Raymond Unveils A New Interpretation Of The Freelancer Collection. The Form Watch For Men And Women!

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The freelancer collection has been re-imagined for the modern individual, with a cushion shaped case design and signature brand details.

Raymond Weil knows a thing or two about pushing the boundaries of design expression, with the brand releasing creative form watches for the past 50 years. Form watches tend to adapt to modern styles, with various shapes being adopted to suit contemporary designs.

Raymond Weil’s collections such as Don Giovanni or Shine showcases the brand’s expertise in creating expressive collections. This newest editions acknowledges the brand’s legacy of innovative design, while embracing the desires of the modern watch wearing man and women.

This latest freelancer collection is made up of two models, the ladies 2490 and the men’s 2790 model. Both models come in two variants, the difference being the dial colours. For these four new models, the case shape is both same for men’s and women’s’ with the design being as Raymond Weil states “a square cushion-shape”, referring to the edges of the case which are softly curved. The men’s case is measured at 40mm x 40mm x 10.5mm thick, while the women’s is 34mm x 34mm x 9.5mm thick.

The beauty and elegance of the case design comes from the finishing. The various facets, lines and curves of the square cases play with light nicely to create different levels of shine at different angles. This effect is more prominent when paired with the calf leathers that are offered by Raymond Weil for these watches, as they contrast well against the stainless steel cases and let them take the spotlight.

The ladies model takes this a step further, with the brand adding 60 laboratory-grown diamonds that are brilliant cut 32/24 – VVS2 to VS1, measuring in at 0.399 kt ct. As expected, this gives a much more luxurious look to the timepiece, serving the purpose of a dressy elegant timepiece.

Where things start to really differ between the men’s and women’s timepiece, however, is on the dial. The men’s freelancer 2790 comes with a gradient dial in either blue or green colours, with the brand’s in-house movement taking centre-stage by showing the open-worked bridge with the balance wheel at the 6 o’clock position. The escapement can also be seen through this open-worked part of the dial, as it “locks” and “unlocks” in rhythmic motion with the escape wheel. The hour indices along with the hour and minute hands have a slim refined design, and are filled with Super-lumiNova for low light visibility.

The ladies freelancer 2490 is quite different in design. First we see the full gradient effect dial make way for a more artistic W-shaped motif, which is a nod to the Raymond Weil brand. The gradient effect is still there, as outside the W-motif the colours go from light shades to darker as it approaches the edge of the square-shaped dials. The same design as per the men’s freelancer 2790 is used for the hour indices, hands and minutes. At the 3 o’clock position, however, we see the addition of a date window, which stand’s out nicely with the white date wheel against the dial colours.

Both these men’s and women’s freelancer models come with in-house movement caliber’s. The men’s is equipped with the brand’s Calibre RW1212 movement. This history of this movement is that it was derived from the tourbillon movement RW1842. This movement was much loved by everyone thanks to it’s aesthetics, however, wasn’t as easily accessible during to pricing and exclusivity. Raymond Weil took the aesthetic design of the RW1842 tourbillon movement and one of their tried and trusted movements, the Calibre RW400 to create the RW1212 movement. The movement beats at a rate of 4Hz (28,800 VpH) and gives out a decent power reserve of approximately 38 hours.

The ladies version comes with the brand’s RW4200 movement, which, like the men’s also comes with 38 hour power reserve. The Calibre RW4200 movement seems to be based on the Swiss ETA 2824 movement, which operates at the same high frequency as the Calibre RW1212 movement at 4Hz (28, 800 VpH). Both the men’s and women’s timepieces come with an open sapphire case back, which gives a glimpse into the design and structure of each movement, along with Raymond Weil’s signature W being designed onto the skeletonised rotor.

This new freelancer collection is offered on either a 5-link stainless steel bracelet, or a genuine calf leather strap with signature W stitching as a reference to the brand. The colours of the calf leather straps are matched to the dial, which gives a nice aesthetic appearance overall and lets the case and dial really stand out.

Although square-shaped cases may not be everyone’s cup of tea, this new freelancer collection creates a great balance of tradition and modern design, all the while show casing the brand’s artistic expression. The collection is non-limited and can be purchased through selected retailers, Raymond Weil boutiques and their online E-commerce.