Atelier Wen launched Perception in 2022 to prove that Chinese craftsmanship could stand alongside the world’s finest, and its third generation now turns to what is inside.
The brand today introduces the Perception V3, powered by a customised Pequignet EPM03 from Morteau, near the Swiss border. It also adds 筠 (Yún), in bamboo green, the first new Perception dial in four years.
The bridges are shaped in the traditional Chinese representation of wind and filled with blue aventurine lacquer, now visible through a full exhibition caseback. The brand gives an accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day, 65 hours of power reserve and, for the first time in Perception, hacking seconds. The 904L stainless steel case measures 40mm at its widest and 10.4mm high.
Every dial is hand-turned in the workshop of Cheng Yucai, whom the brand calls China’s first guilloché master craftsman. He built his own rose engines in a cave workshop in Xinmi, Henan. The fish-scale pattern, écailles de poisson, demands hours of uninterrupted concentration.
The case draws its profile from pagoda rooflines, and the dial follows an older idea still: 榫卯 (sǔn mǎo), joinery held by friction alone, with no glue or nails.
The Basics
Brand: Atelier Wen
Model: Perception V3
Diameter: 40mm (widest point)
Thickness: 10.4mm
Case material: 904L stainless steel; 47mm lug to lug; double-domed sapphire box crystal with 10 internal anti-reflective layers; full exhibition sapphire case back; micro-frosted on Yún, brushed on Piāo and Xiá
Dial: Hand-turned écailles de poisson (fish-scale) guilloché by the workshop of Cheng Yucai, in 筠 Yún (Bamboo Green, new), 缥 Piāo (Ice-Blue) or 霞 Xiá (Salmon); applied indices under a raised chapter ring whose 回纹 (huí wén) pattern in Super-LumiNova forms the minute track; rhodium-plated feuille (leaf-shaped) hands
Water resistance: 100m / 10 ATM
Bracelet: 904L stainless steel, hexagonal centre links, quick-release, tapering from 22mm to 18mm; clasp with patent-pending micro-adjustment and telescopic deployant blade
Limited edition: Not limited
The Movement
Calibre: Pequignet EPM03 (customised), automatic
Functions: Hours, minutes, seconds (hacking); accuracy -4/+6 seconds per day (average ±2 seconds per day)
Winding: Bi-directional pawl-based (Pellaton)
Power reserve: 65 hours
Images courtesy of Atelier Wen.