Belvans Heritage Rose Gold Watch Review

The story of Belvans is a classic tale from the world of microbrands. A group of like-minded friends set out to create the watches they want to see in the world. We’ve heard it before, but with Belvans, the story unfolds across two of France’s famous towns and cities – Paris, the capital where inspiration and style run rife, and Besançon, the traditional home of French watchmaking. I’ve been hands on with the Belvans Heritage Rose Gold to learn more.

Out of the box, the Heritage Rose Gold has a high luxe vibe thanks to its rose gold case and matching Roman numeral display. The case itself is made from predominantly stainless steel with a layer of titanium on top which is then coated with rose gold PVD. It sits on the wrist comfortably thanks to a 38mm diameter and 11mm thickness, which keeps it feeling well-proportioned even with the fairly broad, tonneau-esque cushion shape.

The bezel is sharply facetted in an octagonal porthole shape with alternating brushed and polished finishing. It inevitably bears similarities to the legendary designs of Gerald Genta, though not through the route you might expect. The inspiration for the facetted design actually stems from Paris’ most famous landmark, the industrial influence of the Eiffel Tower, designed by Stephen Sauvestre. The crown at 3 o’clock follow the same shape, making it nice and tactile to use.

Up close, the Belvans Heritage dial appears almost impossibly inky black. That’s due to it being produced using Musou black paint, a pain that absorbs 99.4% of light that touches it. It’s the more accessible version of ultra-black dials in watch design when you can’t go all out on the even darker but substantially more expensive and harder to process Vantablack. With the applied Roman numerals above and central leaf shaped hands, the Musou dial looks almost like velvet or a matte piece of onyx.

Beneath the dial and visible through the exhibition caseback is the Miyota 8315 premium automatic movement. It has a 60-hour power reserve supplied by a skeletonised rotor that is also finished in rose gold PVD. The plate of the movement is also finished nicely with a striped pattern. Around the edge of the caseback you can see an engraving that marks it as designed and assembled in France, that’s because it is assembled in the workshop of Mustapha Lamrabet in Besançon (technically just outside the main town).

At £636 it’s a solid little dress watch that feels more luxurious than you might expect from a watch of that price. Plus, the Musou black dial adds plenty of visual intrigue. If you’re in the market for a more dressy and substantially more accessible alternative to iconic 80s style watches, I have news for you.

More details at Belvans.