Have you ever wondered why most watches have circular cases? You probably never asked yourself this question because 99.99% of timekeeping devices are round. So we take this fact for granted. Just like we take it for granted that houses, for the most part, have rectangular walls and pens have straight tubular constructions. (Say what you must about rectangular pens they aren’t comfortable to hold or easy to write with.) Some advance that what is round is common in the natural world, or at the very least, what doesn’t have sharp edges is. I bet that if we would take the time to inventory all things of nature created by whoever is responsible for them (e.g., God, The Great Spirit, Mother Nature), we would mostly find that few of those things have sharp edges. Pocket watches had circular cases because they were easier to finish and more comfortable to wear. So we basically stuck with rounded cases. 

That is not to say, however, that a watch cannot be comfortable should it have an “irregular” case shape. After all, one of the most iconic and famous and worn and sold watches in the history of watchmaking is rectangular—the Cartier Tank. And the eccentricity of the 1970s/80s made hexagonal, octagonal, and decagonal cases alright and even cool. Though hexagonal watches aren’t new, it is a shape we haven’t seen in a long time but which was brought back to life by German-based Rosenbusch when it released its first collection, the Quest. However, the Quest came with rounded angles and so does the brand’s second opus, the Horizon, we’re going to take a close look at today. Obviously, you have to enjoy or be curious about geometrical watches in order to want to read 1,500 words about this one, but I promise (actually, that’s subjective) that you will be happy to have stuck around. 

Specifications

Guess what? The Horizon is not a circular watch. Duh. It is indeed an hexagon and Rosenbusch repeated the shape in the way the dial and crystal and case-back were made, just like it did with the Quest. Because of this, the Horizon appears bigger than its dimensions might suggest, however I found it to be very easy to wear on my 6.50”/16.5cm wrist. At its widest, this model measures 39.5mm, 46mm lug-to-lug, 9.8mm thick (including the crystal,) and has a 20mm lug width. So the watch is thin and spreads wide on the wrist which does make it comfortable to wear. Rosenbusch will ship the Horizon on fabric or leather straps with quick-release spring-bars and deployant clasps. I generally do not fancy this type of clasp but I have to say Rosenbusch engineered it well so that it isn’t too bulky. The straps (I tried both types) were easy to adjust which isn’t always the case either with this type of fastening mechanism. 

To keep the watch thin, Rosenbusch opted for a manual-wind caliber, the Sellita SW210 Élaboré, which ticks at 4Hz, has a power reserve of 45 hours and is regulated in three positions to run at +/- 7 seconds per day. Moreover and despite that, the Horizon comes with 100 meters of water resistance which is excellent (screw-down case back but push/pull crown) which goes to show, once again, that a watch doesn’t have to have a screw-down crown in order to claim good water resistance. (I believe the type of gaskets and the construction of the crown tube and stem have a lot to do with it.) Two of the four versions of the Horizon have baton markers which are lumed (BGW9) and all versions have lumed hour and minute hands. The entirety of the case is polished which also includes the crown. And let me tell you this: fully-polished and rounded cases feel like wearing silk on my semi-hairy wrist. 

There are indeed four versions of this watch: Urban Blue and Canvas White (applied and polished Arabic numerals,) and Black Pearl and Copper Sun (applied and lumed pill-shaped hour markers.) 

Design

What would a V16 9.0 liters engine amount to inside a tin can? To nothing, of course. So the Rosenbusch Horizon has good specs but its raison d’être is its design, because I wouldn’t be writing about it just for the sake of the Sellita. (Come on, folks, let’s be real for a minute.) And whether or not an hexagonal watch is your thing you will certainly appreciate how unusual this is. As mentioned earlier, Rosenbusch made everything in that shape so that the whole package is visually wholesome. The bezel does have six sides but none are straight and the corners are rounded. And being all polished, it’s hard to tell exactly where one ends and the other starts which is visually striking and even better to witness in the rounded metal. (Ah ah.) This roundness continues in the case sides which are rounded and which slope down, whilst the flanks of the fixed bezel are straighter. 

Although this might be bizarre to admit, more than the hexagonal shape of the case, what attracted me the most whilst reviewing the Horizon was the fact that it is easy to see that the bezel is one of three parts which make up the case. That is most always what we see in watches, I know, but here the bezel is visually imposing as the gap which separates it from the mid-case is almost highlighted and put front and center. This latter element creates a striking separation between the two which endows the Horizon with a contradictory but subtle industrial aesthetic. Beyond that, what is also visually interesting is the fact that four of the six corners of the bezel flow into the lugs as the case is angled and the short lugs turn down towards the wrist. This makes the whole case + bezel construction appear flowy and natural, which is contradictory with what one could assume given the hexagonal nature of the Horizon. 

As you can tell, the Rosenbuch Horizon is full of delightful contradictions. 

Moreover, the dials were laid out so that all elements which adorn these flat pieces of metal complement the unusual (but not unique) case shape of the Horizon. On the Canvas White variant, the fully polished and applied hour markers are well-proportioned in relation to the dial opening and the inherent white space this shape calls for, so it is with the hands. And the same spatial balance can be observed on the Copper Sun variant where the polished and applied pill-shaped markers are small enough to let the dial breathe whilst being large enough to be legible. And as you can hopefully see from the photos, it was necessary to keep the dial real estate clear of obstructions (as much as possible) so that we can delight in the intense textures these are adorned with: a linen tapestry for the Canvas White and fine vertical brushing for the Copper Sun variant. 

The Heart of the Matter

There are two hearts of the matter with the Rosenbuch Horizon. First, the fact that the brand fully embraced the idea of the hexagonal shape which it cleverly and elegantly repeated in key areas of the watch design and construction: the case, the crystal, and the dial. Because it would have been strange and perhaps impossible to do it half-ass by, for example, putting a circular dial within an hexagonal case, or fitting a circular crystal above an hexagonal dial. Maybe this doesn’t make any sense at all which would be understandable since I don’t design watches, I just like to share my unsolicited opinions about them. (Though I can easily imagine a lazy brand creating such a hideous watch.) Creating a watch like the Horizon requires some clever thinking and design expertise to make something unusual work so well. Bending the sides of the bezel, rounding off the edges, and matching the case shape to the dial and crystal was smart and it is, again, well done here. 

The second heart of the matter has to do with the price. The Horizon will launch on Kickstarter on March 4, 2025, at a discounted price of €875/$908 USD. (Full retail will be €1,250/$1,298 USD or about.) Over the years, I’ve encountered many watches which, by their general design philosophy, are much more straightforward than the Horizon is, and even though they would have similar specs as this one, would retail for much more. (Either because two overhyped words are printed on the dial near the six or because they were designed by a soy-matcha-latte drinking hipster in Brooklyn.) This, my friends, is important because Rosenbusch got every part of the Horizon custom-made as hexagonal cases, bezels, and crystals are not off-the-shelf, neither are hands in this shape. All of this adds to the price we have to pay to acquire a watch and, in that context, $908 USD is more than reasonable for it.  

Conclusion 

The Horizon is Rosenbusch’s second collection and a second daring horological creation. The guys behind the brand probably thought that, since they wanted to create another watch brand in an oversaturated market, might as well do something different and bold. And you know what? They were right to do so and I command them for being successful with their first launch, the Quest. But some of you might question why do a second Kickstarter campaign if the first launch was a success? I didn’t ask the brand but I have an idea why: because it costs more to get  something unusual made rather than what is commonplace. Rosenbusch could have opted for a rounded case with these dials and hands and markers, but that would have made for a less thought-provoking release. And, therefore, one perhaps not worthy of being talked about. 

So, with the hope that you were indeed happy to have stuck around, why not check out the brand’s Kickstarter page? As a reminder, the Horizon is launching today, March 4, 2025. 

Thanks for reading.