Microbrand

LAPS Studio Turns a Graphic Paris Label Into a Mechanical Contender

Ten years after it started printing photographs on quartz dials, LAPS has built its first automatic. The Arche keeps the Paris label’s eye for pattern and light and finally puts a movement behind it.

LAPS Arche Series 01 Green. Image: LAPS

LAPS was founded in Paris in 2016 by Antonin Mercier, a photography collector who wanted the dial to carry images rather than numerals. Its Editions watches are small-run quartz pieces in rectangular cases, dials printed with a Malick Sidibé photograph, an Egon Schiele self-portrait, a peacock. They sell for €155 to €205 to a crowd closer to concept stores than watch forums.

The Arche, launched June 4, 2026 for the brand’s tenth year, is its first automatic and the opening model of a new Studio collection. After a decade on the dial, LAPS is now working on the case. It is a round 37.5mm steel piece, 44mm lug to lug and 9.9mm thick, built from five parts so each surface can be finished separately: vertical brushing, polished bevels, and arched lugs machined individually before being fitted to the case middle. Sapphire front and tinted sapphire back, 5 ATM. Inside is the Miyota 9015, the default caliber of the accessible mechanical segment, with hacking seconds, quick-set date and 42 hours of reserve.

The dial is where the graphic instinct survives. Series 01 is textured matte Ivory or Green, inspired by contemporary architecture; Series 02 is gloss-lacquered Blue or Black. All four share faceted hour markers drawn in anamorphosis so a thin index reads as a solid block, asymmetric bevelled hands, a seconds hand reduced to a small disc, and a diamond-shaped date window at 4 o’clock. The 3 in “31” is printed inverted, a wink to remind you to advance the date after a 30-day month.

Pre-orders ran June 4 to July 6 at €690. The watch now ships from Paris at €860 including VAT, roughly $1,000, on a quick-release calf strap with a 24-month warranty.

“A different way of approaching the watch: freer, more curious, more personal.”— LAPS, Our Story

Why this watch, on this wrist?

The Arche is for someone who came to watches through design rather than forums: the buyer who took a LAPS Editions piece for the Sidibé print and is now ready for something that ticks. At 37.5mm and under 10mm it disappears under a cuff, and the dial gives it a reason to be looked at twice, which most Miyota-powered dress watches lack. The terms are plain: the 9015 is the same movement as a Beaubleu Vitruve, 5 ATM is a dress rating, and LAPS says Paris assembly without saying where the cases come from. The premium buys the case architecture and the dial, and on this evidence they are worth it.

LAPS spent ten years making watches you notice without quite knowing why. The Arche is the first one that rewards knowing why.

See the Arche at LAPS →

Sources: LAPS, Our Story · LAPS, Arche S01 · Monochrome (sponsored) · Fratello · Worn & Wound · France Éclat

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