Not all images were able to load for printing. Please close the print window and try again. The Raymond Weil Freelancer World-Traveller, For the Brand’s 50th Anniversary
Honouring the founder’s 100th birthday, the World-Traveller offers a practical, accessible way to track time zones with an attractive worldtimer aesthetic.
Founded in 1976 by Mr Raymond Weil at the height of the quartz crisis with a mission to produce quality watches at affordable prices, the brand remains family-owned and is now in the hands of the third generation. With CEO Elie Bernheim at the helm, Raymond Weil is enjoying a revival thanks to the successful neo-vintage Millesime collection. In tribute to the date, 10 October, and year his grandfather would have celebrated his 100th birthday, and in honour of the brand’s 50th anniversary, Raymond Weil is releasing a 260-piece edition of the Freelancer World-Traveller.
Designed to evoke the spirit of travel and provide useful information for travellers, the Freelancer World-Traveller has three distinct levels: local time, displayed by the central hour, minute and second hands; a second time zone, indicated by a central GMT pointer hand with a red outline pointing to a static two-tone 24-hour scale surrounding the main dial; and the time around the world, shown on the rotating ring with 24 reference cities.
Although the world map on the dial and the city ring might suggest a world timer, it would be unreasonable for a watch retailing for under CHF 4,000 to be a true world timer like Patek Philippe’s sophisticated World Time, based on Louis Cottier’s concept. Raymond Weil’s Freelancer World-Traveller, however, offers the best of both worlds: a worldtimer aesthetic and a clever manual shortcut that pairs an independently set GMT hand with a manually rotating city bezel. Based on an enhanced office-style GMT layout, you can set the 24-hour GMT hand independently via the crown in 1-hour increments, and you can read the time around the world by manually rotating the external city bezel to align it with the stationary 24-hour ring.
Visually, the watch punches above its weight, with a detailed world map in relief inspired by the Mercator projection. Created through a series of stamping and laser-texturing processes, the champagne-coloured topography stands out against the midnight blue oceans, giving the dial real depth. Matching the map’s colour scheme, the 24-hour day/night ring features a champagne section for daytime hours and midnight blue for night. The outer ring, also in midnight blue, features the names of 24 cities and connects to the rotating bezel via an indexed, notched edge. The tips of the applied indices, the hour and minute hands, and the arrow-tipped head of the GMT hand are all treated with Super-LumiNova. Instead of the brand logo, the dial features a decal of Mr Raymond Weil’s personal handwritten signature above the framed aperture for the date at 6 o’clock.
Housed in a 40mm steel case with a thickness of 10.25mm, the watch features a newly designed bezel, notched and fluted to enhance grip and align the cities precisely with the city ring. The sapphire crystal on the screw-down caseback reveals the RW3230 GMT movement powering the watch. Based on a Sellita SW330-2 architecture (the GMT version of the SW300), the movement beats at 4Hz and delivers a robust 56-hour power reserve.
The watch is paired with a midnight blue leather strap with matching top stitching and a folding clasp with double-safety push buttons. It is a limited edition of 260 pieces and retails for CHF 3,995 / EUR 4,395 / USD 4,395. More information at raymond-weil.com.
