The Victorinox Concept One - Swiss Engineering, Reconsidered

It takes a particular kind of confidence to strip a watch down to almost nothing and then ask someone to pay close attention to it. No flashy complications count, no heritage-model riff on something that was great fifty years ago. Just clean lines, a considered movement choice, and a very clear idea of who a watch is for. That’s what the Concept One from Victorinox represents.

The Swiss brand has been making watches since 1989 - longer than most people realise - but the Concept One, launching today, feels like something genuinely new. It's their first solar-powered watch, their clearest design statement in years, and the first time they've articulated a collection philosophy this sharply: Spend your time wisely. It's a campaign line, yes, but it also happens to be an accurate description of what the watch actually does.

Victorinox makes everything at the Watch Competence Centre in Delémont, Switzerland - the same town that came into the family when they acquired Wenger back in 2005. Every watch that leaves goes through more than 100 quality-control tests before it reaches a wrist.

For a brand still largely associated with the humble Swiss Army knife, that's a serious commitment, and the Concept One is the most direct expression of it yet.

The collection comes in eight references, split evenly between two movements and defined by a shared design language: minimalist, technical, and uncluttered.

Both variants wear in a 39mm brushed stainless steel case with a subtly polished hexagonal bezel detail - a small flourish that stops the thing from feeling too austere. Lumed hands and indices keep it practical. It’s simple, clean and efficient.

The headline variant is the solar, and the numbers behind it deserve a moment. The movement is a Swiss-made Ronda 215 - Ronda being one of the most trusted names in Swiss movement production - and it converts both natural and artificial light into power, keeping the watch running for up to eight months in complete darkness. That's not a typo. Eight months.

For context, most solar watches in this category give you a few months of reserve at best. The Concept One Solar's eight-month figure changes the maintenance equation almost entirely. Battery replacements - which usually arrive every two to three years with standard quartz - stretch to approximately eight years here. And the movement sits within an anti-magnetic housing, which is referenced on the dial. It’s not just marketing guff, and actually matters more than people often realise. Magnetic fields from phones, speakers and - whisper it - the smart watch you use for your runs, accumulate quietly and can throw even quartz accuracy off over time.

Visually, the solar dial is flat and recessed, the surface of which works as a charging panel. It's a subtle distinction from the automatic, but it gives the solar variant its own character - slightly more restrained, and more tool watch-like in spirit.

For those who prefer to be their own power source, the Concept One Automatic runs on a La Joux-Perret G100 - a Swiss-made automatic calibre with a 68-hour power reserve, powered by the movement of the wearer’s wrist. Most automatics in this price range offer somewhere between 38 and 42 hours, so the G100's nearly three full days of off-wrist autonomy is a meaningful advantage for anyone running a small rotation. Forget it on a Thursday evening? No bother. It'll still be running Monday morning.

The automatic gets a raised centre disc on the dial, finished with vertical brushing that catches the light differently as the watch moves. It's a small textural detail - exactly the kind of thing you notice when the light catches it just right and you can appreciate the subtle shimmering as it moves.

Both movements share the same case and the same proportions. The choice between them is genuinely about what kind of energy you want powering your day.

The Concept One is a solar-powered Swiss watch with a minimalist, technical design, and sits comfortably alongside much of what's happening in the broader independent watchmaking space right now. But it does this at a price point that puts it within reach of a much wider audience.

It's a watch for someone who might rotate a small collection, values Swiss engineering, and has absolutely no interest in fussing with winding schedules or service intervals. That's a very specific person. But there are a lot of them.

But if you do want something that winds and has the utility and design of the Concept One, there’s an automatic for you. 

We're stocking the full Concept One collection - both Solar and Automatic variants, with different dial variants and strap options - and we're delighted to be one of the first UK retailers to carry it.

For a limited time, every Concept One purchase comes with a free Victorinox Toiletry Bag, and you can use the code SIGNUP15 at checkout for 15% off your order.

Head to the Concept One collection page below to find your reference.