The Stella Felix has been on my radar ever since the New York City-based brand posted their first phono on Instagram early last year. I was drawn in by the bold elements on its dial, the vintage-style box crystal, and the intense texture of its linen dial. Then the rest of 2020 happened, and things got weird, so it wasn’t until the Watches, Whiskey and Wine show in July that I got to see the watch in real life and chat with the brand’s founders. Once I did, I just had to get this beauty in for review.
I’m hard-pressed to stick the Felix into a particular category. The darts-and-numbers layout, bold hands, and big crown recall certain pilot’s watches, but it isn’t one of those. It is rated for 100m water resistance, has a screw-down crown, and potent lume, but isn’t a tool watch. Pretty as it is, it clearly is not a dress watch. And yet, it is damned handsome, can easily handle all but the deepest water-borne adventures, and dresses up nicely with an oxford and blazer, particularly in this color scheme.
Perhaps Stella’s social media posts give us a clue. They show casually dressed people engaged in the very relatable activity of waiting for a subway train. (Ok, they do have one series of a shirtless ballet dancer on the Brooklyn Bridge, but on the scale of weird things you might see in New York City on any given day, this rates a 3 out of 10, tops.) The Felix is a stylish, everyday watch for everyday people. As they say on the website, it is “at home in both The Met and McSorely’s.”
I rarely mention watch packaging or the “unboxing experience” because most boxes are forgettable, wasteful, or both. Not Stella’s. When you open the simple black outer package, you are hit with the heady scent of leather. The watch case is a sturdy cube of thick cowhide secured with a heavy brass zipper. Inside is the watch, as well as a leather pouch for the manual and a caseback opener that could double as a weapon. It’s pretty impressive.
The watch is 40mm wide, 48mm long, and 13.6mm thick. These are comfortable proportions that land it squarely in the contemporary, mid-sized range. It looks quite at home on my 6.75″ wrist.
Stella offers six different variants. The linen dial comes in Dress Blues and the Gotham Gold pictured here. If you prefer a smooth matte dial can get it Times Grey, Grand Central Silver, Downtown Red, and 77 Blackout* the best name of the bunch. Indeed, my comrade-in-blogs Mike Razak is reviewing the red one for WatchClicker right now.
The movement is a 26-jewel, 28.8k bph, Swiss STP1-11 automatic based on the venerable ETA 2824 architecture. The Felix shows it off through its sapphire case back. Most display windows are lost on me because truth be told, most movements are not worth displaying; however, the STP is nicely decorated with blued screws, perlage polishing, and Stella’s signed gunmetal rotor with its massive red star. The ring framing the window is also well-executed, incorporating the star’s five points as recesses for that heavy opener I mentioned above. You will find the usual specs here embossed and polished against a matte background. Note that customer’s watches won’t say “Press” on them; that just marks this as one of the samples shared by the horological fourth estate. Production watches will say “Stella” instead.
At first blush, the Felix’s case looks simple, but a lot is going on here. It employs a multi-part case consisting of a central barrel fitted into an arched frame that forms the midcase and lugs. A threaded exhibition case back and fixed bezel cap off either end. A tall, semi-domed sapphire crystal with three layers of anti-reflective coating and a dramatic beveled edge tops it off. I love this kind of construction because it can create dramatic depth and clean divisions between elements. When you look at the Felix in profile or just off-axis, you can appreciate how the designers layered the different finishes, colors, and materials.
Starting from the bottom, we find a slim, polished caseback against the brushed and PVD-coated barrel. It is black on all versions except for this one, which is a soft Champagne gold. Next, we have a longitudinally brushed bridge of a midcase that features a brightly polished chamfer traveling its length and wraps around the tips. The fixed bezel sports a similar treatment with radial brushing on top and a polished edge. Finally, we reach the crystal, where the bevel’s refraction creates yet another contrasting layer. The play of light across the varying planes creates marvelous depth and movement.
For a 40mm watch, the Felix has a rather large crown, bordering on oversized, and if you are going to do that, you had better make it something special. Stella certainly did. This screw-down unit is slightly tapered, although not quite to the extent of a diamond crown. Broadly-spaced wedge cuts make for an eye-catching and very grippable edge. The beveled head features the silver Stella star logo with a blue inlay set in a glossy black dome. A blue ring underneath echoes the blue accents on the markers and second hand. It’s lovely, and the size and shape make it a joy to operate.
Let’s get to that dial, shall we? I had assumed the blue would be my favorite – and don’t get me wrong, it’s fabulous – but the gold drew me in. This surprised me because I rarely wear gold watches and usually have a hard time warming up to gold or Champagne dials. This one just clicked. I attribute this partly to the fact that it does not have a gold case, but stainless steel with just that hint of PVD gold on the underside, but really, it’s all about the dial.
Do you look for dimension in your dials? Then boy, do I have the watch for you. Of course, there are other watches with linen dials. Sometimes this means a printed crosshatch pattern, sometimes a visibly molded texture. On the Felix, it is the latter and in grand form with a pronounced, uneven texture that mimics the weave of damask. The color shifts from pale gold to cream, depending on the light.
The layout is familiar and recalls certain post-war Omegas and Rolexes, but here it has been beefed up and stylized. The applied gold numbers have flirty serifs and are full enough to accept a generous dose of C3 SuperLuminova. The semi-skeletonized, blue-tipped darts have hollow centers and chiseled ends. The broad arrow hour hand and obelisk minute hand look like they might have come off a diver. In comparison, the stick-thin second hand with its squat, triangular tip and counterweight seems insubstantial as it makes its way around the printed index. Still, given the other elements, a heavier shaft would have been too much. Even the date window stands out with a gold-framed porthole accented by a faceted 3 o’clock marker.
It is, without a doubt, a bold dial. If you feel like it is too much at once (I didn’t even mention the wild Stella logotype or applied gold star), I would note that the gold-on-Champagne color scheme does mute it a tad. There are other options as well. Perhaps you’d prefer the subtle logos on the black and gray dials, the high contrast of the gold popping against the blue dial, or the almost ghostly look of the silver dial that makes its blood-red second hand the star of the show. There is not a bad pick in the bunch.
When the lights get low, that SuperLuminova goes to work. As mentioned above, there is more than ample surface area on the hands for that C1 to shine. The numbers and cardinal markers use tinted C3 and shine a little less brightly. The tiny dabs of blue-tinted C3 on the darts and second hand? Not so much. The color looks great during the day but struggles to keep up at night. Personally, I might have filled the bodies of the darts with the same lume as the numbers, trading the depth of those voids for more nighttime practicality, but with all the Felix has to offer, I find it hard to get worked up over this. As you can see, the existing lume does the job quite well.
The straps exhibit the same care and quality as the rest of the watch. They are oiled, full-grain leather that tapers from 20mm to 18mm at the buckle. Quick-release pins make replacement a snap – as do the drilled lugs, just in case you choose to fit something of your own, which I did not as I was pleased with the tobacco color on this model. Both the strap and the heavy-framed buckle are signed. A stamped start decorates the tail.
I was pleased to see that they offer two lengths: a medium to large 80/124mm and a small to medium 75/110mm, which was exactly the right size for me. If you would like some extras, they are $85 each.
The Stella Felix sells for $985, and it is well worth it. Every millimeter of this watch exudes care and quality. This perfect marriage of brash New York style and sober Swiss construction attracts all the right kinds of attention. Hell, even the box is impressive, and I famously don’t give a damn about boxes. I heartily recommend the Felix. To browse the options and order your own, head over to stellawatchcompany.com. Believe me, you will like what you see.
* For those of you not old enough to remember the 1977 blackout, I’ll direct you to the Beastie Boys’ An Open Letter to NYC, “You didn’t rob me in the park at Diana Ross, but everybody started looting when the lights went off.”
