Ressence And The Quest For Complicated Simplicity

Founded in 2010 in Belgium by Benoît Mintiens, the brand’s watches are instantly recognizable: not for logos or flourishes, but for their clean, fluid designs and complete lack of visible branding.

That clarity is no accident. Mintiens is not a watchmaker by training, but a seasoned industrial designer whose past work spans high-speed trains, aircraft cabins, medical devices, and even firearms. This outsider perspective is crucial to understanding Ressence. Where others add, Mintiens subtracts. His guiding principle: make the experience of telling time as intuitive as possible.

For Benoît, a watch starts not with the movement, but with the person wearing it. The relationship between the user and the product is everything, which is why he talks about “Simplications” instead of complications – Ressence’s philosophy is to hide what’s unnecessary and show only what matters. The goal isn’t to showcase complexity, but to express time as clearly and intuitively as possible.

This user-first thinking has earned Ressence comparisons to tech companies like Apple. It’s not about heritage or tradition for the sake of it. It’s about solving problems and rethinking how a watch should function, feel, and communicate. As Benoît often says, a well-designed product begins with understanding the experience it’s meant to create.

Think of a watch like a service: if it fails to communicate the time clearly, it fails in its most basic job. That breakdown in clarity breaks the bond between object and user: just like a pair of shoes that hurt your feet, no matter how beautiful they are. At Ressence, the idea is to “simplicate” the product until it delivers both clarity and comfort, while still being beautiful on the wrist.

This blend of emotional connection and function drives every Ressence design. By combining the precision of traditional watchmaking with the principles of modern engineering, Benoît creates watches that look like nothing else – and feel even better to use.

At the heart of Ressence’s design is the ROCS, or Ressence Orbital Convex System: a patented mechanism that ditches traditional hands and dials in favor of co-planar rotating discs. The entire dial is in motion, with each display orbiting a central axis. The effect is hypnotic. The discs are set on a domed, convex dial surface that offers depth and movement – and more importantly, intuitive readability. It’s a clever bit of engineering that aligns with how we naturally perceive time: not in layers, but in one linear view.

Another signature innovation is Ressence’s use of oil-filled cases. Instead of air between the dial and crystal, the chamber is filled with a proprietary oil. This creates a magnifying effect, kills reflections, and makes the dial appear projected onto the top of the crystal. In short: no glare, no distortion, just immaculate legibility. The oil also helps regulate temperature and keeps moisture and dust at bay.

Of course, oil and mechanics don’t typically mix, so Ressence split the watch into two chambers. The top half houses the ROCS display, fully sealed and filled with oil. The lower half contains the mechanical movement. To communicate between the two, Ressence doesn’t use traditional pinions. They use magnets. A series of micro-magnets transfer the movement’s information through a titanium-grade membrane, allowing the upper display to function without any physical contact. It's a system unlike anything else in modern watchmaking.

This breakthrough debuted in the TYPE 3, and now lives on in the TYPE 5 and the newly introduced TYPE 7 — each one continuing the brand’s pursuit of intuitive, user-first design.

At its core, Ressence isn’t trying to be a traditional watchmaker. It’s trying to rethink what a watch should be. And in doing so, it’s created some of the most quietly radical timepieces of our time.