A long lived pet peeve of mine in the watch industry is people referring to watches as “Brutalist” without having a clue about what the term really means. How, I always wonder, can a brand refer to their watch as being inspired by Brutalist architecture without it even being made of concrete? Well, the debut watch from Toledano & Chan is properly Brutalist in a very specific way, and truly lives up to its inspiration. And while the watch itself might not be made of concrete, the box is (really), and as someone who identifies Boston City Hall as one of his favorite buildings, that scores major points in my book.
The B/1 is the result of a collaboration between watch designer Alfred Chan and artist, watch collector, entrepreneur, and budding TikTok personality Phil Toledano. You may remember Phil from his appearance on the Worn & Wound podcast, and if you’ve spent any time looking at watches on Instagram or TikTok, you’ve likely seen him unboxing new (but actually old) Pateks, Cartiers, and Piagets with his pal Mike Nouveau. Phil (who goes my Mr. Enthusiast on social media) has long been one of my favorite collectors for his eccentric and adventurous taste, fully embracing the strangest and rarest designs by the aforementioned brands and many others. If the industry as a whole is currently moving toward smaller watches, shaped cases, stone dials, and the avant-garde, let it be said that Phil got there first. He’s been interested in this stuff for years, and banging the drum for anyone who would listen.
It makes sense, then, that his new watch looks very much like one of the under appreciated oddballs he might pull out of a FedEx box while Mike films him for a social media clip. The B/1 is small, measuring 33.5mm wide and between 10.4 and 9.1mm thick. The case is angled, a design cue that comes straight from the B/1’s chief design inspiration, an asymmetrically shaped window on the Breuer building in New York City. If you look at the watch and the window side by side, you can see that they really nailed the shape on the B/1, and Toledano and Chan deserve credit here for recognizing that this unusual shape would translate well into a watch design.
The B/1’s dial is lapis lazuli, which is another clear 1970s inspired design code that plants this watch in a very particular time and place. It is completely sterile, with no markers or branding, and lets the natural and unique imperfections of the stone do the heavy lifting. The integrated bracelet is made up of a series of parallel links with complex facets and angles that follow the lines of the case and reinforce the idea that the watch is a piece of sculpture. This, in my view, is what really ties the watch to a Brutalist sensibility. It’s easy to imagine these design ideas expanded outward into a larger structure, but they work just as well in a watch.
In terms of specs, the B/1 runs on a Sellita SW100 automatic movement with a 42 hour power reserve. All of the steel (the bracelet and case) is 904L, and it is fitted with a sapphire crystal and closed caseback. The watch will be produced in a limited edition of 175 numbered pieces, and will be available to purchase beginning on May 16 via the Toledano & Chan website and the Hodinkee Shop. The retail price of the B/1 is $4,000.
