Description
Delbana doesn't usually get the airtime it deserves. Founded in 1931 by Goliardo Della Balda — a San Marino emigré who set up shop in Grenchen, the heart of Swiss watchmaking — the brand has quietly made elegant, affordable timepieces for 95 years. To mark that milestone, Delbana is releasing the Della Balda 95th Anniversary Edition, a limited run that commemorates both the founder and the model that carries his name. It's the kind of anniversary a bigger brand would charge five figures for. Delbana is asking CHF 825.
The release is a quartet: two case materials (polished stainless steel or yellow gold PVD) paired with two dial colours (black or silver), each limited to just 95 pieces per variation. That's 380 watches total, worldwide. Every one ships on handmade Italian leather, and every caseback is engraved with a historic tower motif pulled from Delbana's archives, numbered "One of 95." This is how heritage should be celebrated — quietly, confidently, without the markup.
Design
The Della Balda is a dress watch in the purest sense. The dial carries a sunburst guilloché finish that catches light from every angle, applied arrow-shaped markers alongside Arabic numerals, and luminous dots tucked discreetly against the track. Sword-shaped hour and minute hands sweep over the top, with a red-tipped seconds hand adding the one note of colour that keeps the composition from feeling too solemn. A historic Delbana logo sits at 12 o'clock — a direct nod to the 1930s archives.
There's no date window. No sub-dials. Nothing to distract from the symmetry. The silver dial plays summery and bright; the black dial is pure black-tie. The 40mm case measures just 11.5mm thick, with a slim bezel and a domed sapphire crystal that gives the whole thing a vintage-correct profile. The yellow gold PVD variant costs CHF 50 more than the steel and lends a warmer, more Art Deco flavour — fitting for a brand that was born in the era.
Specs
| Brand | Delbana |
| Model | Della Balda 95th Anniversary Edition |
| Movement | Sellita SW200-1, automatic, 26 jewels |
| Frequency | 28,800 vph (4 Hz) |
| Power Reserve | 41 hours |
| Case | Polished stainless steel or yellow gold PVD |
| Diameter | 40 mm |
| Thickness | 11.5 mm |
| Crystal | Domed sapphire |
| Caseback | Closed, engraved with historic tower motif, numbered "One of 95" |
| Water Resistance | 50 metres |
| Dial | Black or silver, sunburst guilloché, applied arrow markers and Arabic numerals |
| Hands | Sword-shaped with lume; red-tipped seconds |
| Strap | Handmade Italian leather, black or brown, pin buckle |
| Limited Edition | 95 pieces per variation (4 variations) |
| Price | CHF 825 (steel) / CHF 875 (yellow gold PVD) |
| Availability | Pre-order; deliveries from May 2026 |
What's Exciting
This is genuine heritage at an unbelievable price. You're buying a Swiss-made automatic dress watch, with a Sellita SW200-1 (the industry workhorse that powers thousands of microbrand and mid-tier watches), a domed sapphire crystal, guilloché dial, Italian leather, and a numbered caseback — all for less than a single service on a Rolex. Ninety-five pieces per variation means you're getting something genuinely scarce, not a "limited edition" of 5,000. And the story behind it is real: a 95-year-old Swiss brand honouring its founder, with a watch that looks like it could have walked out of Grenchen in 1931. For anyone who thinks value and heritage are incompatible, the Della Balda 95th is the counter-argument.
Sources
- Monochrome Watches — Delbana Celebrates 95 Years with the Della Balda Limited Editions
- The Calibrated Wrist — Delbana Della Balda 95th Anniversary Edition
- Oracle of Time — Delbana Release Della Balda 95th Anniversary Limited Edition
- Delbana Official — Della Balda Collection
- The Watch Pages — Delbana Watches
History
Delbana was founded in 1931 in Grenchen, Switzerland, by Goliardo Della Balda, who emigrated from San Marino in the 1920s to pursue a career in Swiss watchmaking. The brand name is a contraction of his own — Del-Bana — and from the start it focused on elegant, affordable timepieces for working Europeans rather than chasing the luxury set. By 1954 the company had expanded into a factory of more than 100 employees and introduced the Voltige, a playful model with an animated disc beneath the crystal that became one of the brand's signature designs.
Delbana was integrated into Delma Watch Ltd. in 2002, itself a century-old independent Swiss family brand. The Della Balda line was relaunched in 2021 in steel and in 2022 in yellow gold PVD as a direct tribute to the founder, and the 95th Anniversary Edition continues that thread. In a watch world obsessed with 40-year-old brands pretending to be heritage houses, a genuine 95-year-old Swiss manufacturer celebrating its own history at CHF 825 is something worth paying attention to.
Gallery
Images to be added — steel on black dial wrist shot, PVD gold on silver dial macro, guilloché dial detail, engraved caseback, Italian leather strap detail.
