Swedish brand ALATO has put its faith in quartz for its latest watch, the Ögonsten. Whilst some might see this as a downgrade from its previous automatic watches, its strength lies in the design and execution! Let’s take a deep dive and find out what makes the Ögonsten so special…
Founded by Pierre Strömbäck in Gothenburg in 2023, this is ALATO’s third watch collection. A civil engineer by trade, Pierre is a watch-lover through and through and began designing watches after losing his job and hasn’t stopped since! A total of 1988 Ögonsten watches will be made, a charming nod to the year of origin of the word ALATO, which comes from ‘a-la-to’, something Pierre said as a young boy when he couldn’t pronounce “I love you’ – and has stuck ever since! Ögonsten, [pronounced eu-gon-sten] means “the apple of my eye” in Swedish…the word you reach for when something, or someone means more than ordinary words can carry.
Ögonsten Collection Overview
The Ögonsten has a case diameter of 38mm, a Swiss quartz movement and sunburst dial. It’s available in three colourways,chosen by the microbrand watch community. The Brown dial variant is the only one of the three to come cased in complementary rose gold PVD and to feature a colour-matched subdial, Anthracite Grey with stainless steel case keeps things more muted, whilst the Royal Blue/stainless steel combo as reviewed here is rich and sophisticated with contrasting subdial for displaying seconds. The watches come paired with an alligator embossed leather strap and rather attractive compact presentation pouch with soft suede interior useful for travel.
Sadly, logistical complications meant that I didn’t receive my review watch until much later than anticipated, so the Super Early Bird pricing has now ended, however if you’re quick you can still catch the Early Bird pre-order price of SEK2992 (approx. £319USD/£238) or SEK3179 (approx. $339USD/ /£254) for the PVD version. The price rises to SEK3096 ($329USD/£247) once initial allocation is reached (50 of each). Once the Kickstarter pre-order closes on 3 June at 3pm BST, the full retail price will be £365/£390 respectively. A 316L Stainless steel bracelet (or rose gold) with micro adjust on-the-fly clasp is available as an optional extra for £60/£74 respectively, rising to £98/£138 once the Kickstarter has ended.
Following an incredibly successful first few days on Kickstarter ALATO has already reached its funding goal so the watch will go into production, with shipping scheduled for November 2026. Not only that, but a trio of stretch goals have been reached, meaning that the warranty has been extended from two-years to three years, a second leather strap is now included and watch cases, bracelets and buckles will now feature surface-coated to a 1200Hv to improve scratch resistance. Finally, there are also great prices to be had for Duo Sets or even the full collection if you’ve really fallen for it.
Impeccable Design Details
The Ögonsten is one of those watches where as soon as you unbox it, you can see and feel the quality. I loved it immediately and it’s clearly a watch that’s been crafted with care and designed with love.
The 38mm case diameter, lug-to-lug of 46 mm and a thickness: 9.65 mm (including crystal makes for a perfectly proportioned dress watch and the 20mm lug width means that, if you’re a strap collector, you’ll have fun trying out different looks. The striking hybrid case design marries tonneau and cushion elements and shows a rare level of cohesiveness. Everything just looks ‘right’ and when you delve deeper, more details emerge. Whilst not immediately apparent from viewing the watch straight-on, unusually the case construction comprises four sections, one more than most watches!
Cushion-cased watch designs commonly incorporate the ‘square/squircle’ element into the mid-case and then add a round bezel on top of that. Either that, or the mid-case/squircle is itself the bezel. ALATO on the other hand has taken a different approach with the Ögonsten and the ‘squircle’ element is actually a second bezel, engineered from a separate piece of steel. This seemingly small detail allows for better finishing and shows the level of attention to detail that elevates it, a reoccurring theme that we’ll see more of…
There is a wonderful ‘sandwich’ of alternating finishes. Working from front to back, the top bezel has a uniform, ultra-fine fluted design, giving the watch a sophisticated and precise look. This fluted bezel has chamfered sides that are high-polished. Incredibly, the extremely slim bezel sides are then vertically brushed. The second, lower, ‘squircle’ bezel is longitudinally satin-brushed, with high-polished chamfered sides. The mid-case and downturned lugs are also longitudinally satin-brushed, which continues right through to tips of the squared off lugs. Finally, the underside of the mid-case is given high polish treatment by way of another high-polished chamfer.
Even the screwdown caseback doesn’t escape the lavish attention to detail. At the centre is the base relief which is created through oil stamping, after which the details and lettering are CNC-machined to achieve sharp definition and depth. The design mirrors the aesthetic of a decorated Ronda 6004.D movement, reinterpreting movement finishing in solid steel. Specifications, branding details and serial number are also included on the caseback. And finally, a lovely little easter egg is the outline of Sweden – love it, so very cool! Oh, and I nearly forgot – even the inside of the caseback is decorated with Perlage (circular graining). You know when a brand decorates even unseen parts of the watch, that it cares! Everything about the case finishing is impeccable. Wow!
The branded, onion-shaped crown is very tactile and the generously deep fluting makes it very easy to grip. The screw-down crown along with the screw-down case help provide the Ögonsten with 100m water resistance, which is impressive for this type of watch.
The supplied top-grain leather strap is embossed with alligator pattern and has a Zermatt lining. It tapers from 20mm down to 18mm and features quick-release spring bars and a simple brushed pin-buckle with etched logo symbol. It’s decent quality, even if it doesn’t not quite match the rest of the watch.
The optional H-link 316L stainless steel (Rose Gold PVD on the brown dial variant) features brushed outer links and polished inner links. It tapers from 20mm to 16mm, has quick-release spring bars, and on-the-fly micro-adjustment. Removeable links are secured with screws. The bracelet certainly looks the part, but I can’t attest for the quality or comfort as it wasn’t included in my review package.
Comfort and fit are excellent, thanks to the combination of case size, slim profile and downturned lugs.
The Ögonsten is fitted with the Swiss-made Ronda 6004.D, a quartz calibre known for its accuracy, durability, and long-term reliability. Whilst quartz watches don’t tend to be so popular with the enthusiasts’ market, Pierre at ALATO wanted to keep the price low to appeal to more potential customers, which is understandable. The movement has five jewels, beats at 32,768 Hz and accuracy is quoted as -10/+20 sec per month. The movement uses the 395 battery type which can power the watch for up to six years. You could also fit the 373 battery type, although I’m not sure why you’d want to fit a lower capacity battery considering the low cost of batteries. The only disappointing thing is that being a ‘date’ movement, but not a ‘date’ watch, the ALATO does have a ghost date position on the crown, and you can also hear this tick over… just. The small seconds hand doesn’t hit all the markers either, something common with quartz movements.
Joint Top Billing
The dial on my review watch is Royal Blue, and it really is a lusciously rich, true royal blue. It’s made more nuanced by the combination of a sunburst effect which brings light play, and a very subtle fumé gradient that brings depth.
Working from the outside in, a white printed minute track sits on the inside of continuous circle, fractionally inboard of the straight-sided rehaut. Only full minutes are indicated, keeping the design nice and constrained. Applied baton-shaped hour markers sit within the outer edges butting up against the minute track rather than spanning full width of the dial. The batons/wedges narrow towards the inner and are facetted to all four sides and feature longitudinally brushed top/centre sections. The elegant silver-coloured hands are diamond cut from brass and then faceted and brushed to echo the radial dial. The tips of the hands are squared off to match to the hour indices and sandblasted to reduce glare. There are lots of design touches here that unify the whole. The centre pinion is also covered with a cap, a detail I always enjoy!
Revealed by way of a cut-out beneath the main dial, at six o’clock you’ll find the heavily textured subdial which displays running seconds. On the Royal Blue variant the subdial is steel blue to provide high contrast against the main dial, with seconds track printed in black. It’s a similar story for the Anthracite Grey version with the subdial being a much lighter Grey. The Brown dial variant is the odd one out, in that the subdial is much closer to the dial colour, with contrasting gold seconds track.
As is befitting of a dress watch, there is no lume anywhere on the dial, hands or indices. However, daytime legibility is truly excellent thanks to the pure design, contrasting finishes and faceted indices and hands. The double-domed sapphire has five inner layers of anti-reflective coating which also helps. Only subtle branding is printed on the dial at 12, so as not to disrupt the dial balance or overwhelm the elegant look.
Final Thoughts
You might have gathered by now that I love this watch, which in some ways is a surprise. Why? Well, whilst I’m not a quartz-hater, given the choice I’d choose an automatic or manual wind over a quartz 95% of the time. The exceptions come when a watch has a very strong design language and first-class finishing. And for me, based on these criteria, the Ögonsten hits the marks on every front.
Equal prominence has been given to both the case design and dial design. This makes for a thoughtful, well-balanced watch and fully resolved watch, backed an enviable standard of engineering and finishing. Whilst I’ve not seen any of ALATO’s other offerings, based on this watch alone, I’d say that Pierre is a man with an obsessive level of attention to detail. What’s more, whilst this is a classically styled watch, there are plenty of lovely little touches and unique design features, with seemingly no area left as an afterthought!
As it stands, I’m left scrabbling around to come up with negatives. And in the end, it came down to just three minor things; the ghost date position because of the movement used, the supplied strap and the quartz tick that misses the markers slightly. The strap is far from being bad, it’s just that stylistically, embossed alligator print is quite divisive, so I think it’d at least be good to offer other options at the time of purchase. I also think the strap should taper more and that the buckle could be improved by employing different finishes or a more unique design.
The Ögonsten is a sophisticated and refined watch dress watch that, thanks to its hardness coating, 100m water resistance, tough quartz movement and robust engineering, is not delicate. It draws on classic inspiration but has many thoughtful touches not usually found on a watch at this price, making it incredible value for money and very much its own thing!
Finally, whilst I think it was a good move to launch the watch as a quartz, with proof of concept well and truly nailed, I think that if ALATO offered a premium edition of the Ögonsten fitted with a hand-wound mechanical movement, it would sell. Wink wink ALATO!
