Exclusive First Look: The New 36mm Elka Field Watch & Arinis Diver Showcase

Exclusive First Look: The New 36mm Elka Field Watch & Arinis Diver Showcase

I sat down once again with my friend Hakim El Kadiri, the founder of Elka Watch Co., to explore the incredible evolution of this revitalised Swiss independent brand. From historic flight instrument collaborations to award-winning dive watches, Elka is making some of the most intentional, well-executed pieces in modern horology.

In this exclusive interview, Hakim gives us a world-first preview of Elka's massive new release: The Elka 36 Collection. Shifting toward the popular industry trend of smaller case profiles, this 36mm field watch shrinks down the case footprint while maintaining an incredibly large presence on the wrist thanks to its ultra-thin bezel design.

We also dive deep into the Arinis Diver, an award-winning 200m tool watch inspired by the history of Lake Neuchâtel, featuring its unique Whiskey dial option (a direct nod to Hakim's own side-passion for crafting single-malt spirits). Finally, we break down the engineering behind Elka's signature Chevé-box domed sapphire crystal, a difficult manufacturing technique that gives these watches an unmatched retro-futuristic aesthetic.

Inside this video:

The history of Elka’s X & D Series and its past design links with Ulysse Nardin and Heuer.

Hands-on with the best-selling beige flight-instrument dial with vibrant orange Super-LumiNova.

The Arinis Diver collection on Tropic rubber and beads-of-rice bracelets.

World Premiere: The new 36mm Elka N-Series Field Watch.

The secrets behind the iconic domed Chevé-box sapphire crystal.

Learn more about Elka Watch Co.:
Explore the entire lineup and specs at watchdna.com/elka.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - Catching Up with Hakim from Elka Watch Co.
0:23 - The X & D Series: Historical Roots with Ulysse Nardin
0:46 - The Best-Selling Beige Flight Instrument Dial (Heuer Connection)
1:12 - The Elka Arinis: 200m Swiss Diver Collection
1:29 - The "Whiskey" Dial & Hakim’s Single-Malt Passion
1:53 - World Premiere: The New 36mm Elka Field Watch
2:17 - Big Wrist Presence from a Smaller Case
2:38 - The Mastery of the Chevé-Box Domed Sapphire Crystal
3:07 - Where to Explore Elka Watches Online

#ElkaWatches #IndependentWatchmaking #SwissMade #MicrobrandWatches #DiveWatch #FieldWatch #VintageAesthetic #WatchCollector #Horology #WatchInterview #ArinisDiver #NewWatchRelease #SmallWatches #WatchCommunity #LuxuryTimepieces

Transcript

0:00

Hey guys, I am very excited to be here with my friend Akim from Elka Watches. Thank you so much for sitting around with me. My pleasure. In our community, there are some people that know about the brand and we've been posting a little bit. We even did an interview with you when you launched Elka in the very beginning. But I would love for you to quickly explain to our community what's Elka all about. The brand was relaunched in 2022. I launched first of all a collection that was the X and the D series. So X is about the Aviation Watch. It's the classic watch that uh I took the design from the past of the brand, and that was a model that was created between Elka and Ulysse Narda. This is in 40.8 millimeter, and then we have also the X-Series, and this is the aviation watch, and you have the numerals, and the numerals are only the minutes. This is really taken from flight instrument that was created in uh collaboration between Hoyer and also Elka in around the 60. That's the one that I bought. Yeah, the one that you have. So this model is also available in beige color, and I think today it's really my best seller, and that is really interesting because the color is really unique. You have the orange which is in Super Luminova, you have this beige, and that makes really this watch really special. That's the collection that I know, and this one I actually never saw it. So this one, in fact, is the Arenis. Arenis is a diving watch that was launched last year. Yeah, okay. And I have today three colors: the black, I have also the blue. Today I have also uh whiskey colored uh dial, which is really really nice, and that is inspired because I'm doing also uh a side business whiskey that is my own uh whiskey. That is the diving watch inspired also uh by the watches from the 60s. Yeah, so you can see that here on uh rubber strap. Uh here's a tropic bracelet, also available, of course. I mean on leather strap, but also on uh rice grain metal bracelet. I heard that you have a new thing that you look collection that you launched next week, right? I will launch it next week, but you are going to have the avant-première. Beautiful, I like that. And this is a big trend that is uh happening in the watch industry, is really to have something smaller. This watch is 40.8 millimeter, and I'm going down with a model that is going to be 36 millimeter diameter. Okay, and so you can see that some and I tried to do uh pieces with the same kind of design. This one is more a field watch, I would say. So you compare it to this one. So here you have only the mini track, and this one you have the hours, but the filling and the outlook is exactly the same. Everything is assembled by the top, and I have almost no baseline. So you have a small watch, but that looks really big uh in terms of uh of size because there is almost no bezel. And you know something that I also like is that you actually uh did a contribution on a side and you wrote an article about the saffried crystal and the bone shape of the saffried crystal, which is a technique that is harder to do, but you can you can find it on the LK watches, which look very good on the wrist. Thank you so much for taking the time to sit down with me. And you guys, if you want to know more about LK, make sure you go on the website watchdnna.comslash elka.