WRV Ralf Tech

A Ralf Tech watch with a seventies inspired look

The dive watch WRV is the second imagined by Ralf Tech founder - and professional diver - Frank Huyghe and the little sister of the WRX. In 2012, however, it comes with a more timeless and less imposing design, with a diameter of 4.3 mm (compared to 4.9 mm). Also designed in collaboration with French Army divers, the WRV took two years of design and development. At first glance, the WRV watch is largely inspired by the visual codes of the 1970s. For Ralf Tech, it aims to be "a link between two eras. Both vintage and current, it happily blends the best of both worlds with complex and elegant curves." This "little something that takes us back to a time when scuba diving was considered a dangerous sport reserved for an elite and a few military divers" affirms the look of the WRV, which nonetheless remains a highly technical watch, like all Ralf Tech products.

First-time movements for high precision

The original version is equipped with a sandwich dial and a novel Electric micro hybrid movement. It is both a quartz powered system and a self-winding mechanism. The energy required to operate the watch is produced by wrist movements and stored in an accumulator. The Hybrid RTH002 movement is further equipped with an ultra-high-speed rotor (up to 100,000 rpm) that makes it fifteen times more accurate than a traditional automatic movement. But the WRV line also includes versions with automatic movements and automatic chronographs. For the record, Ralf Tech designs them based on Japanese Seiko-type movements, which the company modifies in-house. Thus the WRV Chronographe Automatique, in its Tachymeter or Barracuda, Panda or Panda inversed versions, incorporates a high-precision column-wheel chronograph with a power reserve of over 45 hours.

A robust, waterproof and practical watch

The WRV is a watch that intends to adapt to all situations. It is nonetheless a diving watch, with an actual water resistance of 200 or 300 meters. Robust by nature, it comes with a steel case 316L satin finish (and polished on some versions), a reinforced crown, screwed and protected, and domed sapphire crystal 3.5 mm thick - incidentally anti-reflective treated. Depending on the version, the unidirectional bezel can be screwed or rotating, and the functions vary: in addition to the date, hours, minutes and seconds, there is a chronograph, tachymeter or immersion time calculation. As for the straps, they are made of silicone or barenia calf leather, when it is not a National Navy strap made of cordera and latex: the WRV is intended to be as comfortable in deep water as in the city!