Dennison and Collectability Pay Homage to Vintage Elegance

In recent months, micro brand Dennison has gained attention for its A.L.D. collection, named after Aaron Lufkin Dennison, co-founder of the original company in 1874. All the models have a cushion-shaped case with either sunray or natural stone dials. These watches represent the timeless design of 1960’s and 1970’s slim dress watches made by the Holy Trinity of watchmaking.

Dennison’s Director Stéphane Cheikh enlisted help from prominent Swiss designer Emmanuel Gueit, who has designed watches for Audemars Piguet, Rolex, Harry Winston, Piaget, and fashion brands. Mr. Cheikh kept the vintage-inspired formula simple – strong design from Mr. Gueit, slim case in steel or gold PVD, stone or sunray dial, Swiss quartz movement, and slim leather strap. All the watches assembled in Hong Kong. Although, this is changing in May 2025, when the watches will be produced in Swiss Ronda factory.

Mr. Cheikh’s winning formula tapped into the zeitgeist of “shaped watches” trend taking over the watch industry. While haute horology brands with their shaped watches are appealing to well-healed audience, Dennison made the A.L.D watches affordable, with Sunray dials priced under USD 500, and natural stone dials priced under USD 700.

However, it is the design of the watch that got the attention from seasoned collectors and casual buyers. Mr. Gueit’s work is a modern twist on vintage Patek’s Ellipse-esque design - rounded rectangular case shape prominently made popular in the 60’s and 70’s by Patek and Audermars Piguet.

It was only natural that the John Reardon, U.S. based expert on Patek and owner of website Collectability, connected with Mr. Cheikh and Mr. Gueit over their mutual appreciation for vintage shaped watch designs. This progressed into a collaboration with two versions – one in steel and second in gold PVD case with two-tone sunray dial, taking inspiration from the vintage Patek Ellipse models in Collectability’s archives. Mr. Reardon’s comment on collaboration is humorous take on Patek’s advertisement on holding on to the watch for next generation, “This collaboration breaks the mold, offering a design and price point that make the perfect watch not a future aspiration but an immediate reality. It’s not for the next generation. It’s for NOW."

Mr. Gueit in his comment states that trend of vintage shaped case design is now popular again, “The shape. The difference between Dennison and the other brands is the shape. It is bringing the old shape back alive, back upfront again. Something different."

The watch case measures 37mm x 33.65mm and fitted with Swiss Ronda quartz movement for a slim profile of 6.05mm. The inner blue dial has the vibes of Ellipse’s recognizable blue gold dial with the sunray radiance. The outer dial has the shade of grey color sunray pattern. With no markers, numerals, or logo, the dial exudes timeless elegance. This is also the first time Dennison has not placed a logo on the dial, which will be appreciated by some of the enthusiasts. The logos and collaboration details are engraved the case back. Price of Dennison x Collectability watch is USD 690.