Urban Traveller Silver - Bracelet

We all are familiar with countless exceptional watches made by the Swiss and Japanese that are dominating the market. Nonetheless, the French also displayed excellence in the fine art of watchmaking with the creation of many beautifully decorated haute horlogerie pieces and complex movements. While YEMA may not be a name that the masses are entirely familiar with, it is a brand synonymous with the production of fine French-made timepieces and an incredibly rich heritage.

Created by Henry Louis Belmont, a graduate from the National Watchmaking School of Besancon, YEMA was founded in 1948 and has been producing fine quality watches since. Along with some household names in the field of watchmaking, YEMA has concentrated on producing mostly emblematic and mechanical timepieces, including sports divers for pilots, racing drivers and underwater divers. Its repertoire includes reviving the YEMA Superman, commonly touted as France's legendary dive watch.

Yema Urban Traveller Silver

The Yema Urban Traveller is the brand's contemporary answer to the integrated bracelet sports watch. Fusing refined architectural design with robust, everyday wearability, the Urban Traveller originally debuted to great success a few years ago. Clinging to that distinctive 1970s retro swagger, Yema decided to re-launch the iconic model. The Urban Traveller returns in a dressy, refined collection, distinguishing itself with a sleek octagonal case, fully integrated bracelet, and now, a sophisticated new sunray dial.

The Urban Traveller's stainless steel case has been meticulously refined, trimmed down by nearly  in thickness for a sleeker, more comfortable profile. Measuring  in 39mm diameter,  43.5mm lug-to-lug, and just  10.8mm thin, this is a watch engineered for contemporary wearability. Yema utilized the complex asymmetrical octagon geometry to its advantage, executing every single angle with alternating brushed and highly polished finishes. This precise application captures the eye, lending great elegance and singularity to the case while perfectly preserving its marked sporting spirit.

Sunray dial with refined details

Partly inspired by the 1980s Yema Sous-Marine model, the bezel is crafted from a single piece of stainless steel, the bezel showcases three distinct finishes: the top and bottom bevels feature an elegant vertical brushing, beautifully contrasted by an entirely polished transition where the horizontal and vertical surfaces meet. Completing the case is a circular brushed push-pull crown with polished accents. This robust construction ensures the watch maintains a reliable  100m water resistance, making it perfectly suited for daily urban wear.

Protected by a double-domed sapphire crystal, the Urban Traveller introduces a new generation of dial design, centered around a striking silver sunray finish. The composition is framed by an applied dial flange featuring a circular brushed effect, which dramatically enhances depth and emphasizes the clean geometry of the case. A silver minute rehaut sits neatly within this framework. Polished stainless steel indexes are applied with precision, complementing the hour and minute hands, which are treated with SuperLumiNova BGW9 for optimal low-light legibility. A crisp white seconds hand provides excellent contrast, reinforcing the luxury sports watch positioning of this distinguished collection.

Perfect proportions, stunning quality of execution

Equipped with the proven Sellita SW200-1 caliber, a Swiss automatic movement renowned for its reliability and precision, this new Urban Traveller collection is conceived as the perfect everyday sports watch. The movement operates at 28,800 vph, holds a  38 hours power reserve, and utilizes 26 jewels, combining elegance, versatility, and mechanical authenticity. The solid steel case-back features satin-polished and circular brushed finishes, which elegantly surround Yema's historic crest. The crest is carefully forged into the case-back with a hydraulic press, ensuring a qualitative and refined finishing that speaks to the brand's attention to detail.

Keeping the main spirit of the Traveller alive, the steel integrated bracelet ensures seamless continuity from the watch head. The finishing pattern naturally extends all the way from the top of the bezel, across the case, and flows directly into the bracelet links. This seamless integration is achieved through the use of vertical brushed surfaces meeting polished angles—a treatment that continues down the gently tapered links all the way to the double folding clasp, lending the watch an unbroken, sculptural appearance.

Super-LumiNova BWG9

With its perfectly thinned-down  case profile and the mesmerizing depth of the new silver sunray dial, the Yema Urban Traveller represents an elevated level of refinement. It is a calculated evolution of the integrated bracelet concept, where French design meets dependable Swiss mechanics. For the collector seeking sophistication that transcends the everyday, the Urban Traveller delivers a compelling proposition: a watch that is both historically resonant and engineered for contemporary elegance.

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