Serica’s Parade gets a mid-century makeover with two textural linen dials
Jamie WeissFew brands get dyed-in-the-wool watch enthusiasts as excited as Serica. There’s just something about its confident, branding-less yet immediately identifiable design language – especially when you’re considering its tool watches – as well as its combination of great specs and decent prices that really speaks to proper watch lovers. Indeed, before we started stocking Serica in the Time+Tide Shop, it was easily the brand I had the most people ask me about: “When are you guys gonna stock Serica?”
Serica really surprised us last year when it released the Ref. 1174 Parade, the French brand’s first-ever dress watch and a significant departure from form that’s nevertheless entirely on brand and perfectly poised to take advantage of the market’s current obsession with shaped watches. The Parade launched with a black and a brass dial, both with laser-engraved radial patterns. Now, almost a year after the Parade’s introduction, Serica has added another two dials to the range, sporting a classic linen texture and adding some welcome colour to the collection.
The case
As I just mentioned, the Parade is Serica’s first-ever dress watch, but it’s also Serica’s first shaped watch, featuring an oval-shaped case inspired by the shape of a Roman stadium. It’s pleasantly constructed and finished, with a broad, vertically brushed bezel sitting plinth-like atop a stepped base, evoking stadium seating. Two polished bevels provide light play, but my favourite feature is how the case is completely symmetrical, with the subtle lug guards replicated on the left-hand side of the case – easily facilitating ambidextrous wear.
It’s a design that has drawn obvious comparisons to the Patek Philippe Ellipse, but the Parade is a bit more porthole-like than the Patek, with a more edifical, robust aesthetic – not that it’s by any means large or chunky. At 35 millimetres wide and 41 millimetres long with hidden lugs, it suits a wide variety of wrists, and it’s also only 8.2mm thick.
Slightly atypically for a watch of this format, the Serica Parade is also 100 metres water-resistant. As Russell put it last year, the Parade might be a new direction from Serica but it brings the recognisable codes (and specs) from the brand’s tool watches to a dress watch, making it the perfect dress watch for someone who is perhaps more used to wearing chunky sports watches every day and can’t get on board with more dainty designs on their wrist.
The dials
The dials are the main story here, with Serica having added two ‘linen’ dials to the range, one in Slate Blue and the other in Tobacco Green. These two dials give the Parade a pop of colour, while that linen texture – a classic look found on many mid-century watches – remains uninterrupted by numerals, a logo or even a seconds hand, with only petite lil’ hand-applied dots at its periphery to mark the hours. It’s quite a rough, cross-woven texture with something of an earthy quality to it, while the mirror-polished and domed sword hands are all class.
Normally, you’ll see a linen texture paired with a white or beige base colour, but these two tones suit the Parade well. The Slate Blue has a bit of a denim jeans effect (both literally and sartorially), and is perhaps the more versatile shade of the two, whereas the Tobacco Green has a bit of a 70s vibe: the kind of watch you’d wear while sitting in a conversation pit and smoking indoors.
The straps
These Serica Parade linen dial models come paired with an alligator-embossed calf leather strap – brown for the Tobacco Green and black for the Slate Blue – as opposed to the pebbled leather straps that the laser-engraved dial Parade models come paired with as standard. The best bit about the straps is actually their buckles, which have the same shape as the Parade’s case, and have a similar vertically brushed top surface and a polished bevel. This is great attention to detail and adds to the ‘specialness’ of the Parade.
The movement
The mechanical circus performing inside the Parade’s stadium-shaped case comes in the shape of a Soprod M100 automatic movement, the same movement Serica uses for its field watches, concealed behind a closed caseback. It’s a serviceable if unspectacular movement, offering a basic 42 hours of power reserve and facilitating the Parade’s svelteness.
The verdict
The Serica Parade feels and looks like a watch much more expensive than it is, and these linen dials make it appear like a much older watch than it is. Serica could’ve just brought out some new colours in the Parade’s previously extant dial finish and called it a day, but I appreciate that they’ve tried something different for the Parade’s sophomore two variants.
Serica Ref. 1174 Parade ‘Linen’ pricing and availability
These two new Serica Parade linen dials are available now from the Time+Tide Shop, both in-store at our London and Melbourne Watch Discovery Studios and online. Price: €1,490/A$2,690
| Brand | Serica |
| Model | Parade ‘Linen’ |
| Reference | 1174 |
| Case Dimensions | 35mm (W) x 8.2mm (T) x 41mm (LTL) |
| Case Material | Stainless steel |
| Water Resistance | 100 metres |
| Crystal(s) | Sapphire front |
| Dial | Slate Blue and Tobacco Green linen-texture |
| Strap | Alligator-embossed calf leather, steel pin buckle |
| Movement | Soprod M100, automatic |
| Power Reserve | 42 hours |
| Functions | Hours and minutes |
| Availability | From the Time+Tide Shop |
| Price | €1,490 A$2,690 |