Coffee and watches. They go together like peanut butter and jelly, movie theaters and popcorn, fireworks and the Fourth of July. OK, it might be the most obvious pair, but there are deep connections if you look for them. There’s a culture of hardcore enthusiasm associated with each, for one. And there’s even an entire brand (an incredibly popular and beloved one in our community) inspired by coffee culture. And, for some reason I’ve never really been able to put my finger on, watch photographers have become incredibly fond of staging watches near coffee mugs, coffee beans, and anything remotely coffee related. The reasons for this, frankly, are puzzling. But there’s one exception: if the dial of your watch is actually made of coffee, I think you’ve earned the right to feature some beans in your shot. 

The latest watch from Arcanaut, then, gets a pass if you’re one of the lucky 33 collectors able to acquire one. Built on the ARC II platform with that highly contoured, futuristic 40.5mm stainless steel case, the new D’Arc Roast limited edition features a brown dial that is made, in part, from coffee grounds. It’s right in line with Arcanaut’s mission to experiment with unusual materials, and also reflects the deep love of coffee in the brand’s home country of Denmark, which is the home of four of the seven winners of the Barista World Championship (store that one in the back of your brain for trivia night). 

So how is the dial made? According to the brand, the dial is made of specially selected coffee beans that have been ground to a fine powder before being combined with a UV resistant binding agent. The material is then moulded into blocks under extreme pressure, and milled a circular dial shape. 

The result is a rich brown dial with a fine texture that actually evokes coffee in a pretty discernible way. That’s not surprising, I guess, because it’s literally made from coffee, but I suspect that if you put this dial in front of a bunch of people who didn’t know how it was made, a non-zero percentage would tell you it made them think of coffee. Beyond the surface texture and color, the dial is accented with the same style of hour markers and lume plots arranged around the dial perimeter as other ARC II releases, and includes the signature Arcanaut “Grand Paw” hands, which have been heat treated to a bronze tone that complements the dial nicely. 

Now, if you’re thinking to yourself, “Self, I think I remember a very similar coffee watch from a few years ago,” well, you might have a weirdly encyclopedic knowledge of limited edition releases from TAG Heuer and Bamford and Arcanaut’s own James Thompson, AKA Black Badger, who did in fact create a coffee dialed Carrera a number of years in the early days of collab madness. So this release is good news for collectors who might have missed out on the long sold out Carrera and have been waiting all these years for Thompson to revisit coffee. It’s a niche of a niche of a niche, for sure, but that’s what this hobby is all about. 

The new D’Arc Roast from Arcanaut is available now with a retail price set at $4,400. Arcanaut