Kollokium Projekt 02 Variant C: Nine Layers of Turquoise Blue

Key Highlights

• Third iteration of the Projekt 02 series — the first to embrace full chromatic saturation in a white-to-turquoise-blue gradient
• Dial constructed from 67 individual dial plates across nine distinct layers, each piece individually crafted, painted, and assembled
• Bright rhodium plating and matte finish on the dial plates contrast against an azure backdrop that shifts with available light
• Case architecture where sapphire crystal dominates the case volume, designed to fully expose the topographical dial relief
• Limited to 299 pieces; subscriber pre-sale opened 1 June 2026, public sale 2 June 2026, with all pieces shipped between 3–13 June 2026

Quick Take

For a GCC collector accustomed to dials that perform through reflected desert light, Projekt 02 Variant C is worth serious attention.

Kollokium has built its identity on a single, radical premise: a dial that functions more like a landscape than a surface. Where most independent brands compete on movement finishing or case geometry, kollokium has concentrated its energy entirely on the vertical dimension of the dial. Variant C is the clearest statement yet of what that obsession can produce — and at 299 pieces, it is not a watch that rewards hesitation.

The Story Behind Variant C

Each Projekt 02 release has been a deliberate chromatic argument, not a colourway refresh.

The inaugural FFF&F edition — Friends, Family, Fools & Flippers, released September 2025 — established the concept with a warm metallic dial and off-white hand-painted elements. It was a proof-of-concept, intentionally restrained. Variant B, arriving in March 2026, pushed the architecture further with a stacked gradient that kollokium described, with characteristically dry wit, as the first vertical fumé dial in independent watchmaking. Variant C now turns the temperature down, literally and metaphorically. The white-to-blue progression across those nine layers reads variously as an archipelago seen from altitude or glaciers beneath mountain ridges — the colour gradient does something the previous variants did not: it gives the dial a horizon.

Design & Mechanics

The structure of the dial is unchanged, and that is the point.

Sixty-seven individual dial plates, each with its own pegs and finishing, are stacked into nine layers to generate a topographical relief that no other brand has attempted at this scale. Bright rhodium plating sits against a matte surface treatment, so the plates catch and release light at different angles as the wrist moves. The case itself is architected to serve the dial: sapphire crystal dominates the case, leaving metal almost secondary, ensuring the view into the dial is unobstructed from any angle. In strong Gulf light — angled, intense, rarely diffuse — a construction like this will read entirely differently from how it behaves indoors, and that variability is a feature rather than a limitation.

On the Wrist

A dial this layered is, above all, a tactile and optical experience.

The azure backdrop shifts continuously with light conditions — an effect that will be particularly pronounced against the high-contrast environments familiar to GCC wearers. Rather than reading as a flat colour reference, the turquoise gradient picks up warmth or cools depending on whether the light source is direct sun, indoor halogen, or the golden hour that the Gulf does better than almost anywhere. Within independent watchmaking, very few pieces generate this kind of visual instability in a positive sense. The dial does not settle. It keeps moving.

Market Position & Edition Details

299 pieces is a number that sits precisely between scarcity and accessibility.

Kollokium operates with direct-to-collector distribution: subscriber access preceded the public sale by 24 hours, with a password-gated entry system that rewards the brand’s community before opening to the broader market. All pieces were confirmed packed and ready for dispatch before the sale opened — a logistical discipline that distinguishes kollokium from independent brands whose editions become fulfilment waiting games. For collectors in the GCC, the combination of a defined edition size, immediate fulfilment, and no physical retail intermediary makes acquisition straightforward. The watch sits within the growing tier of independent watchmaking that prioritises direct collector relationships over traditional boutique distribution — a model with growing traction across the Gulf market as collector sophistication deepens.

For more on the broader independent watchmaking scene, the Fondation Haute Horlogerie remains the authoritative reference for standards and context. Watches such as this also reflect the dial innovation increasingly celebrated at Watches and Wonders, where the vertical fumé dial format first gained wider critical notice.

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