Sino-French Brand Atelier Wen Refines its Core Collection with the Perception V3

In less than 10 years, Atelier Wen has built a rather impressive collection, merging refined watchmaking with Chinese culture. The Sino-French company founded by Robin Tallendier and Wilfried Buiron quickly moved from accessible watches with a strong Chinese identity to something less caricatural, much deeper in substance, to the point of creating a full tantalum watch, bracelet included, and infusing proper Chinese craftsmanship into its creations. The brand’s flagship is, without a doubt, the Perception, a rather unique take on the integrated sports watch category. Launched in 2022, revised a couple of years later, the model now enters its next phase, with the Perception V3. But this time, most of the work is inside, as the watch now gets its energy from a French-made movement by Pequignet. 

The Perception was an immense leap forward for the young brand when it was launched in 2022. Moving away from classic watches with strongly Chinese-inspired dials, the brand’s flagship model entered the integrated sports watch category with refined details and an almost maximalist design. The first versions set out to prove that Chinese craftsmanship could stand alongside the competition, with hand-guilloché dials produced by the workshop of Cheng Yucai, China’s first guilloché master craftsman. The Perception V2, released a couple of years later, refined the case and bracelet, which found their definitive proportions. The latest update, the Perception V3, takes care of what’s inside. Instead of a China-made Dandong Peacock automatic movement, the engine comes from French manufacture Pequignet, a partnership that started with the Ancestra collection and continued with the tantalum Inflection.

Let’s start with this part, which is the main evolution of this new generation of Perception. In order to bring more added value to the watch and better precision (more on that later), Atelier Wen decided to switch from Chinese-made to made-in-France movements when releasing the Ancestra, equipped with a highly customised Pequignet calibre. The Perception V3 follows suit, using the same base architecture, the automatic calibre EPM03, yet treated very differently. As a reminder, Pequignet is one of the last independent movement manufacturers in France, and is based in Morteau, near the Swiss border.

The Calibre EPM3, a version of the Calibre Initial, is a modern movement running at 4Hz and storing about 65 hours of power reserve. It achieves chronometer-grade accuracy of -4/+6 seconds per day, with an average within ±2 seconds per day, comfortably meeting the standards of the Observatoire Chronométrique de Besançon. It also allows the Perception to have a hacking second function for the first time. It is wound by a bidirectional rotor with a bidirectional pawl-based winding system. But what truly sets this calibre apart is its decoration. Atelier Wen still brings Chinese culture, here with multiple fan-shaped bridges, which are filled with mirror-polished blue aventurine lacquer. The rest of the decoration includes stripes on the escapement bridge, a laser-etched inscription on the ratchet return wheel, black-polished screws, machine-made anglage, perlage, a snailed mainspring barrel, and a rotor decorated with both snailing and frosting. And, in order to see it, the Perception V3 now features a full sapphire caseback.

There are fewer evolutions to be reported for the rest of the watch, but some nevertheless. Now part of the permanent collection, the Perception V3 retains the same proportions and overall design as the previous generation, but introduces 3 variants, including a brand new one with a different finish. The case is still made of 904L stainless steel, measuring 40mm in diameter, just above 10mm in thickness, with a comfortable length of 47mm – overall, great ergonomics. The design is quite unique and equally inspired by Chinese culture, with curved flanks that echo the sweep of pagoda rooflines. The polished bezel has a nice concave profile, while large polished bevels run on the sides. The case is water-resistant to 100m.

As said, 3 versions are available. Two are directly reconducted from the previous generation: the Ice-Blue Piao and the Salmon Xia. These two display a combination of classic brushed and polished surfaces on the case and bracelet. The third one, named Yun, comes with an unprecedented Bamboo Green dial and replaces the brushed surfaces with a micro-frosted effect – softer, more matte and more modern altogether.

The guilloché dial, with its fish-scale pattern, has always been a distinctive element of the Atelier Wen Perception. It is crafted in China, the traditional way, on rose engines. The dial construction also includes facetted, applied hour markers nestled in cutouts and a chapter ring printed in Super-LumiNova with a hui wen pattern, a traditional Chinese geometric motif.

All Perception V3 models are worn on a 904L steel bracelet, tapering from 22mm at the lugs to 18mm at the clasp, while reducing the thickness from 3mm to 2.6mm. It is closed by a folding clasp with two proprietary systems: a patent-pending micro-adjustment mechanism accessed through a button in the brand’s logo, and a telescopic deployant blade that minimises the clasp’s folded profile while maintaining full opening capability.

Released as part of the permanent collection, the three new Atelier Wen Perception V3 are priced at USD 4,850. This is quite a step up compared to the previous generation with Chinese movement, which was priced at USD 3,320, but feels justified by the new and highly decorated movement. And overall, the watch is both well finished and comes fully equipped. For more details, please visit atelierwen.com.