VIEREN Gold Croc Sets a Leather Dial in a Gold PVD Case

VIEREN’s Croc series has gone gold. Announced October 13, 2026, in New York, VIEREN Gold Croc is a pair of special editions—each limited to five pieces worldwide—that set crocodile-embossed calfskin across the full width of the brand’s signature rectangular dial and wrap it in a gold PVD case. It joins the steel-cased Black Croc of 2021 and the White Croc of 2022, and it’s the first time the brand has put gold and leather in the same watch.

For a brand that only turned five last year, VIEREN has built a surprisingly clear visual vocabulary, and the Croc series is a big part of it. Black Croc introduced the leather-on-leather idea in 2021, with the embossed leather running from the dial onto the strap so the watch reads as one continuous surface. White Croc followed a year later. With Gold Croc, VIEREN says the leather-on-leather watch is now one of the defining design signatures of its automatic range, and the series has grown from a one-off experiment into a family.

The brand’s backstory explains a lot about how it works. Jess Chow founded VIEREN in Toronto in 2020 as what the brand calls a love letter to more than 50 years of Swiss watchmaking in her family. The daughter of two watch industry veterans, she grew up among movements, sketches, and ateliers, and came back to the industry on her own terms at 30. Today she is Canada’s first and only female founder of a luxury Swiss watch brand, as well as a GPHG Academy member, and her direct access to a watchmaking studio in La Chaux-de-Fonds lets VIEREN design every bespoke component of its limited editions in-house. We first profiled the brand in 2022, and it has stayed busy since.

That design language started with the OG Automatic Collection, a modernist take on the rectangular case that has since become VIEREN’s calling card. The Black and White Croc editions brought a new material and a new dial construction to it, the Stereo Collection added skeleton dials that nod to vinyl and disco, and the fifth-anniversary V Collection handed one-of-one dials to five international artists to paint by hand.

Introducing VIEREN Gold Croc

The construction is the hard part—it’s what made the earlier Croc watches a technical achievement to begin with. The crocodile-embossed calfskin runs across the full width of the dial, which means the leather has to be razor thin and meticulously finished. The hand-applied indices are engineered to pierce through that leather without fracturing it. It’s an easy detail to miss, and a hard one to stop looking at once you’ve seen it.

The proportions stay true to the series. The case measures 41.5mm x 27mm and just 9.2mm thick, so it keeps the sleek rectangular silhouette of the steel originals, and the leather carries on from the dial into the strap. Choose Gold Black Croc or Gold White Croc, named for the black or white crocodile-embossed leather each one wears.

“Gold and leather have each had their material moments in our catalog, but never together,” explains Jess Chow, VIEREN founder and CEO. “This new pairing gives us two timepieces with the polish of fine jewelry and the edge our collectors expect. It’s the moment our leather watches become a signature category of their own.”

In our view, she’s right about the edge. Leather on a dial can tip into novelty, and gold can tip into flash, but here each keeps the other in check. The texture of the hide stops the gold from looking too polished, and the gold gives the leather a dressier frame than steel ever could.

The real change is the case. VIEREN has finished its stainless steel case structure with a gold PVD coating, adding warmth and a little formality to a silhouette built on modernist design codes. The dial stays uncluttered, leaving the leather in charge. There’s the VIEREN logo at 12 o’clock, gold hour and minute hands, and the brand’s signature 18k gold rehaut ring with etched minute markings, which circles the inside of the dial as a bright point of contrast against the grain.

From Studio 54 to La Chaux-de-Fonds

Gold isn’t new to VIEREN, but its first outing looked nothing like this. The metal made its debut in the brand’s catalog with the Stereo Collection in 2023, an all-gold skeletonized watch inspired by the glamour of the disco decade and the unbridled energy of Studio 54. VIEREN drew on vintage stereo systems, tape decks, and high-octane nightlife for that one. Gold Croc takes the same metal somewhere much quieter—closer to a dress watch than a dance floor.

Each Gold Croc is handcrafted over six months in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland. Turn it over and VIEREN’s signature exhibition caseback shows the Swiss ETA 2671 automatic movement, with 25 jewels and a 44-hour power reserve. The watches are Certified Swiss Made, and each one comes with a black vegan leather watch tray and watch box designed with sustainability in mind.

Both Gold Croc references are priced at $5,500 and are sold exclusively at vieren.co, beginning October 13, 2026. At that price, the gold here is PVD over steel, with solid 18k gold kept for the rehaut, and we think that’s an honest approach—a precious-metal look for a leather watch, with no pretense about what sits underneath. With only five of each, the bigger question is how long they’ll last.

Black, then white, now gold. Five years after the first Croc, VIEREN’s leather dial has graduated from experiment to house signature, and gold suits it.

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Adrienne Faurote

Editor in Chief · Haute Time

As a former New Yorker, now a “Miamian,” Adrienne Faurote joined Haute Living in August of 2021. She currently serves as the Haute Media Group Editor-in-Chief, overseeing all editorial platforms within the Haute Media Group while also maintaining her role as Fashion, Jewelry & Watch Director. Prior to her position at Haute Living, Faurote was the Market Editor at Marie Claire Magazine US, amassing over ten years in the industry, becoming an authoritative voice in all things fashion, jewelry, and watches.