Recently, I watched a YouTube video in which the narrator shared his passion for older designs, opining that watches were simply more elegant and avant-garde many decades ago. It is as if designers were much more inspired back then than they are today, or mastered the genre of elegant/everyday watches in ways that nobody could nowadays. And I kind of agree with that. However, examining the micro and independent side of the market, we can only find a few brands that know how to extract, for example, the essence of the Art Deco style, which they fuse with modern manufacturing techniques and specifications.
One of those is Canadian brand Ferro, which we covered earlier this year with a review of its Time Master 70 – a watch that’s a love letter to the 1970s – and which we’re going to rediscover through their new Paramount, which is a love letter to the 1930s!
The case
Whenever we think about vintage watches and/or Art Deco, we generally imagine smaller timepieces, as watches in the pre-World War II era and in the subsequent decades tended to be smaller than today’s standards. And so to be true to its inspirations but without erring too much into the past, Ferro opted to endow the Paramount with dimensions which strike the perfect balance between the vintage and the contemporary: 38mm in diameter, 46mm lug-to-lug, 8.35mm thick, and a 20mm lug width. This makes for a comfortable everyday wearing experience and immediately makes the Paramount feel rather elegant, especially on account of its relatively thin profile.
Still staying within the vintage register, the brand designed the case to be simple and refined, as watches used to be back then, matching its modest dimensions with a perfectly circular and elongated profile. The lugs are thin and curve in and down towards the wrist, creating a delicate play of rounded shapes that espouse one another seamlessly. With a predominance of polished surfaces, this model comes out with an air of timeless, robust elegance, which we do not often see coming from microbrand studios. This impression is further reinforced by the rounded profile of the fixed bezel and the thin polished chamfers highlighting the lugs.
The icing on the cake, so to speak, comes in the form of a small 5.5mm push/pull crown almost fully recessed within the case flanks at 3 o’clock, which is reminiscent of many of the most classic dress watches of the era. Although it looks as if it was designed many decades ago, which is a feeling I also got with the Time Master 70, the Paramount is nevertheless equipped with a sapphire sandwich construction, as the caseback is indeed see-through and quite large, giving the impression that the movement inside is immense. Securely held in place with four screws, the caseback adds the final touches to the theme of elegance that permeates throughout the entirety of the outer shell of this model.
The dial
This might be a bit controversial to say, but it seems to me that many of the most iconic, elegant/everyday watches of the Art Deco period (and that of the post-World War II era) came with rather simple dial layouts. (Though they shone through the boldness of their case profiles.) And we could define elegance in watch design as being characterised by having just enough elements on the dial as necessary to tell the time, and nothing superfluous. So a handset and some markers, sometimes a minute track, but never all at the same time. Ferro, of course, opted to be true to yesteryear’s visual ethos of ‘less is more’, which is why the brand did away with a seconds hand.
We do have hour and minute hands, which are bold versions of the classic dauphine hands, decked out in a glossy green finish and boasting tiny bevels when looking up close. The hands are therefore bold in their appearance and dimensions, and are matched by equally bold applied Arabic numerals shaped in an Art Deco font, full of curves and asymmetry. Given their size, Ferro opted to only mark the even hours, leaving the odd ones blank, which by default endows the Paramount with a definite air of classicism. What is also classic is the simple sectorizing of the dial, where the central portion showcases a radial brushing and the large ring a matte-textured, dark red section from which the silver applied markers pop.
To complete the vintage recipe of the Ferro Paramount, the brand added a simple railroad minute tracking printed in black, where the five-minute increments are highlighted by thicker dashes. In the end, even though there isn’t too much to see on the dial, there is enough of it in order to easily be able to tell the time at a glance, as should be the case on an everyday timepiece, however elegant it is.
The strap
To wrap the aesthetic bow of the Paramount, and to reinforce its vintage art deco inspiration, Ferro pairs this model with a grey suede Italian leather strap, handmade in Germany, which does indeed perfectly match the watch. The darker grey tones of the leather work well with the lighter silver tones of the centre portion of the dial, but if you feel you could do better, you can easily swap the strap thanks to the quick-release spring-bars.
The movement
Whenever we do think about vintage watches, we of course think about manual-winding calibres, which offer two benefits: to be invited to engage more with the watch and to keep the watch thin. 8.35mm is thin, though the Paramount comes with a decent 50 meters of water resistance and a see-through case-back, something that wouldn’t have been possible with an automatic calibre. So, inside the Paramount ticks a hand-wound Sellita SW210 movement which ticks at 28,800 BPH (4Hz) and comes with 42 hours of power reserve as well as côtes de Genève and perlage finishing.
Ferro Paramount Vino pricing and availability
The Ferro Paramount Vino and its two other siblings, the Silver and Gold variants, are currently available for pre-orders via Ferro’s website, with shipping estimated for the end of November 2025. Price: US$1,150/A$1,821
Brand
Ferro
Model
Paramount Vino
Case Dimensions
38mm (D) x 8.35mm (T) x 46mm (LTL)
Case Material
Stainless steel
Water Resistance
50 metres
Crystal(s)
Sapphire front and back
Dial
Grained wine red and radially-brushed silver
Lug Width
20mm
Strap
Grey Italian suede strap, pin buckle
Movement
Sellita SW210, manual-winding
Power Reserve
42 hours
Functions
Hours and minutes
Availability
End of November 2025
Price
US$1,150
A$1,821