Valbray V.01 Limited Edition Watch

I got to check out Valbray watches last year, but looks like 2011 is gonna be the year when they really launch. A new brand, Valbray will begin by offering two versions of the limited edition V.01 watch. A modern looking timepieces, the V.01 has a trick dial that has a camera-like shutter in it.

The shutter can be completely opened up to see the chronograph functions on the lower dial. If you grab the bezel and twist it around, you control the shutter that can be totally closed to hide the lower dial and offer a more bare dial that just tells the time. If you want it to tell the seconds you can just activate the chronograph. When the shutter is totally open, it is hidden under the bezel assembly. It is a neat system, and works pretty well. Valbray is not the first brand to offer just such a shutter in a watch dial, but they to offer a slick looking modern watch to go with the novelty.

Even when the shutter is closed a ring around the outer dial offers hour markers. The watch will comes in a 47mm case with 500 limited edition pieces in titanium and 250 pieces in 18k rose gold. Inside the watch is a modified Swiss ETA Valjoux 7750 automatic chronograph movement. The V.01 sits in a category of watches that are often referred to as "convertible watches" because they can covert to have a different look. I went into more details on convertible watches here.

Ariel Adams publishes the luxury watch reviews site aBlogtoRead.com.