The Patek Scholar, The Royal Oak Designer, And The Quartz Watch No One Saw Coming
From a father-son moment at an auction to a collaboration steeped in heritage and heart, Dennison x Collectability brings affordable purpose back to the wrist.
Collaborations in the watch world are nothing new. Brands, makers, and manufactures have been joining forces for decades. From Kith’s neon-drenched Heuer Formula 1s to MB&F’s wild Serpenti mashup with Bulgari, and let’s not even start on the endless stream of Hodinkee collabs or Unimatic’s seemingly bi-weekly releases, these partnerships often serve as a playground for creativity. Occasionally, though, a collaboration comes along that just works and goes together like peas and carrots.
The new Dennison x Collectability release is one of those rare pairings that feels right from the start. Dennison — a modern revival of the historic case manufacturer, has carved out a niche with its ALD collection of stone-dialed watches, shaped somewhere between cushion, TV, and ellipse (depending on who you ask). The brand is rich with horological heritage, and its design credentials are no less impressive: Emmanuel Gueit, the creative mind behind the Royal Oak Offshore, leads the charge. His résumé includes work for Piaget, Harry Winston, Hermès, and Rolex and he’s arguably one of the greatest living watch designers.
Then there’s Collectability, the brainchild of John Reardon, arguably the foremost Patek Philippe scholar outside the walls of the company itself. I had the privilege of interviewing Mr. Reardon about this release, which marks the first collaboration he’s ever put his name on. And the watch in question is a teachable moment, a window into Reardon’s thinking, a lesson in design, and a case study in how history, accessibility, and purpose can converge on the wrist. In an industry overflowing with product drops, this one stands apart. It has substance.
How the Collaboration Began
The origin story of this collaboration is rooted in horological history, but also in something more personal: family. It all began at an auction, where John Reardon spotted Stephane Cheikh, Director of Dennison Watches, across the room. On his wrist, Reardon thought he recognized a Patek Philippe Golden Circle. As he moved closer, he noticed something even more striking: Cheikh’s son was wearing the same watch.
Reardon approached, intrigued, not just by the matching watches, but by the symbolism. I mean, buying your kid a matching Patek? That’s the flex of all flexes.
But what he assumed was a Golden Circle turned out to be something else entirely. Cheikh explained it was one of the watches from Dennison’s ALD Collection. Reardon was familiar with the brand, but it hadn’t been a focus of his, until that moment.
Cheikh let Reardon try on the watch, and everything clicked. The design, the value, the emotional connection, it all made sense. That chance meeting sparked the beginning of a partnership, one that Reardon, armed with a mental library of reference numbers and deep Patek Philippe knowledge, began to imagine more seriously.
“So he gave me the elevator pitch on what Dennison was about,” Reardon recalled. “And I immediately fell in love. I remember thinking, ‘It’s gotta be a $2,000, maybe $3,000 watch.’ Then he tells me it’s $590. I was like, alright, I’m buying a few. For myself and for the kids. It just felt like a fun, meaningful thing to do as a family. I mean, for the price of a Patek buckle, you get a whole watch, and a story to go with it.”
Reardon was struck not only by the design and price point, but by the message behind it. “The whole [Patek] brand ethos is basically built around a father and son wearing the same watch,” he said.
“I never thought [Collectability would] do a collaboration watch,” Reardon admitted. “I’ve seen friends in the space do them, and it was never part of our business plan. But this made sense. It was a way to give someone a piece of the 60s and 70s on their wrist, with real style and substance, and at an incredibly approachable price point. And to top it all off, the watch was designed by Emmanuel Gueit. At the time, I didn’t even know that part of the story.”
A Brief History of Dennison Watches
There is a long timeline of events which bring us to the modern day Dennison company, which derives its name from a storied brand and influential casemaker. But the short of it is that the brand was founded in 1850 as Waltham Watch Company in Brunswick, Maine, my own New England backyard, feels almost improbable in retrospect.
Twenty-two years later, Aaron Lufkin Dennison patented a series of airtight and watertight case designs and began producing them in large numbers, this time across the Atlantic, in the UK. By 1874, Dennison’s case manufacturing had fully separated from its American roots and was supplying cases to Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, Omega, and yes, Rolex.
By 1914, the company had developed water-resistant pocket watches for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s legendary Antarctic expedition aboard the Endurance. And by 1928, it had grown into the largest manufacturer of watch cases in Europe, producing around 250,000 annually.
Dennison’s operation continued until 1967, when the company officially closed its doors. In 2010, the brand trademark was revived, and in 2024, Dennison was resurrected with the ALD Collection, designed by none other than Emmanuel Gueit, a name you’ll find on the Mount Rushmore of modern watch designers.
The Dennison company of today shares its name with the Dennison company of the past, however, beyond that there is not much connection. Still, the Dennison legacy is an important footnote in the story of this collaboration.
The Brief Story of Emmanuel Gueit
Emmanuel Gueit is a watch designer who hardly needs an introduction. His father, the famed Jean-Claude Gueit, was the mind behind icons like the Piaget Polo and the Rolex Cellini. Inspired by his father’s legacy, Emmanuel pursued design school in Geneva, but was rejected. He was told he might be better suited as a carpenter instead. (I can only lol at that snippet of his story).
One opportunity led to another, and by the time he was 20, he was introduced to two pivotal mentors. Jacqueline Dimier, head of design at Audemars Piguet, and then-CEO Stephen Urquhart hired the young designer and he quietly began proving himself over two years, until one day Urquhart gave him a challenge. He asked Gueit to revitalize the struggling Royal Oak by creating a version designed specifically for a younger (and male) demographic.
When Gueit’s Royal Oak Offshore debuted at the 1993 Baselworld the initial reaction was not kind. Gérald Genta himself reportedly said, “He killed my Royal Oak.” Gueit’s controversial design would go on to become what the industry now calls iconic. Nearly three decades later, his reputation is firmly cemented, and his next chapter continues with Dennison.
In stark contrast to what he created with AP, the Dennison design feels like a quiet nod to his father’s work. There’s a hint of Cellini, a dash of Polo, yet it remains entirely its own. The case floats somewhere between a cushion, TV shape, and Ellipse, with a thin profile and a bezel that subtly widens at the top and bottom. It is subtle at first, but striking the longer you look.
Back To The Collab
“It’s fun.” That’s how Rich Fordon of Hodinkee described the original ALD line when it launched last year, and as I spoke to John Reardon about this new collaboration, that same sentiment came up again and again. The project was fun, the design and creation process was fun, and the end product was and is pure horological fun, with some serious watch historical chops.
When the teams began discussing the project, a few key factors shaped the final product. First, they wanted to remain faithful to Emmanuel Gueit’s original design. But they also wanted to weave in Reardon’s world of Patek Philippe. The two-tone sunray dial used here is directly inspired by a reference Reardon keeps in his personal collection and holds in the highest regard.
“The case is identical to the ALD collection, and honestly, there’s nothing I’d want changed, it’s perfection,” Reardon said. “Collectability really brought two main asks to the table. First, we wanted a dial inspired by the Patek Philippe ref. 3862. That sunray aesthetic just works so well with watches from this era. And within Emmanuel’s case design, the two-tone just really sings. I love the stone dials, but this one, this one speaks directly to my aesthetic.”
He held up a ref. 3862 with a grin stretching ear to ear. “I’m trying to collect one of each version. I have the mesh bracelet version here, but with this dial, it had to be two-tone. You can find them without it, sure, but there’s also one with yellow gold lugs, and somewhere out there, there’s a white gold version with this dial. That’s kind of my unicorn—a 3862G with a two-tone sunray dial. So the idea that we could channel this exact look, this aesthetic, and offer it at an accessible price point? That was exciting.”
“The second big ask, and this was a significant one, was the logo,” Reardon continued.
It was something I didn’t even notice at first — there’s no logo. As I later learned, it was a deliberate act of restraint and a thoughtful nod to history.
The absence of a logo, this quiet deference to design over branding, is telling in itself. And historically, there’s precedent. The Patek Philippe ref. 2585 made for the Saudi King had no logo. Some gem-set Ellipses didn’t either. There are a handful of Patek references discreetly produced for American manufacturers, where the dial is left unmarked, and those pieces, within the collecting world, almost shout through their understatement.
“No logo on the dial speaks volumes to collectors and it just allows the dial to scream.” Reardon said. “It highlights the dial design and the shape of the case that is uninterrupted by any sort of branding.”
This watch feels like it draws from that same energy. No logos. No distractions.
With a quartz movement, the proverbial elephant in the room, the design really needed to shine. And I couldn’t end my conversation with Reardon without addressing the choice, because it’s still a bit of a curveball trying to comprehend that the world’s foremost authority on Patek Philippe, developed and collaborated on an affordable quartz watch.
“I just don’t think for this particular project and price point it made sense,” Reardon told me. “This is a design-driven project. It’s a two-hand watch with no sub-seconds or sweep seconds, where mechanical would typically matter more.”
The movement, as far as quartz goes, is nothing to scoff at. The Ronda 1062 is about as reliable as they come and does exactly what it needs to. It is a 4jewel movement designed to be servicable with a 6-year battery life.
He continued, “Just as much thought went into the design of this watch as has gone into pieces now trading for six or seven figures on the secondary market. We wanted to have fun. This isn’t meant to compete with those watches. It didn’t need to be mechanical. The Swiss quartz movement does its job and reinforces the price point—we wanted this to be accessible.”
And it makes sense when you consider the origin of the project. Reardon first spotted the original watch on the wrists of a father and son. That moment, that visual, planted the seed. It had to be accessible, something far from the watches Reardon usually swims in. It had to be fun, a departure from the high-stakes world of serious collecting. And most importantly, it had to be shareable. Something that could be worn, loved, passed down. That’s what turns this project into something worth admiring.
This watch and the story of its creation deserved more than a recycled press release or a bullet-pointed spec sheet. It deserves a deeper understanding of how even the smallest pieces in this world of watchmaking echo across generations.