Review: Radcliffe Le Dome

Perhaps you’re familiar with the incredible Legacy Machine 101 from MB&F, which first dropped jaws in 2014 with its mad but still classic approach to watchmaking. It’s a piece that collectors will bite each other to own, despite it’s not unsubstantial price of $60,000. Certainly not for the faint of heart, or wallet. How about something a bit cheaper then—the $430 Radcliffe Le Dome.

Background

It seems these days that every man and his dog has a microbrand. By no means easy, it’s certainly far less difficult as an individual to establish a limited run supply chain than it ever has been. It’s like the gentrification of the internet, alongside businesses selling cute biscuits in the shape of puppies.

It can get a bit tiresome seeing yet another dive watch, hearing yet another pitch about how this one is really high quality even if it does look like it was pilfered straight from the Seiko reject pile. Inevitably I will buy and own a boring dive watch, but what I want is to play the guitar, ride a BMX and wear an MB&F Legacy Machine 101.

I definitely can’t afford one of those, but I can certainly appreciate the effort that went into not making it as bland as unflavoured soup. I assumed those same efforts simply couldn’t be exerted into cheaper watches for budget reasons, and certainly not watches that cost at the lower end of three figures—but it turns out I was wrong.

Tayeb Boussalia, creator of Radcliffe watches, had a very different perspective. He’d already made a few other undoubtedly very nice but more ordinary pieces, and so he turned his attention to doing something a bit more … out of the ordinary. Enter Le Dome.

Le Dome is so-called because of the same principle that governs the LM101: it has a dial filled with big stuff that needs a tall crystal to fit it all in. Whilst that sounds like a logistical nightmare, the result on both watches is a rather pleasing crystal that curves up and over like a forcefield over the habitat below.

Anything smooth and curvy is always a winner, and in cool, hard sapphire, it ticks a tactility box that’s less about watchmaking and more probably to do with some basic inner instinct. What I’m trying to say is that the sapphire dome is really nice to hold. It’s not how you typically wear a watch, face down in your palm, but in this case I thoroughly recommend it.

Also like the Legacy Machine, this watch’s dial is split into three different arenas, two time related and one more mechanical. The LM101 of course has a beautiful suspended balance arching over the dial; here there’s a caged open heart revealing the balance of the movement.

The two displays are miniature domes of their own, set with luminous numbers and indicated each at the lowest point of their rotation. Set into all that negative space could have been something plain and boring, but instead there’s a guilloche-like pattern that somewhat mimics the fine-grained leather strap.

It can’t and never will be the museum piece the MB&F is, but for $430, it’s actually not completely dull like 99% of the watches at that price point are. It feels like any spend below $500 or even a $1,000 has to be treated like buying white goods, lead first by decisions of a practical nature with no room to indulge the part of you that just wants something cool.

Review

I’m just as guilty of it when I’m looking at a cheaper watch. Has it got a sapphire crystal? Is the movement reliable? What’s the water resistance like? Basically none of the questions anyone asks when they go to buy an MB&F. But that doesn’t mean you have to forego any of those practicalities.

The case, in 316L steel, is sealed to 30m, which means you don’t have to worry about wearing it in the rain. Don’t take a bath in it or anything, but if you get it splashed, you’ll be alright. The namesake curves are indeed sapphire, given two layers of anti-reflective coating to keep the dial looking crisp. And the movement comes from the Seiko stable, an NH35, so although you won’t be bothering the Geneva Seal people with it anytime soon, you at least know it’s reliable and easily maintainable.

But never mind all that dull adulting nonsense. People don’t ask if a Lamborghini has keyless go, they ask if the doors go up because it’s cool and stupid. So, what’s the Le Dome actually like to wear? Does it come anywhere near the bonkers MB&F for silly grin factor? At less than a percent of the price, if it even makes the corners of your mouth twitch ever so slightly, it’s succeeded.

The sensible 40mm by 10.2mm case, rising up to 16mm at the top of the dome, makes wearing it nicely unobtrusive. The worst thing this watch could’ve been was massive. It’s not massive, thankfully, and it’s all the better for it. It therefore carries off the same classical stature as the MB&F, leaving all the fun time shenanigans to happen under the security of the forcefield.

That’s the secret, really. Keeping the out-there quirkiness behind the glass. It somehow feels more reserved and contained whilst still being different, like seeing dangerous lions and tigers but behind the safety of a chain-link fence. The full-blown MB&F Horological Machines are also very, very cool, but rather than going to see the lions and tigers at their home in the zoo, they’re more akin to inviting those big cats back to yours for a few rounds of canasta and a spot of light mauling.

That’s why the Le Dome works. It’s like a jacket with a garish lining. Most people won’t even know there’s something up with this watch because from the outside it looks completely normal. The fun is just for you and anyone who has so sense of personal space. And it pleases me no end to see this kind of intriguing, considered approach to watchmaking, even at the most affordable end.

I have no doubt in my mind that Tayeb will sell more Radcliffe watches that look like other familiar, boring watches, but nevertheless I’m no less pleased that the Le Dome exists. It’s no MB&F of course, and it isn’t going to reinvent what you believed possible for $430, but it’s cheap enough and cool enough to enjoy all the same.

I do have one gripe with it though: the name. I’ve been calling it the Le Dome because I feel like I’d sound like a complete Charlie calling it just Le Dome. This is Le Dome. It sounds like that LA nightclub no one can get into. But I’m also aware that saying the Le Dome is like saying PIN number. Still, if that’s the worst thing about it, it can’t be all bad.

What do you think of the Le Dome and its approach to doing things a bit different? Like the style or wish they’d stuck to dive watches?