Over the last few years, De Rijke & Co. has built out an unlikely niche within the watch world: making highly desirable character watches featuring the beloved “Miffy” character, a staple of children’s books in the Netherlands, the brand’s home country. After the launch of the first successful Miffy moonphase, there have been several additional variants released in short order, offering colorful takes on a whimsical subject. I think most would probably agree that this represented a somewhat unexpected turn in the life of De Rijke. When we first encountered them, it was as a maker of a clever driver’s watch, with a unique case that allows the dial to be rotated within a cage to suit a driver’s needs. What’s more, De Rijke has always offered customers the ability to customize their watches to a high degree, allowing for a truly bespoke experience. The Miffy watches have been fun, but if you knew the brand before, they felt almost like a diversion.
De Rijke never stopped making those custom pieces of course, so it would be unfair to ask “What happened to this brand?” or something similarly dramatic. They haven’t gone anywhere, but clearly took an opportunity to capitalize on a watch concept that became a bit of a sensation with a very specific crowd. But now, for the first time since I’ve been writing about them, De Rijke is back with a new series that is not Miffy based, but still has a sense of that whimsy. The new entries in the Amalfi series are based around a “Land, Sea, and Air” concept, and feature illustrations by artist Guy Allen. So there’s a link to the Miffy watches here in the sense that the dial’s are drawn, at least to some extent, but these limited editions feel like true extensions of the elegant sports watch concept the brand was born with.
If the artwork here looks familiar, you’ve probably spent some time looking at the original Amalfi Series 1 on the De Rijke website. Guy Allen is responsible for the illustrations used to promote those watches, and subtly imbued those pieces with a very old-fashioned sense of elegance. While Allen has worked with the brand going back to 2018, these limited editions took shape within the last year.
All three dials in the Amalfi series are champlevé enamel, each featuring a different vehicle, expanding on the “driver’s watch” theme. There’s a sports car, of course (land), as well as a Macchi Castoldi M.C 72 Seaplane and a classic wooden hulled boat (air and sea respectively). The colors and illustrations are meant to evoke the Italian coast that is the namesake for the series. Each watch also features a caseback with complementary engraved illustration, as well as details along the case flank where the dial’s orientation can be adjusted.
All De Rijke watches are limited in production and consist of components made with traditional watchmaking techniques and finished, when possible, by hand. These dials, for instance, are etched into a solid silver plate, with grand feu enamel then applied by hand in a process that is complex, painstaking, and has a high failure rate. Only 25 of each variant will be produced.
The specifications for the watches in this limited Amalfi series run match previous editions of watches in this format. The case measures 38.2mm in diameter and is 11mm thick, and the watch runs on the Sellita SW300 caliber. The retail price is set at €3,395. De Rijke & Co.
