Hodinkee
Introducing: The Bradley Taylor Ardea
What We Know Bradley Taylor, a Canadian independent watchmaker working out of a 1,000-square-foot workshop in North Vancouver, has released the Ardea, his third watch and first with an in-house movement. Taylor, a rising talent in the space, trained in Le Locle under Henrik Korpela, earned a Patek Philippe Level II service certification in Geneva, and produced two sold-out series before beginning work on the Ardea in late 2023. The Ardea is offered in stainless steel or platinum 950 and measures 37.8mm in diameter with a 46.4mm lug-to-lug and a thickness of 10.9mm, including the crystals. The sapphire caseback is very slightly domed for wrist comfort, and the watch is rated to 5 ATM. The dial is 925 sterling silver, engine-turned on a rose engine that Taylor estimates is roughly 120 years old, and he restored it over three months. The pattern is a 36-scallop rosette with a progressive phase shift between each concentric pass, producing a characterful swirling texture. After the engraving, the dial is depletion-gilded, a silversmithing process that involves repeated heating and acid treatment until the dial's surface is pure silver. It is then sealed with Zapon lacquer. The text and markings are pad-printed on a Tampoprint machine that Taylor also restored himself. The applied numerals are machined from solid platinum and hand-polished to a spherical shape. The dial lettering and wordmark were designed by Ian Brignell, a Toronto typographer whose work includes the Paramou...
