Today, I would like to introduce a new name on the watchmaking scene coming straight from Madrid, Spain. You may have guessed it already. I am presenting the eponymous brand Raul Tena. Before I unveil the first piece, the Raúl Tena Pearl Diver, revealed during Dubai Watch Week 2025, let me tell you about the man behind the name.
Raúl Tena was born and raised in the Madrid region. He spent his childhood filling entire notebooks with watch sketches, inspired by studying his father’s timepieces. In terms of studies, he first pursued industrial and aeronautical engineering before completing a master’s in business administration and later a diploma in venture capital and private equity. This solid background led him to work in senior roles at Airbus Military and Airbus Defence and Space. In his free time, Raúl Tena continued to explore watches until he began designing a small collection, often imagining them as true miniature 3D sculptures.
Nurturing the idea of launching his own brand and vision of watchmaking one day, he spent the past six years building the right network in manufacturing and distribution. Passionate about music and art, Raúl Tena wanted to channel his technical mastery and aesthetic sensitivity into a poetic language of time, moving “from engineering to emotion.” Figures such as Kari Voutilainen, Christophe Beuchat, Olivier Kuhn, Debora Martinez, Franck Orny, Michèle Rothen, Zeljko Gosic, and Gerald Roden brought their expertise in watchmaking, design, decoration, production, and management to the Raúl Tena project.
After much perseverance and many technical challenges, Raúl Tena presented his first piece in 2025. He explicitly seeks to design his watches as a meeting point between precision and emotion, structure and meaning, transforming time into art. His creative philosophy, “Art to Watch,” turns the measurement of time into an act of personal expression, redefining contemporary luxury through creativity, individuality, and authenticity.
The Pearl Diver, his first Art to Watch creation, pays tribute to the tradition of pearl diving in the Gulf and to the Seddiqi family, long standing guardians of luxury watch culture in the Middle East. A symbol of economic prosperity, the pearling industry played a decisive role in trade and shaped the social structures, culture, and identity of this region. This timepiece is a three dimensional temporal sculpture that unites technical mastery, artistic expression, and the ancestral know how of Swiss watchmaking. Now, let us move on to the presentation of the watch.
Table of Contents – Raul Tena Pearl Diver
What are the features of the Raul Tena Pearl Diver?
Case
The Raul Tena Pearl Diver features a bold stainless steel case water resistant to 50 meters. With multiple surface treatments, it reveals the different constraints that had to be addressed to achieve such a construction. Its sculptural form blends contemporary refinement with the traditional know how of high watchmaking.
Designed by Voutilainen & Cattin SA, the case measures 44 mm in diameter and 18.4 mm thick, and it behaved on my wrist in an unexpected way. Its rounded body presents soft, flowing contours that merge harmoniously into short, faceted, ergonomic lugs, giving the watch a compact and balanced presence on the wrist despite its size.
I found this case even more impressive when viewed from the side, where the imposing domed sapphire crystal, paired with the sapphire caseback, encapsulates two coexisting worlds. There is a high flying mechanical world and an artistic world expressed by the dial, making this watch both unique and deeply poetic.
Dial
The Raul Tena Pearl Diver is fitted with a dial where several elements coexist beautifully. The first thing that strikes you, at the heart of the watch, is a hand engraved gold sculpture by Olivier Kuhn, patinated to imitate the aged bronze of artifacts from the ocean depths rather than the shine of a freshly polished alloy. This diver sculpture captures the moment he yields to the sea, suspended between air and water. Nested within this composition, he is grasping a natural Gulf pearl, carefully selected for its size and color, anchoring both the literal theme of pearl diving and the emotional link between human craft and the raw material of the sea.
We then turn to the enamel dial base, kiln fired at over 800 °C and crafted by Debora Martinez of Atelier Miniare, which reveals a luminous ground adorned with miniatures painted by hand under a loupe. Finally, the eye rests on a steel ring, or rehaut, decorated with Eastern Arabic numerals surrounding the dial to display the minutes. At six o’clock, a digital aperture shows the hours. The use of this subtle typography is a cultural homage to the Middle East and a nod to the watch’s world premiere in Dubai and to the Gulf tradition it honors. Deep black markings contrast with the circular brushed metal surface, while satin edges shimmer like ripples on the ocean surface, adding depth and legibility to the whole.
Movement
The Raul Tena Pearl Diver houses the RT01 hand wound mechanical movement. Developed and assembled in close collaboration with Raúl Tena by Télôs Watch SA, this caliber beats at 28,800 vibrations per hour, or 4 hertz. Thanks to a twin barrel architecture, it delivers a generous power reserve of more than 60 hours and drives a deliberate, almost cinematic choreography on the dial side with jumping hours and retrograde minutes.
In terms of finishing, the movement is hand decorated by Comblémine. The work is crisp, precise, and clean, with varied finishes that highlight the gear train. These details are revealed through the sapphire back with double sided anti reflective treatment and a decorative double metallization. In short, this process hides the screws and the O ring, creating a subtle engraved effect for a purer design.
Strap
The Rael Tena Pearl Diver is delivered on a blue alligator strap, hand sewn in Geneva by Atelier du Bracelet, and secured by a rather oversized steel pin buckle. I like how the strap sits flush with the case flank, likely thanks to curved spring bars, and how the thoughtfully designed buckle echoes the shapes and finishes of the case.
How much does the Raul Tena Pearl Diver?
The Raul Tena Pearl Diver is an exclusive first edition limited to five pieces, while subsequent creations in the Art to Watch collection can be fully personalized and developed individually with each collector through a bespoke creative process and a one year development timeline per piece. Pricing starts at 90,000 CHF for steel, 100,000 CHF for titanium, and 120,000 CHF for gold or platinum. These prices include a hand engraved 3D sculpture, a guilloché or enamel dial, as well as personalized engraving on the bezel and caseback. For this inaugural edition, the price is just under 160,000 CHF.
Raul Tena Pearl Diver: a true 3D work of art
The Raúl Tena Pearl Diver combines traditional craftsmanship and contemporary design to offer a new interpretation of Métiers d’Art in three dimensions. Every detail is handmade with exceptional know how, transforming centuries of cultural heritage into wearable art. Hundreds of hours of precise work, carried out over more than a year by master watchmakers and artisans, are required to craft each Pearl Diver watch.
You can clearly feel the respect for Swiss know how and heritage, paired with an avant garde expression. Raul Tena is one of the first high watchmaking brands that allows a collector to encapsulate a life journey on the wrist, revealing a redefinition of time in three dimensions: past, present, and future. The result is a sculptural object that embodies individuality, beauty, and mechanical excellence. It is a personal work of art that measures far more than time and speaks directly to a segment that values discretion, personal narrative, and the authenticity of handcraft over notoriety.
I find this project very interesting and worth following. I agree that the diameter may deter some, but this watch has the merit of being unique in its conception and has a true personality. I believe this approach will find enthusiasts of Time and Art who will be able to co create their piece with the brand while preserving the identity of the model. Care must be taken not to accept anything and everything, because even if the piece is unique, it must remain a guardian of the brand’s DNA.
Raúl Tena seeks to transcend the simple function of a watch, transforming precision into poetry and mechanics into emotion. Born from the quest for perfection of an engineer and the sensitivity of an artist, the brand aims to create objects full of meaning: personal, timeless, and infused with emotion. It is not about mastering time, but expressing oneself through it. I would like to thank Raúl Tena once again for giving me the opportunity to discover and handle this piece. I also wish him much success and further collaborations like the one with the Museum of the Future in Dubai, which I find very successful.
Raul Tena Pearl Diver – Watch Specifications
- Brand: Raul Tena
- Model: Pearl Diver
- Case Material: Stainless Steel
- Dial: Enamel dial, produced by Atelier Miniare with hand-engraved gold sculpture by Olivier Kuhn.
- Functions: Jumping Hours ; Retrograde Minutes.
- Movement: RT01, Manual-Winding, 28’800vph frequency (4Hz), 36 jewels
- Power Reserve: +60 Hours
- Water Resistance: 5 ATM
- Crystal: Sapphire
- Caseback: Sapphire
- Case Dimension: 44 mm × 18.4 mm
- Strap: Blue Alligator with Stainless Steel Pin Buckle
- Availability : Limited Edition of 5 Pieces
- Retail Price: 160,000 CHF
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Did you already know the work of Raúl Tena? Are you sensitive to the use of Métiers d’Art in watchmaking? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.
For more information about Raul Tena, click here.
