We’ve featured E.C. Andersson, a small watch brand out of Sweden, in our Micro-Brand Digest a few times now. Their latest, however, definitely warrants a longer look. The Mytilus is easily their most ambitious design to date, and serves as an extension of what’s come before as well as a bit of a bolder statement. Described by the brand as “retrofuturistic” in its style, it’s been conceived as a distinctive watch that’s also ultra lightweight and thin. It’s part of a larger crop of new designs that we’re incredibly excited about that offer a real taste of the avant-garde at an approachable price point.

While the design and manufacturing of the Mytilus is surely quite complex in practice, the concept is fairly straightforward and easy to understand. The “case” is a milled block of solid aluminum and this central component is just 4.1mm thick. The sapphire crystal has a deep box design and pulls double duty as a bezel that holds the unit together. The brand says the crystal is attached to the case directly via six screws, and that total of twenty-one gaskets are used on the Mytilus to ensure water resistance (it’s rated to 60 meters, which is pretty good for such a thin mechanical watch). With the crystal attached, the total thickness of the Mytilus comes in at 9.5mm (the case is 38mm wide).

This is a time only watch with a simple, sandwich style dial with lume seen from a lower layer at the cardinal positions. Like the case and caseback, the dial is also milled aluminum. It’s available in two variants, one “bare metal,” meant to highlight the raw materials, and the other in a more contrast heavy black. 

The Mytilus is a fairly daring design, with an industrial, almost Brutalist aesthetic coming out of practical watchmaking rooted in problem solving. E.C. Andersson hasn’t provided a ton of detail on the design brief that led to the Mytilus, but it’s easy to imagine them simply trying to make the thinnest watch possible using the fewest components. In the images that have been made available, you get the impression that everything you see, every design decision, is absolutely essential. The fact that the end result has an appearance that is totally its own, with a case that is kind of a cushion shape, but also kind of just a metal slab, is icing on the cake. 

E.C. Andersson proudly declares on their website that the Mytilus is handmade in their Gothenburg headquarters, and that each might have the slight variances you’d expect for a watch made in this fashion. To purchase the watch, customers are asked to sign up for a non-binding waitlist, which can be done at the brand’s website here. The retail price is $1,200.