After a Huge 2024, a Much-Hyped Indie Watch Blacks Out (EXCLUSIVE)
You know who’s having all the fun in watch design right now? The indie designers. And no one's having quite as good a time as British label Anoma. With its unmistakable asymmetrical triangular case, Anoma's breakout A1 watch dominated deep-dive discussions, auctions, and TikTok wrist-rolls throughout 2024 because it just didn't look like anything else out there.
Now, on March 6, Anoma doubles down on its hit timepiece with the A1 “Slate.” And there’s no sophomore slump here.
The A1 “Slate” swaps its original blue lacquered dial for a refined vertically brushed black dial, revealing engraved triangles that make the watch even friendlier to daylight wrist checks.
“My goal with the A1 ‘Slate’ was to create the purest expression of this design — almost an archetypal A1,” says designer and Anoma founder Matteo Violet Vianello. “We wanted a dial that plays with light, shifting and revealing itself in different conditions, making it an active part of the experience rather than a static element.”
Like its predecessor, the A1 “Slate” channels the quirky ethos of some of watch history’s most sculptural wristwear. You can spot traces of influences from the glossy Cartier Pebble, the angular brilliance of Gilbert Albert’s Patek Philippe designs, and the futuristic curves of the Hamilton Ventura.
But Anoma’s shapely silhouette also draws from unexpected sources like the organic shapes that Charlotte Perriand carved into furniture in the 1950s.
It’s a fresh perspective that embraces a fluid feel rarely explored in watchmaking.
The result? The A1 Slate looks like a polished river stone, its mirror-smooth stainless steel case softened by polished curves that gracefully flow into the wrist, an impressive feat considering how tricky triangular cases can be to comfortably wear.
"I want the design to feel both destabilizing and stabilizing at the same time — destabilizing because it doesn't conform to conventional watch aesthetics yet ultimately stabilizing because it feels pure and resonates with forms found in nature," Vianello says.
The A1 “Slate,” which launches March 6 on Anoma’s website for £1,800 (about $2,300), runs on a reliable Swiss automatic Sellita SW100 and sits comfortably in a 39mm x 38mm stainless steel case on its grey-grained Italian leather strap (which, frankly, looks more like black to me. That's a plus).
2024 was a breakout year for independent watch brands. Imprints like Berneron, Toledano & Chan, and Anoma offered a fresh, fan-friendly, unpretentious take on watchmaking. And, most importantly, their designs just looked good on the wrist… like really good. In an era where aesthetics dictate a watch’s value almost as much as pedigree, that matters.
“The common thread [among Anoma owners] seems to be people who have a strong sense of personal taste,” Vianello explains.
But labeling the A1 Slate a “design watch” feels both reductive and dismissive (and, let’s be honest, a little watch-snobby). Vianello wanted to create a watch with universal appeal, not a niche collector’s piece. Vianello isn’t a traditional watchmaker, and that’s part of what makes Anoma so interesting.
Before launching the brand, Vianello was fully immersed in the world of rare watches, working at mechanical timepiece retailer A Collected Man and Sotheby’s.
Like many of us, he fell in love with watches as a fan, and now, as an independent maker, he’s rediscovering his passion.
"Independent brands offer an alternative point of view—one that is honest, deeply personal, and pursued to its logical extreme," says Vianello. "In an industry rooted in tradition, they bring a sense of creative freedom, pushing boundaries and offering something refreshingly different."
