisan behind the Rizière Collection dials, making her work a natural fit for collectors who care about documented craft lineage over factory dial stamping. She founded her studio, L’Atelier de Salem, in 2020 in Bischwiller, France, where she produces the dials by hand.

Her path to watch dials ran through five hands-on trades: flameworked glass, metalworking, jewellery, silversmithing, and lacquer. She started in flameworked glass before moving through metalworking, jewellery, and silversmithing on her way to lacquer. Her mother, Nathalie Rolland-Huckel, introduced her to lacquer in childhood, and the two still collaborate today in an ongoing creative exchange with its own shared visual language.

She also picked up etching from her father, the painter and engraver Aymery Rolland. That mix of engraving discipline and layered surface work caught Christophe Schaefer’s eye when the two met during one of Solène’s own art exhibitions, sparking the collaboration that put her lacquer work inside a 39 mm steel case.

How the lacquer dials are made, layer by layer

Each Rizière dial is built from two-component epoxy lacquers applied in successive fine transparent and colored layers, with every single coat cured and delicately sanded by hand before the next goes on. After working physical texture into the surface, Solène Rolland Huckel hand-paints the fine decorative lines using lacquer mixed with gold powder, then seals the dial under several final transparent coats to lock in the depth, relief, and light reflection.

Solune Pure specs: movement, case, and how the 39 mm wears

The Solune Pure is a manual-winding mechanical watch powered by the Peseux 7001 caliber and housed in a 39 mm 316L stainless steel case with 5 ATM of water resistance. Although automated search summaries sometimes mislabel the Peseux 7001 as an automatic caliber, this is a classic hand-wound movement with no rotor.

• Movement: Hand-wound mechanical Peseux 7001 caliber with 17 jewels, a 45-hour power reserve, and a 21,600-vph frequency (21,600 beats per hour).
• Movement decoration: Geneva stripes, blued screws, a Glycydur balance wheel, and finishing offered across 10 colors.
• Case dimensions and material: 39 mm width and 20 mm lug-to-lug crafted from 316L grade stainless steel, mixing micro-blasted, brushed, and diamond-polished finishes across its surfaces.
• Crystals and water resistance: Double-domed front sapphire crystal with AR7 anti-reflective and UV-protective coating, sapphire exhibition caseback with AR4 coating, and 5 ATM water resistance.
• Strap: Black Apple leather strap measuring 20 mm at the lugs and tapering to 18 mm at the buckle.

Peseux 7001 movement and finishing

The Peseux 7001 is a proven Swiss manual-wind workhorse that keeps the watch thin and interactive. Beating at 21,600 vibrations per hour, it runs for 45 hours on a full wind, meaning you’ll wind it every morning or two. Through the AR4-coated sapphire back, you get Geneva stripes, blue screws, and a Glycydur balance wheel.

Case, crystal, and the sizing numbers that decide fit

Guys downsizing from big sculptural watches usually fixate on the 39 mm diameter and miss the numbers that actually govern wrist fit. A compact 20 mm lug-to-lug footprint keeps the case planted, and the strap tapers from 20 mm down to 18 mm at the buckle so it doesn’t overwhelm a smaller wrist. Up top, the AR7-coated double-domed sapphire cuts glare and blocks UV light so the epoxy lacquer keeps its color.

Solune Pure price, scarcity, and how to buy one

The Solune Pure Rizière Collection costs CHF 2,400 excluding taxes and opened for pre-order on October 17, 2026, making it a fit for collectors ready to move fast on a tiny allocation. Per the October 2026 release, production of the Solune Pure Rizière Collection is capped at 8 pieces per dial color, starting with the violet edition.

• Price: CHF 2,400 before local taxes and import duties.
• Production cap: Limited to 8 pieces per color.
• Pre-order opening: Opened on October 17, 2026.
• Public debut: Shown in person at The HYPE NYC on October 17 and 18, 2026, featuring the first assembled prototype in violet.
• Color roadmap: Rizières Purple Lacquer (violet) launches first, with Rizières Green Lacquer and other variations scheduled to follow.

What CHF 2,400 buys and the 8-pieces-per-color limit

At CHF 2,400 before taxes, you need to run the math on your local import duties and sales tax before pulling out a card. What actually paid price buys you is genuine scarcity rather than a four-digit “limited edition” stamp. There are only 8 pieces made per color.

The brand doesn’t give an explicit corporate reason for why the cap sits at 8 pieces, though the production reality is plain enough. Every dial is cured, sanded, and painted by a single artisan in Bischwiller. Rolling the collection out in 8-piece colour batches, starting with violet and moving to green later, keeps the wait times sane.

The HYPE NYC debut and the pre-order window

The Solune Pure was shown in person at The HYPE NYC on October 17 and 18, 2026, where Schaefer & Companions debuted the Rizière Collection’s first fully assembled violet prototype. That gave New York attendees a chance to see how the gold-powder lacquer reacts to real room lighting before putting money down.

Opening pre-orders on October 17, the exact same day the first prototype hit the table in New York, compresses the buyer’s decision window. When independent watchmakers drop runs of 8 pieces per color, buyers who wait around for months of owners’ forum feedback usually find the debut color sold out and end up asking about the next planned shade in the queue.

Schaefer & Companions: the atelier-gallery behind the watch

Independent Swiss Maison Schaefer & Companions runs like a working studio for outside artisans, turning out small-batch mechanical watches for collectors who don’t care about mainstream industry trends. Founder Christophe Schaefer brings more than three decades of watchmaking experience to the project, having started his career at IWC before founding the Swiss movement customization company Wonderful Times.

He’s also the son of artists and sculpts in his spare time, which explains why the brand leans so hard into three-dimensional form. The name Solune mashes up the French words Soleil and Lune (Sun and Moon) as a nod to contrasting forces. That solar cue carries over to the faceted case geometry, which is cut to catch the light differently as your wrist moves.

That setup makes the dial-as-canvas approach a repeatable system rather than a one-off stunt. Alongside lacquer work, the Maison collaborates with enamellers, miniature painters, marquetry specialists, and engravers, including engraving artist companion Boris Nemitz, who crafts the brand’s Solune Engraving dial.

What a buyer can and cannot yet know about the Solune Pure

Evaluating the Solune Pure right now means separating its confirmed mechanical specifications and artisan pedigree from the unknowns of an early-stage release. While the case dimensions, movement details, and 8-piece production cap are locked in on paper, prospective buyers have to weigh those concrete numbers against the reality that the watch has only just debuted as a prototype.

No independent review exists yet, only the prototype debut

No, there is no independent review of the Solune Pure yet because only the October 2026 press release and the single violet prototype shown at The HYPE NYC on October 17 and 18, 2026 exist so far. Any watch site pretending to give you a long-term wear report right now is faking it, so don’t confuse the documented specs on paper with how production pieces will actually feel once customer deliveries start.

The tradeoffs: hand-wound, 5 ATM, 8-piece runs

The Solune Pure fits buyers who want an old-school mechanical art piece and accept the everyday compromises of manual winding, 5 ATM water resistance, 8-piece color runs, and a CHF 2,400 ex-tax price tag. If you came across search suggestions for a “Solune Pure app,” clear that out of your head right away: this is a purely analog, hand-wound watch with zero electronics or smart connectivity. You wind the 45-hour Peseux 7001 every couple of days, and 5 ATM water resistance means it handles handwashing or rain, not lap swimming.

For a buyer hunting for a smaller, understated watch, the 39 mm diameter, compact 20 mm lug-to-lug, smoother lugs, and slimmed-down hands directly deliver on the collector request for quieter proportions. Remember that while the steel case steps back, a purple and gold-powder lacquer dial is still built to catch eyes, and nobody outside the brand has tested one on the wrist for a week yet.

For direct inquiries and allocation availability, Schaefer & Companions lists press and brand contact Julie Amouzegar Kim at marketing@schaefer-and-companions.art, +41 78 348 56 08, and www.schaefer-and-companions.art.

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