Not too long ago, when we were discussing the new Beaucroft Contour GMT Tropical Teal, I advanced the idea that a series of specific adjectives can be generally assigned to each country which births the timekeeping devices we so adore to collect and talk about with fellow enthusiasts. In other words, where the brand founders are based and from where they formulate their own vision for horology. In the case of Beaucroft it was the United Kingdom to which the following adjectives were attributed: measured, elegant, balanced, creative, and innovative. Today we are brought to study the horological creations of another country we are particularly fond of—Japan. To which it could be advanced the following adjectives should be assigned: measured and elegant as well, delicate, nostalgic, meticulous, and timeless. And this can easily be seen looking at Kuoe and Kiwame we have previously explored, for both infused their creations with equal measures of classical design, smaller dimensions, and neo-vintage aesthetics.

What made them further stand apart from the aggressive competition is their dedication to endow their watches with impeccable levels of finishing on the case and dial, crisp printing and/or application of all dial furnishings and literature, and indeed the perfect average dimensions which make them sit on any wrist with natural flair for any occasion. They are thus made of a particular horological DNA we’re becoming more and more interested in discussing over here on Mainspring: the capacity for a watch to be elegant enough to handle urban and professional activities with great agility, robust enough to do well in slightly rougher environments, and to be able to become anybody’s singular timepiece. This is the type of horology we are going to talk about again by taking a first look at a new brand (for us but not for the world), Monogriis. Heralding from Osaka and founded in 2018, Monogriis started off as a self-described fashion brand and went through a rebirth in 2025 to become a proper house of horology. 

This introductory review will put the spotlight on the Resta R50-001 Ivory Dial., which both stands for “Restart” and hearkens back to post World War II-Japan which went through an intense phase of rebuilding and repolishing the image of its multi-versed craftsmanship around the world. And it’s going to be good folks. 

Specifications 

Before we begin our exploration of the Resta, let us briefly discuss once again the question of specifications, money, and what we can, and perhaps should, expect to get for how much we pay. There is no right or wrong answer here frankly as financial value is in the eyes of the beholder (of the credit card that will be charged to acquire the timepiece) and this conversation often veers off topic by comparing massively produced cheap timepieces with small-batch microbrand offerings. Because there is a tangible part you can objectively wrap your head around without seeing the watch in the metal—the movement, crystal, water resistance, lume—and the intangible part which you can only grasp by handling the darn thing in the metal—the weight, the tolerances, the finishing, the winding action, and strap/bracelet fitment and construction. I’ll come right off-the-bat telling you that putting Japanese-made watches side-by-side with non-Japanese made watches, the former often outshines the latter, eclipsing them I would even dare to say. 

Although it isn’t ideal to lead the conversation about a watch’s technical specificities by sharing how much it costs, well the Monogriis Resta’s price tag is just too good to be kept secret until the conclusion of this review: $290 USD for which you get a Japan-made* timepiece which comes with a pretty decent suite of specifications and, more importantly perhaps, excellent finishing of everything that you see and feel. (Where the “meticulous” part comes in.) And in the introduction, two of the additional adjectives we assigned to Japanese brands were “delicate” and “timeless” which refers to both their visual language and how they are proportioned, as they are always perfectly sized according to the writer of this review! The Resta R50-001 Ivory Dial thus comes with the following dimensions: 36mm in diameter, 45mm lug-to-lug, 13.9mm thick including the crystal, and an 18mm lug width which does mean it wears particularly naturally on, say, someone’s 6.50”/16.5cm wrist, for it commands a delicate but noticeable wrist presence.

The perfectly proportioned case is complemented by a complete mirror-polishing work which is something we’ve often encountered on Japanese watches, not only in the sense that they do tend to polish cases but do so to such baffling high standards given the prices at which they sell their horological creations. Inside the shiny chassis we find a Miyota caliber, the Cal.8N40 which features a small-seconds register, beats at 3Hz, and comes with 42 hours of power reserve. A good movement to find at this price point, so it is to encounter a domed sapphire crystal, a fully polished 5.8mm push/pull crown equipped with excellent knurling, and a screw-down case-back for a reasonable 50 meters of water resistance for this type of timepiece. As you can see looking at the picture below, we can see through the sapphire case-back (pun intended) to look at the caliber and now understand why Monogriis opted for this movement instead of the popular 82S5: the partial hollowing out of the main plate is a sight-to-be-seen, again, at this price. 

*Monogriis indicated that their watches are 100% assembled in Japan and powered by a Japan-made caliber, thus meeting the country’s requirements to bear the “Made in Japan” wordmark on the dial.

Design

Mentioning the price of the Monogriis Resta R50-001 Ivory Dial multiple times wasn’t intended to summarize whatever potential interest you might have for this model to it being affordable. But because you get a lot for your money in terms of specifications as we saw above, for the finishing is really remarkable in this humble price bracket—although you can only take my word for it unfortunately for now—and its visual language, as we’re about to see. As always, I was drawn to taking a first look at Monogriis because the design of this model spoke to me when I first saw it on Instagram. And what tickled my interest, drove my enthusiast’s eyes towards it, is the combination of the nostalgic dial and case design anchored in a 1950s horological zeitgeist with a somewhat minimalist approach to laying out the time-reading information on the ivory plate at its center. Looking back again at Kuoe and Kiwame we mentioned in the introduction, Japanese houses of watchmaking do seem to have a particular knack for timeless yet singular aesthetics. 

Let us therefore start with the dial. In the background we are met with a matte-finished ivory dial main whose texture reminds me up-close of that of a finely handmade vanilla ice cream, smooth and evenly finished, on top of which 1950s Bauhaus-style Arabic numerals are printed in a crisp black ink, so are the small dots making up the minute track. The latter are complemented by applied golden markers shaped akin to small magnets, which gently contrast in colors with the creamy ivory dial, and punctuates the hour markers for a pleasurable and easy time-reading operation. At the bottom of it we find the small running seconds register composed of radial grooves decorating a silver plate, black dashes marking the 5-seconds increments (because you don’t need more,) and a small blued hand. Above the pinion the brand’s logo also printed in crisp black ink and at last, the handset: both blued (chemically I suppose at this price point,) with a minute hand shaped in a rectangular thin baton and the hour hand a la ultra-classic Voutilainen. 

As you can see, there is a lot of good horological design taking place on the Monogriis Resta by just looking at the dial, from which does emanate a 1950s Swiss horology-meets-Bauhaus strict  visual language affair wrapped in Japan’s legendary attention to meticulous detailing. And the same time period of horological design can be seen in the way Monogriis profiled the case: small and nimble as we know, but also visually striking and commanding a delicate but noticeable wrist presence, as also mentioned earlier. Looking at its sides, the case is bulbous and rounds up towards the fixed bezel, the latter being organized in a sort of stepped configuration when looking at it up-close: notice the half millimeter which separates the case flanks from the bezel edges and how the domed crystal finished the curvature found on the case sides. Having the crown at the 4 o’clock emphasizes this cascade, making the case look so perfectly circular from above. Then, the arched horn-shaped lugs whose outer section curves out and then in dramatically. 

These darn lugs are particularly sexy and visually striking. 

The Heart of the Matter

Monogriis described itself as having been a fashion watch brand before reinventing itself last year, as it wanted to make good watches attainable to as many folks as possible which is a commendable goal for any brand to have. However, Monogriis also wanted to celebrate two elements profoundly anchored into Japanese culture: first, the passion for fine craftsmanship which has been a hallmark of Japanese society for centuries if not millenia, of which I’m particularly an admirer. Second, to make elegant and reliable everyday objects (here watches) accessible to as many people as possible, for they can enjoy using these key items for everything and everywhere. In the case of the R50-001, by putting together compelling dial and case designs, demonstrating a unique personality that could be matched to that of the wearer, relatively solid specifications when taking into consideration the movement, sapphire sandwich construction, and case finishing, and indeed a devotion for precision, balance, and timelessness for the things we ought to use daily. 

True, the Monogriis R50-001 Ivory Dial might be priced a little over your typical fashion watch, however not so much above it, for $290 USD is a small amount to be asked to pay today for a good rounder timepiece, superiorly made and spec’ed out than replaceable ones, which is a remarkable fit for a self-described fashion watch brand to have made, transforming itself into a de facto enthusiast house of watchmaking. 

Conclusion 

Going through such a remarkable transformation isn’t an easy thing to have done—and an expensive on too as Monogriis decided to discontinue its previous collections and take on a heavy inventory loss—but the result is this: Monogriis currently only has one collection to sell, the Resta R50-001, for it invested all of its time and energy to make its new debut model a home run, which I believe it did. And the Resta comes in three versions—Ivory with blued hands as we saw today, Black with gold hands, and Ivory again but with a gold handset. However, since the brand has been around for a few years, it is capable of making its currently only collection readily available for you to purchase and can further throw in free international shipping. Not bad at all if I may say for the asking $290 USD. 

Thanks for reading.