Atelier Wen and Massena LAB Give Inflection Shuò a Tantalum Case and Tremblage Dial

Atelier Wen’s latest collaboration with Massena LAB lands in the rarefied end of independent watchmaking.

The Inflection Shuò is a 50-piece limited edition built around two demanding ingredients that don’t often appear together, a tantalum case and a hand-made tremblage dial.

It’s also a watch that pushes Atelier Wen’s East-meets-West language into more overtly high-craft territory, with Chinese calligraphy numerals sharing the dial with a California-style layout and Swiss mechanical architecture inside.

At a glance

Tantalum gives the Inflection Shuò its weight and tone

Tantalum is not a casual material choice.

Its blue-grey cast is darker and moodier than stainless steel, while its density is roughly twice that of steel, giving the 40mm case a physical presence that should be immediately obvious on the wrist.

For Massena LAB, the project marks two firsts at once.

It is the studio’s first watch in tantalum and its first integrated bracelet design, with brushed and mirror-polished links continuing the case’s heavy-metal character rather than treating the bracelet as an afterthought.

The case measures 10.2mm thick and includes a screw-down crown, while the watch is rated to 100 metres of water resistance.

A tremblage dial made by hand

The dial is the watch’s most labour-intensive element.

Each solid 18k gold dial is worked by Coralie Mercier at GT Cadrans using a graver to create the tremblage surface, a finely irregular texture built through countless tiny cuts and facets.

The technique gives the dial depth without relying on applied decoration or aggressive finishing, and it suits the watch’s mix of restraint and craft.

Two versions are being produced.

The white gold hour ring edition is limited to 10 pieces and is reserved for clients, while the rose gold hour ring edition accounts for the remaining 40 pieces and is publicly available.

The hour scale uses a California-style arrangement, with Western Arabic numerals above the dial’s horizontal axis and custom Chinese calligraphy numerals below it.

Blue-filled numerals and a huiwen border add a distinct Atelier Wen signature without overwhelming the dial work.

Girard-Perregaux movement with a custom finish

Inside the Inflection Shuò is the Girard-Perregaux calibre GP03300, an automatic movement running at 28,800 vibrations per hour.

It provides hours, minutes and seconds, with a 48-hour power reserve.

The movement finishing has been adapted for the collaboration, including a custom rotor with a Chinese wind motif, an engraved base plate and perlage.

That choice of calibre matters because this watch isn’t trying to win attention through materials alone.

It places Chinese design language, Swiss movement manufacture and European hand-finishing into a single, highly limited object.

Details & Specifications

The Inflection Shuò is not a volume play, and it isn’t meant to be an easy watch to make.

Its appeal sits in the tension between serious craft and cultural specificity, making it one of Atelier Wen’s clearest statements yet for collectors who want independent watchmaking with a point of view.