WRB Ralf Tech

The WRB, a watch that fits all wrists

There are still few models, two to be exact, of the WRB watch, Ralf Tech's "little latest". And for good reason, this watch was only launched in 2020. The brand's creator, Frank Huyghe, a former professional diver who has been reconverted to hardware and then exclusively to watches since 2008 and the launch of the iconic WRX, tells his story like this: "Many people told me 'your watches are very nice but they are too big for my wrist' (...) I then thought about it, did some research and said to myself that the right diameter should be 39 or 40 mm." Ralf Tech finally opted for a 39 mm diameter watch that can fit both men and women: "The WRB fits all wrists and it's a great novelty for us". On the design side, the watch is inspired by the slightly vintage 70s look of the previous line, the WRV, with some nuances. It's true that in the early 2010s, it was the Army divers themselves who had asked Frank Huyghe for "a model in the spirit of the one they had thirty years ago."

Vintage looks and high tech: the WRB's strengths

For Ralf Tech, the challenge was therefore to develop a watch with reasonable dimensions but which retains the technicality of the best diving watches. In fact, the models of this brand go beyond the ISO6425 standard in terms of actual water resistance. A WRB watch boasts a water resistance of 200 meters (or 660 feet) and can be worn in any situation. The two models offered so far, the WRB First Edition and First Edition Black, have a 316L surgical steel case, satin-finished for the former, black PVD treated and bead-blasted for the latter. The watches feature a mechanical movement with automatic winding and a 44-hour power reserve and a 2.5mm-thick domed, anti-reflective treated sapphire crystal. Immersion times can be calculated thanks to a unidirectional 120-click steel bezel combined with an aluminum insert. The vintage side of the WRB watch is brought, in particular, by the luminescent hands made of steel and that moreover gold-plated that turn on a matte black dial. As for the black silicone has been chosen for the strap. The crown and back are screwed, with the numbering in the series on the latter. Indeed, like all the models of Ralf Tech watches, WRX, WRV and Académie, the WRB is produced in limited series, in this case of 100 pieces. This means that the French company has more models in store for us once the First Edition ones have sold out. Another advantage to note is that the WRB -due to its dimensions- is the brand's cheapest watch, sold at a new price of 1200€ or 1300€.