News · Version Watches

Version V0201-TH Ciel lets light into its blue dial

The French maker’s 100-piece blue edition uses a smoked transparent dial section over an openworked Sellita movement, with delivery planned for May 2027.

Hen & Mills Editorial · 4 min read · 4 October 2026

• The Version V0201-TH Ciel is a 100-piece blue and white automatic watch within a 300-piece collection announced on 23 September 2026.
• A partly transparent smoked-blue dial reveals the openworked Sellita movement in changing light, within a 38 mm steel case.
• Version lists a standard French price of €1,495 including tax and plans delivery for May 2027, with no confirmed Australian list price.

When a watch claims an aviation influence, it often means a dark dial and a few instrument-style numerals. Version Watches has taken a more curious route. Its blue, partly transparent upper dial gives way to a white lower section, so light can change how much of the automatic movement you see. The French maker announced the V0201-TH collection on 23 September, ahead of pre-orders opening the next day; the blue edition is one of three numbered colourways. The watch here is the Version V0201-TH Ciel.

A blue window above a white dial

The dial carries the whole idea. Version sets a satin white section against a blue radial gradient whose opacity changes across the upper part of the face. In the brand's photographs, the blue looks almost solid from one angle and permits a view towards the movement when backlit. That is a more involved use of transparency than a round hole cut in a standard dial. The hour markers are polished, half-rice-grain shapes and the hour hand has an open leaf form, leaving the coloured area visible rather than covering it with heavy furniture.

A matching blue cabochon tops the crown and a fine, bead-engraved pattern runs around the polished bezel. Both details keep the outer edge involved in the design without competing with the split dial. Version describes the collection as drawing from supersonic aviation and minimalist architecture, but the useful observation is physical: white acts as an opaque reading surface, while the blue window needs a change in light to disclose its depth. The concept asks the wearer to look again, not to pretend that a wristwatch contains an aircraft instrument. The colour is particularly important here because the reveal is not purely a matter of open versus closed. A solid aperture would expose the calibre all the time; the smoked blue makes the machinery appear gradually, with the face retaining its own graphic identity in softer light. That gives Ciel a reason to use a gradient beyond its appearance in a product photograph.

A compact steel frame for a visual trick

The 316L stainless-steel case is 38 mm across, about 12 mm thick and 46 mm from lug to lug, with 18 mm between the lugs. Those dimensions give the unusual dial a conventional circular frame rather than making the case another experiment. Brushed and polished finishes break up the steel, while a domed sapphire crystal protects the front. Version specifies 5 ATM, or 50 metres, of water resistance. That is enough to describe the case as resistant to ordinary splashes, though the brand itself advises removing the watch before prolonged contact with water.

Turn it over and the transparent back shows the openworked Sellita SW200-1 automatic movement and a rotor cut and engraved with the maker's name. Version quotes roughly 39 to 41 hours of reserve. The dial's translucent section and the open back offer two different views of the same mechanical object: one filtered by colour, the other direct. Neither makes this a skeleton watch. Most of the face remains a designed surface, and the movement is allowed to emerge only when the light and angle cooperate. That restraint is what makes the design work.

The included strap is dark blue grained calfskin, held between 18 mm lugs and fitted with quick-change spring bars according to Version. This is a helpful choice for a watch whose colour is concentrated in one part of the dial: the matching leather completes the palette without adding another bright surface. The maker lists optional straps, but the supplied blue one is the combination photographed with Ciel. The wrist images give a sense of how the 38 mm case sits beneath a shirt cuff; they are maker photographs, not evidence that we have handled the watch.

Ciel sits alongside the green Crépuscule and another colourway in a collection of 300 pieces, with 100 numbered examples assigned to each version. The number matters here because Version is asking buyers to commit before delivery, not to choose among watches already in local shop windows. I find the blue edition the clearest statement of the idea: the colour change can read as a patch of sky without turning the watch into a literal cockpit prop. Whether the translucency is as effective indoors as the photographs suggest will be for owners to discover.

Version V0201-TH Ciel pricing and availability

Version lists Ciel at €1,495 including tax on its French product page, its durable stated retail price. The maker directed pre-orders to a Kickstarter campaign opening on 24 September 2026 and says delivery is planned for May 2027. It describes worldwide shipping, with taxes and customs duties outside France dependent on destination; an Australian list price is not confirmed. Ciel is limited to 100 numbered pieces, within a 300-piece collection. These are future deliveries, rather than watches the maker says are ready to dispatch now.