ne watch, one city, eight colors: the origins of Maurice de Mauriac condensed on a new multichromatic edition.

On July 7, 2023, Zurich experienced its blue miracle at the Züri Fäscht — the city festival which takes place only every three years that is also Switzerland’s largest festival. Rising to the occasion, Maurice de Mauriac is launching a new Züri-Date timepiece in 8 colours: green, turquoise, red, orange, black, white, yellow...and blue.

A blue watch for Zurich, that makes sense. It’s been represented on the city’s coat of arms since 1389. But green, turquoise, red, orange, black, white and yellow? Watchbro Leonard Dreifuss reveals how these colors came about: “On the way from our studio to the Bahnhofstrasse, I crossed Paradeplatz on a Zischtig (Tuesday in Swiss German) — and suddenly the colors for the new Züri-Date edition were clear. The colors of the trams, omnipresent in Zurich and the backbone of public transport within the city, inspired me.”

Therefore, the new Züri-Date is available in eight dial hues, paired with a high-quality stylish leather strap or with a robust steel bracelet. Its characteristic dial features a day display at 12 o’clock in Zurich’s very own Swiss German dialect and a magnifying glass on the date at 3 o’clock. The movement, naturally automatic, is a decorated ETA 2834-2 calibre with 25 jewels. The see-through back case provides a clear view of the mechanics, so you can watch how beautifully time flies in the city of Zurich.

Massimo Dreifuss, the elder Watchbro, describes the design process of the new Züri-Date as something special: “We kept getting on different trams at Paradeplatz, letting the colors work on us and changing them slightly again and again. In the end we had harmonized the aesthetics of the tram colors with our own aesthetics.” He remembers that the colors were fixed at around 10pm on the Tram 8 just before Paradeplatz. It is the tram in which Masha, the sister of the Watchbros, commutes between the MdM Garage store and the iconic studio in Tödistrasse that serves as the brand’s headquarters. The tram squeaked with joy on the last bend. A watch cannot be more Zurich.

The new Züri-Date builds on the success of the now sold-out anniversary timepiece from Maurice de Mauriac — the original Züri-Date, launched last year to celebrate the brand’s 25th anniversary. The first watch with a day display in Swiss German. As a result, Maurice de Mauriac also developed a variation of the watch exclusively for the NZZ, the venerable Neue Zürcher Zeitung newspaper founded in 1780.

The new Züri-Date timepiece is now available in all its colors and versions at the brand’s studio located in Tödistrasse 48, in the MdM Garage store at Geroldstrasse 5 in Züri West (note the opening times!) and, of course, worldwide in the MDM web shop.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

Case: satin-finished 316L stainless steel; screwed-in crown; sapphire glass with anti-reflective coating on both sides; back case with see-through sapphire glass; waterproof to 100 m

Diameter: 39mm or 42mm

Height: 13,90mm

Movement: ETA 28.34-2 Top automatic movement, custom-refined for Maurice de Mauriac

Functions: hours, minutes, seconds, day and date

Dial: green, turquoise, red, orange, black, white, yellow and blue; luminous hour and minute hands, indexes

Strap/Bracelet: leather strap or 316L steel bracelet

Buckle (for the leather strap): satin-finished 316L stainless steel

Price: 3,200 CHF (incl. 7.7% VAT)