Wren, the microbrand founded by Wrist Enthusiast’s Craig Karger, has just unveiled the Vessel, a sharp left turn from the brand’s well received dive watches, and easily their most ambitious watch to date.
Craig has been teasing the Vessel for at least the last year, and if you’ve seen him at the Wren booth at recent Windup events and other shows, or just around NYC watch events, it’s possible you’ve seen him wearing prototypes of the Vessel or discreetly showing it off alongside his dive watches. It’s been a long road, and the lengthy run up to the release reflects the complexity of the project compared to the Diver One. I remember the first time Craig showed me a render of what would become the Vessel, it was hard for me to wrap my head around the idea that this would be the next model from his still new brand. It seemed like a watch going in a completely different direction.
The Vessel is an avant-garde integrated bracelet sports watch, built around a contemporary feeling tonneau case shape with a design by Max Resnick, who has worked with Traska, Anoma, and others. The case has an architectural look defined by sharp angles, and is crafted from 904L steel. It measures 39mm by 39mm and is 10.6mm thick. There’s a pretty dramatic taper from the widest part of the case (it’s middle section) and where the lugs meet the bracelet. While the integrated bracelet sports watch has been done to death at this point by just about any brand you can name, the Vessel manages to feel distinct, and can’t credibly be accused of serving as a carbon copy of any other design, even if there are hints of Moser, Richard Mille, and others in the broad strokes.
There are two dial variants available at launch, one in meteorite, and another in a silver sunray finish. No indices are present on either dial (but there are lumed markers and a minute track on the rehaut), which is a design choice I personally like quite a bit, but I imagine may irk some who prefer an immediate ability to get a precise readout of the time. In my opinion, it reinforces the idea that the Vessel is a statement piece and design object first, and not a tool oriented sports watch like the Diver One.
Perhaps the most impressive single feature of the Vessel, though, is the crystal, which is completely custom for this watch. It has multiple facets that allow it to follow the lines of the case exactly, which obviously presents a unique manufacturing challenge for such a complex case design. The crystal is designed in a way that allows the wearer to see through it from the area where the lugs meet the case on either end of the watch via a wide facet. It helps establish the dial, and the case itself, as a broad canvas and helps call attention to the intricacy of the design.
The watch runs on a Sellita SW300-1, an automatic movement with 56 hours of power reserve. It has a custom rotor which can be viewed through the exhibition caseback.
The Vessel is available for pre-order now, with the sunray dial version priced at $2,900, and meteorite at $3,400. That represents a sizable jump in price from the Diver One – when it debuted two years ago it sold for just under $1,000. But this is a much more ambitious and complicated watch in just about every way, and likely does not target the same market as the vaguely vintage inspired Diver One. Delivery is expected in the first quarter of 2027. Wren
