When a brand becomes known for something ultra specific, it has a hard time to renew itself and to keep us engaged. Because how many iterations of that one thing can support an entire business and make it thrive? It’s a challenge I thought the French brand BeauBleu would struggle with as the initial concept of circular hands appeared limited in the long term. BeauBleu first matched them with different dial textures and colors, then put their circular cases through various transformations, and finally made the seconds hand morph into a seemingly floating disc as we saw a while back with the Seconde Française. After all of this, I wondered what could the brand come up with in order to either once again give us a watch with the ubiquitous hands that would be different, or spring a new and singular concept to life. Well, it kinda did both with their new creation, the Figura. 

Before that we mount this model onto a dish and slide it under the microscope, let’s first talk about BeauBleu and how it manages its releases. The French brand has an almost equal number of permanent collection models and limited edition ones, and the aforementioned Seconde Française belonged to the latter category. (Alas if you ask me!) Their permanent collection is called the Ecce—which roughly translates to “behold!” as in “well duh!”—which initially came in three models and now an additional six, following design codes divided up into three families: Vesperal (brushed steel,) Lys (rose gold,) and Smalt (abysmal blue.) There is more to them than colors as each family pays tribute to a different type of craft but why don’t we keep things simple, ok? So the Figura is the new sub-collection and today we’re looking at the Smalt variant which draws inspiration from wax seals from way back when. 

Specifications 

There are two ways to look at the Figura Smalt—first as a body of materials seamlessly assembled together and second, as a work of art. After reviewing the Fears Arnos Pewter Blue last week, I understand that a dressy and elegant watch can also be a robust one, deceiving the wearer and most likely passersby into thinking that it is a mere accessory to elevate one’s style instead of being a complete object. The Fears and BeauBleu make me think of everyday timekeeping devices from many decades ago before that we started collecting watches and have a bunch of them—I always wondered if there were watch collectors 60 years ago as there are today—where most folks owned one watch that had to do it all. And if you weren’t in the military, then you needed one that would not only fit into your daily schedule and be robust enough to keep on ticking, but also that would look the part for business meetings or family gatherings. 

This brings us to the specifications of the Figura which are good and balanced in relation to the singularity of its design. First, a stainless steel case which is both brushed and polished to highlight its shape and match the case, a flat sapphire crystal with inner anti-reflective coating, a push-pull crown measuring 5.8mm in diameter, 30 meters of water resistance, and a Miyota 9015 caliber (4Hz/41 hours of power reserve) which has a stated accuracy of +/- 9 seconds per day, which would indicate that BeauBleu regulates the movements. The Figura can be had with either a black or blue leather strap or the mesh stainless bracelet which is simply delightful in my opinion. And you can get all three and swap things around easily because they all come with quick-release spring-bars. In terms of dimensions, the case measures 30mm wide, 39mm long (there are no lugs), and 8.6mm thick. The latter measurement is exquisite regardless of the depth rating. 

Design 

And there are also two ways to look at the design of the Figura. First, as another iteration of BeauBleu’s ubiquitous circular hand design which adorns all of the brand’s collections. More specifically, an attempt to match it to a different case shape simply to add a bit of novelty to its otherwise and now codified aesthetics. Which is akin to what many other watch brands do when they release the same watch in different dial colors or textures. Because even though circular hands are proper to BeauBleu and that until today, the brand hadn’t used a rectangular case to frame them, the main design element that makes a BeauBleu watch a BeauBleu are said hands and are still here. So we might see in the future a triangular or octagonal case wrapped around the hands. Second, we can see the Figura as BeauBleu’s attempt to once again push the boundaries of horological design and to further position itself as being unique on the market. 

But we will come back to this in a few. 

So let’s put the Figura under a microscope and decipher what this model is visually all about. Of course, the hands are circular and the hour and minute ones are painted white and the seconds hand blue to easily tell them apart. The dial is indeed created to mimic—or to make us think of—embossed wax seals as if a pattern was applied by hand onto the soft and warm blue wax which created the raised parts which constitute the time-telling elements of the dial. In other words, hour markers sitting across two rails which potentially double as a minute track so that we can indeed read the time. And a few words printed in white below the pinion—“Automatique” and “Paris” as BeauBleu is based in Paris and assembles the watches in the French capital. Above the pinion the brand name and logo are also embossed and then painted white for extra effect. What is fascinating here is the stark contrast created between the dial and hands. 

But the main talking point of the BeauBleu Figura is the case and how it creates a contradiction of shapes with the hands. Being a semi-octogone—it has eight sides but four long and straight ones and four shorter and rounded ones—we can put it in the “shaped” watch category where we also find the Fears Arnos. However the case is not only characterized by its overall shape but also, and more importantly, by how it is constructed and where the bezel starts and ends. The latter could be described as having two stages—two steps if you will—each having a concave profile, polished, separated from the other by a flat and brushed section. The bezel culminates to the octagonal sapphire crystal and falls back into the octagonal dial, creating a visually coherent ensemble. The two-step bezel construction is actually repeated on the dial by way of the two rails embossed on it as we saw earlier. Although it wasn’t evident at first (to me at least,) the Figura is extremely symmetrical. 

Moreover, and what makes the case truly gorgeous, is the fact that its mid and upper sections are actually one block of stainless steel, so is part of what generally constitutes the case-back. The concave and polished elements of the bezel are repeated on the underside of the case by way of beautifully polished concave chamfers to which is attached—screwed in—a flat piece of metal to close it. While the bezel wraps around the entirety of the case, the lower chamfers don’t as their path is interrupted by the undercuts that make up the recessed lugs. In other words, the straps or bracelet attach from underneath the case for a seamless look, which also contributes to making the Figura very comfortable to wear and visually striking. I had already been amazed by the case design and finishing of the Seconde Française but that here my friends is something radically different. And one must study the case of the Figura in the metal to fully comprehend what we’re dealing with. 

The Heart of the Matter

When BeauBleu announced the Figura, I thought the brand had simply swapped a circular case for a shaped one, and I wondered what’s the big deal? The Smelt dial didn't convince me either and I wished they would send me the Vesperal instead as I preferred the combination of the brushed dial with the applied hour markers—a bit more conventional for yours truly, oh shame. Because the digital images of the Smelt—regardless of how good they were—failed to capture the depth and sheen of the dial, akin to that found on enamel pieces, which is striking when observed up-close through biological eyes. And looking at the entire new sub-collection and its six models—Lys, Smalt, Onyx, Alba, Sienna and Vesperal—the heart of the matter with the Figura becomes evident: the point of this watch is neither the hands nor the case, but the seamless combination of the two into one watch, strong of its beautiful contradictions, creating a visual ensemble that is striking as well wholeheartedly singular. 

Although we like to think that the 20th century has been the best century for matchmaking, it is only so from a design perspective. Most of the key and important technical advances were born in the 18th and 19th centuries, and so the past 120 years have been more about figuring out how to make watches visually interesting and to adapt their core mechanics to various applications. And lifestyles. And folks. Because when we think of the most iconic watches from the Golden Era of horology—the 1960s through the 1980s—we mostly think of what they looked like, not what they were made of. It is their design, and not what ticks inside, that have made the Submariner, Nautilus, and Speedmaster so ubiquitous and classic. And brands like BeauBleu can’t distinguish themselves by engineering new escapements but by creating new designs. And that’s what matters here: the Figura is a new design concept for a watch and one which I find more complete than the brands’ previous collections. 

Conclusion 

So the good news here today is that with the BeauBleu Figura you can acquire something unique  which is also well made without breaking the bank: roughly $1,130 USD on the mesh bracelet. It’s akin to getting an original art work from an up-and-coming artist at a museum and not akin to buying the creation of a master (which we cannot objectively call a masterpiece) at a private auction on 5th Avenue. And that is once again what makes the world of micro and independent horology so fascinating and so powerful and much more so each day: the ability that these brands have to revolutionize attainable horology whilst the big brands are too busy pushing out multi-patented calibers which do not add anything to the daily wearing experience. Wow, am I angry or something? 

Thanks for reading.