During the last year I noticed in our local watch forum that watches from the Venezianico brand are more and more popular, guys were often showing their new watches of that brand. As I liked what I saw, I decided to investigate this brand. I checked their web page, noticed that the majority of watches that I liked were sold out. The most interesting sold out watch was a chronograph called Bucintoro. So as there was nothing interesting to buy I just registered for their mailing list to receive information about future novelties. And just a month or two later, the new version of the Nereide model - called Agata - was announced. I liked what I saw so I preordered it. As a result, at the beginning of May I became a proud owner of my very first Venezianico watch.
In between the order and the release of Nereide Agata I realized that Venezianico is in fact very productive. Almost every month some new edition was released. I must mention Purple Nereide and Bucintoro 1969 which were two of the most interesting ones. Sadly I had to skip purple Neriede as I already ordered and was waiting for one Nereide. On the other hand Bucintoro 1969 is an amazing watch, dedicated to Moon flight in 1969, with Lemania 1873 chronograph movement (as you know this is a basic for Omega 861 movement). So all what I used to be mad at when I was a passionate collector of watches connected to space. Luckily it was too expensive for the impulsive order (4500 EUR). so I skipped that one too.
Yet, that was not the end of my Venezianico story. Namely, two weeks ago I received a whatsapp message from Alessandro, a co-owner of Venezianico: "Hi, how are you? I wanted to let you know that we always offer special treatment to our loyal customers like you. Can I offer you a great promotion on the model you like the most?" I responded positively but with the remark that sadly my most desirable model was the model that was sold out - white Bucintoro. Alessandro reacted:"Let me check if I can assemble one last piece for you. Give me a moment, I need to talk with my watchmaker". And a few minutes later: "OK, we still have all the parts and our watchmaker Daniele will be happy to assemble one last piece for you right now. I can give you a nice bundle of leather strap and bracelet for 1350 EUR and if you order it now you will receive your Bucintoro watch tomorrow". I don't know if this was just a great selling trick or if Daniele really assembled another Bucintoro for me from the spare parts, but I certainly accepted the offer. And as promised, the next day the watch was already on my wrist.
After the detailed explanation of why and how the two Venezianico watches became mine, it is finally time to focus on both of them.
As the company name suggests, the company's origins are in Italy, with their main atelier situated near Venice. Company was established in late 2017 by the brothers Alberto and Alessandro Morelli. Their collection consists of three main product lines - chronographs (Bucintoro), diver watches (Nereide) and classic watches (Rendetore). As you can see, product line names are closely connected to the history of the Venice Republic. So, Bucintoro was a galley ship of the Dodge and Nereide was the very first Italian submarine.
While the Bucintoro line consists of only white and black basic chronographs and the new 1969 chronograph, the Nereide collection is quite huge and it goes from basic models, Tungsten models, GMT models and UltraLeggero models. I suggest that you check the entire collection here.
Nereide Agata belongs to the highest Nereide class, what means that watch uses Selitta SW200-1 movement (basic models use Seiko NH3x movements), bezel insert is made of very unusual material - Tungsten (also known as Wolfram), and the dial is usually made of some semi precious stone. In Agata case this is agate, a semiprecious stone that forms within volcanic rocks. Agate dial together with the tungsten bezel combined form a great looking watch! As it stands for almost all natural stones, agate also has uneven layers of the different intensity of the same (orange) color, which makes the dial more attractive and unique. The designers cleverly used quite small fonts for the text on the dial and really put just a few lines of text so that the beauty of the stone is not covered. Also no numbers on the dial, just clean hours index markings. Hands as well are very simple yet effective.
Bezel with the tungsten insert stands out. It is quite glossy! Tungsten is the hardest and most resistant metal, it is known to have the highest melting point (remember wolfram was used for the light bulbs). So it is in fact quite a good choice for the bezel insert as it in fact offers a long time scratch resistant solution. Bezel rotates perfectly, it is very precise and the rotation stiffness is optimal for my taste. My only remark goes to a font used for the numbers or better say the size of those numbers. They are too big.
Glass is of course sapphire with AR coating.
The watch originally comes on an orange rubber strap where color is fully matched with the dial. The whole watch in fact is really nicey balanced and well made. Crown is signed, on the backplate a volcano is engraved (remember agate origin..).
Bucintoro is very different but again beautiful and extremely well designed. There is no special stone that would stand up as a dial platform yet the dial is attractive but clean at the same time. A "Panda" dial combination is spiced by the small red Bucintoro sign. Tachymeter on the outer ring is there but it is not aggressive. Hands are simple. Even though the movement used (Seiko NE88 chronograph with the column wheel) allows date complication, the date is omitted. This was for sure a great decision as the date would be an intruder on this dial.
Back plate is again closed (I would prefer glass one as Seiko NE88 is not so common and I would be glad to see it) and engraved, this time of course a bucintoro ship is on it. The grey leather strap is excellent, to be honest, I did not expect nothing less from the Italian company.
What is very interesting is the fact, that cases of the both watches are basically the same (with the diameter of 42mm and 22mm lugs). As I ordered the additional bracelet for the Agata and on the same time received a bracelet for the Bucintoro as well, I only paid attention to this detail when I realized that I received two identical bracelets for the two different watches.
Despite that Bucintoro is thicker than Agata due to the raised (again sapphire) glass above the case. Other dimensions are identical.
As said before, I received two identical bracelets. Both were packed in a separate box. Removing links is quite simple, links are connected by pins which can be removed in only one direction, so the very basic principle. The bracelet is very comfortable and well made, I only miss at least one half link which would allow even better fit for all wrists. I would also appreciate if standard lugs were replaced by quick release ones as that would offer faster and easier replacement between straps and the bracelet. As you will see soon, I did play quite a lot wit the different strap and bracelet combinations on both watches and the quick release system would be much appreciated for this kind of joy.
I have already mentioned movements that are used in both watches. I am glad to say that Selitta SW200 is tuned perfectly as it runs +1,5 sec/daily. Very good is also Seiko NE88 with +4 sec/daily.
Luminova on both watches is very good, but Agata as a diver watch is better in this respect. But Bucintoro's luminova is far from bad, I like the fact that only the main hour and minute hands are luminated.
I almost forgot to mention the WR. Agata 200m, Bucintoro 100m. Nothing special for diver's character of Agata, but good for Bucintoro as a chronograph watch.
It's time for some wrist shots. I must say that both watches are very comfortable!. Check it out, first on the basic straps.
Now both on a bracelet:
I have to point out again, that on all pictures the same bracelet is used (I did not even shorten the second one, it is still in the original package). I was astonished how different the character both watches had on the bracelet compared to the original straps. Agata looks so much better than on the rubber! On the other hand I don't like the bracelet on the Bucintoro, leather looks much more natural. But then I decided to - just for fun - put the Agata's orange rubber on the Bucintoro. It looked great. Again something different, attractive. Now, if you also wait for the Agata on the Bucintoro grey leather strap - well I did not try that.
At the end I decided that for now this is my final settings of the both watches:
Both watches are packed equally, so the package is obviously the same for all watches. As an interesting ad-on, the map of Venice is given as a part of the package. And, as said before, a bracelet is packed separately in its own box.
Prices? Agata was in the preorder phase offered for EU markets for 1.000 EUR (with all taxes included) and 820 EUR without taxes for non-EU markets. Additional bracelet costs 85 EUR. All 300 pieces were sold out during the pre-order phase, so I don't even know what the regular price would be. Agata is not even shown in the Venezianico web shop as a watch which is in their offer but just sold out temporarily. So, it looks as at least in the near future this watch is fully unavailable and that it was really released as a true limited edition.
Official price for the Bucintoro is for the EU market cca. 1.600 - 1.700 EUR (depends on the strap/bracelet setup). This watch is at the time being shown in Venezianico shop but marked as sold out however I did find that some pieces are still available in some of the retailers shops.
For both watches I can say that prices are very reasonable having in mind the quality and the general look that both watches offer. So, if you have a chance to get one of those two watches, grab them, you will not regret it.
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