Atelier Wen Teams Up with Massena LAB on Tantalum Watch "Shuò," Limited to 50 Pieces, Debuting at Geneva Watch Days
Atelier Wen and Massena LAB have joined forces on the Inflection Shuò, a watch with a case crafted from 99.9% pure tantalum and an 18K gold dial hand-engraved with both Western and Chinese numerals by master craftsmen. Limited to 50 pieces worldwide, it's priced at CHF 33,800.
Tantalum is a notoriously stubborn metal to work with. Dense, corrosion-resistant, and possessed of a naturally understated inky-blue sheen, it's rarely seen in watch cases simply because it's so difficult to machine and polish. For their latest collaboration, Atelier Wen and Massena LAB decided to tackle this tough material head-on, resulting in the Inflection Shuò, set to make its official debut at the upcoming Geneva Watch Days.
"Shuò" (烁) means "shimmer" or "gleam" in Chinese, a name that echoes the watch's core design language: an 18K gold dial hand-engraved by master engraver Coralie Mercier at GT Cadrans in Lonay, Switzerland. Using the traditional tremblage engraving technique, she carved thousands of tiny facets into the metal's surface, causing light to shimmer and dance across the dial — easily the most labor-intensive element of the entire watch.
The dial layout is a reinterpretation of the classic "California dial" format: the upper half features Massena LAB's signature serif Arabic numerals, while the lower half swaps in Chinese numerals rendered in a calligraphic style, with a traditional meander motif engraved around the outer edge as a finishing touch. It's essentially two distinct timekeeping vocabularies forced onto a single face — yet somehow it works in harmony.
The case and integrated bracelet are both forged from 99.9% pure tantalum, measuring 40mm in diameter with an all-around rounded silhouette. Powering the watch is a customized Girard-Perregaux GP03300 automatic movement, its bridges plated in ruthenium and adorned with wave-patterned Geneva stripes, while the 5N rose gold rotor has been shaped to evoke wind and water — a motif drawn from traditional Chinese landscape painting. The movement beats at 28,800vph and offers 48 hours of power reserve, with the full mechanism visible through a sapphire crystal caseback.
This collaboration is limited to 50 pieces worldwide, split across two dial variants: 10 pieces feature an all-white-gold dial, reserved exclusively for existing clients, while the remaining 40 pieces — pairing white gold with rose gold hour markers — will be available to the public. Priced at CHF 33,800 (approximately $42,028 USD), orders are now open through Atelier Wen's official channels, with deliveries expected to begin in early 2027.
