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Founded in 2020 by a professional pilot, RZE is a Singapore-based microbrand that may have only been around for a few years, but in that time it’s managed to quickly build a name for itself thanks to an ever-growing catalog of beautifully-designed and finely-crafted titanium watches that are sold at an accessible price. And its latest release — the RZE Urbanist — sees the brand put an idiosyncratic spin on traditional field watches by redesigning one from the ground up specifically for urban exploration and life in the city.
Sporting a handsome, versatile appearance, the Urbanist is constructed around a compact and uniquely-shaped 36mm case with a 42mm lug-to-lug and a screw-down titanium case-back. Water resistant down to 100 meters, the case is crafted from solid grade 2 titanium that’s been fortified using RZE’s proprietary UltraHex coating, thereby hugely upping the case’s scratch resistance and remedying the one and only real drawback of using titanium for a watch case. At just 11mm thick, the Urbanist is also fairly thin, sitting low and comfortably on the wrist. Equipped with a DLC-coated screw-down crown decorated via a custom reverse-engraved RZE logo, the case also sports a dodecagonal-shaped bezel. Paired with the case is a double-pass nylon strap that features DLC-coated titanium hardware and rests on 18mm lugs.
The Urbanist’s dial rests beneath a sapphire crystal with an interior anti-reflective coating. Boasting a sand-texturing, the dial also features 3D-embossed numerals, and bright green-glowing Swiss Super-LumiNova lume paint, plus conceals a hidden solar array that powers the modern military-style watch’s Japanese-made Miyota solar movement. Thanks to its liberal use of titanium and rugged yet lightweight nylon band, the Urban manages to tip the scales at just 42 grams (or 1.4oz) with the strap — or just 31 grams (or 1.09oz) for just the case. In typical RZE fashion, the Urbanist offers excellent craftsmanship, build quality, and fit and finish, and manages to afford what’s quite possibly the best bang-for-your-buck of any RZE timepiece to date.
Offered in multiple variants including brown, black, yellow, and blue-dial versions, the RZE Urbanist is available now, with pricing starting at just $219.
