Description
Toledano & Chan build one watch, the b/1, and keep finding new reasons for it to exist. The latest is the b/1 "Dazzle", a grade 5 titanium version whose case, bracelet and dial are CNC-engraved with an irregular lattice of intersecting planes, finished in alternating brushed and sandblasted surfaces so that light never settles anywhere for long. It is limited to 188 pieces at USD 7,700, with a diamond-set "Double Dazzle" sibling limited to 12 pieces at USD 9,700. Both go on sale on 24 October.
The reference is dazzle camouflage — the disruptive geometric paintwork applied to Allied shipping in the First World War. Dazzle never tried to hide a ship. It tried to make an observer misjudge its size, heading and speed long enough to spoil a torpedo solution. Phil Toledano has pointed out the obvious contradiction in borrowing it for a watch: the pattern is designed to distract and confuse, which is the opposite of what a dial is for.
That contradiction is the whole watch. Reading the time on the Dazzle takes a beat longer than it should, and the brand has decided that is a feature.
Design
The case is the b/1 shape — a 32 mm wide, roughly 30.6 mm tall asymmetric rectangle derived from a window on Marcel Breuer's Madison Avenue building — now in grade 5 titanium rather than steel or gold. The sapphire crystal is slanted and asymmetric, rising from one edge of the case so that the top surface is never flat, and the engraved pattern runs uninterrupted from the case flanks across the integrated titanium bracelet.
On the standard Dazzle the dial is titanium too, worked three ways: CNC-engraved facets, brushed planes and a diamond-dust frosting that catches light like ground glass. The hands are stark and faceted, and there are no indices to speak of — the pattern is the dial. The Double Dazzle replaces that surface with a pavé of roughly 350 natural diamonds, which does not calm the watch down. Both run on an integrated titanium bracelet with a folding clasp.
Specifications
- Model: Toledano & Chan b/1 "Dazzle" and b/1 "Double Dazzle"
- Case width: 32 mm (approx. 30.6 mm tall)
- Case thickness: 10.4 mm (Worn & Wound measured 12.3 mm including the sloping crystal)
- Case material: grade 5 titanium, CNC-engraved "Dazzle" pattern, brushed and sandblasted finishes
- Crystal: asymmetric, sloping sapphire
- Water resistance: 50 m
- Dial — Dazzle: CNC-engraved, brushed and diamond-dust-frosted grade 5 titanium
- Dial — Double Dazzle: pavé set with approximately 350 natural diamonds
- Movement: Sellita SW100, automatic
- Functions: hours and minutes
- Power reserve: 42 hours
- Bracelet: integrated grade 5 titanium with folding clasp, engraved to match the case
- Limited edition: 188 pieces (Dazzle); 12 pieces (Double Dazzle)
- Price: USD 7,700 (Dazzle); USD 9,700 (Double Dazzle)
- Availability: from 24 October 2026, direct and through authorised retailers
- Origin: Swiss made
What's Exciting
Toledano & Chan have spent four years proving that a single well-drawn case can carry an entire brand if you keep changing what covers it — lapis lazuli, Tahitian mother-of-pearl, an 18k gold ripple, blasted titanium. The Dazzle is the first version where the decoration is cut into the metal of the watch itself rather than laid on top of it, and that is a meaningful step: engraving a pattern across a case, an integrated bracelet and a dial so that it reads as one continuous surface is a machining and finishing problem, not a dial-supplier problem.
It is also, at USD 7,700, honestly priced for what it is. There is a Sellita SW100 inside, not a haute horlogerie calibre, and the brand has never pretended otherwise — the money buys a case and bracelet that nobody else is making, out of a material that is unforgiving to machine. Set against the integrated-bracelet titanium watches from larger brands at the same money, the Dazzle is the one you will not see on another wrist, and the 188-piece run means that stays true.
History
Toledano & Chan is the partnership of photographer and designer Phil Toledano and Alfred Chan, and the b/1 is the only model it has ever made. It launched with a lapis lazuli dial beneath a flat sapphire crystal in an asymmetric brutalist case drawn from the windows of the Breuer building on Madison Avenue — the Whitney, then the Met Breuer, now the Frick. The architecture reference was not decorative; the proportions of the case come directly from that window.
Later references raised and slanted the crystal and ran through Tahitian mother-of-pearl and an 18k gold "ripple" dial, and the brand produced a blasted titanium "Brutalist" edition for a collectors' club. The Dazzle shares its case and bracelet architecture with the b/1.3r "Ripple", differing in the engraving and the finish. The dazzle camouflage it borrows was developed in 1917, credited to the marine artist Norman Wilkinson, and painted onto thousands of merchant and naval vessels; it was always a visual trick rather than concealment, which is exactly why it suits a watch that makes you look twice.
