The Earthen Company Summit Collection of Accessible Ceramic Watches

Earthen Company is a new brand for 2025, based in Hong Kong and founded by watch enthusiasts. As co-founder Johnathan Chan (also one of the co-founders of the Horology Club) puts it, “We’re collectors and designers first, not watchmakers.” The emphasis is on modern materials with a retro vibe, so the team designed a trio of ceramic watches with both an alpine-inspired theme and field watch versatility, all with vintage-inspired proportions and plays on contrast and colour. The goal was also to offer a high-tech material at an affordable price – “ceramic luxury, without the climb.” The inaugural Summit Collection shows that Earthen Company has come out swinging.

There are two distinctive ceramic cases for the three models, all named after ski conditions. Overcast has a stealthy black case and both Whiteout and Blue Bird have bright white cases. All come in at 38mm in diameter and 10mm in height, and the crowns are oversized for easy manipulation with cold-weather gloves. There’s also a recess in the crowns with rubber rings in blue (for Blue Bird) or black for extra style. The solid case backs have a circular brushing to mimic a bird’s eye view of mountain peaks. Each watch comes with two interchangeable straps, sailcloth rubber and NATO, so a new look can match the mood of the day. Overcast comes with sage green rubber and khaki NATO, Whiteout comes with white rubber and navy NATO, and Blue Bird comes with baby blue rubber and light grey NATO.

The dials complement the ceramic case colours well with Overcast being the stealthy field watch with a matte black dial in a black case. Whiteout emphasises contrast with a black dial in a white case, while Blue Bird has a full-lume white dial in a white case, highlighting snowy ski slopes. All dials have oversized Arabic numerals with a triangular mark at 12 o’clock and bold hour and minute hands with lume inserts. The seconds hand has a large aperture for a counterweight. A minute/seconds railroad track spans the outermost perimeter, and a “skier down mountain” graphic is printed above 6 o’clock. The dials are clean, very legible and versatile.

Powering the Summit Collection is a Miyota 9039 automatic with 24 jewels, a beat rate of 28,800vph (4Hz) and a power reserve of 42 hours. Functions include central hours, minutes and hacking seconds, and it’s a true no-date movement. Introduced in 2018, it’s part of Miyota’s Premium Automatic line and accuracy is rated at -10/+30 seconds per day (although it’s generally within those parameters in practice).

The Summit Collection launches on August 31st with the first run limited to 100 pieces per model. However, they will be restocked after the initial production is sold. All models are priced at USD 899 (excl. VAT), which isn’t bad for ceramic watches with thoughtful designs and multiple straps. For more information and to place an order, please visit Earthen Company’s website.