Paulin’s Mara Gets a Genuine Galvanic Gilt Dial for Hodinkee
Traditional dial-making techniques create the black-and-gold finish at the center of the 250-piece release.
Summary
Paulin and Hodinkee rework the Mara with a vintage-inspired gilt dial and aged lume.
The limited edition uses a slimmer 11.8mm case and Miyota 9039 automatic movement.
Limited to 250 pieces, it is priced at $1,000 USD.
Paulin and Hodinkee have teamed up on a limited edition of the Mara, revisiting the Glasgow watchmaker’s first dive watch through the lens of mid-century tool watches. Founded in 2013 and operating alongside sister brand anOrdain, Paulin has built its identity around expressive color, typography and playful modern design, but the Mara Limited Edition for Hodinkee takes a deliberately more archival direction. Its 39.7mm stainless-steel cushion case retains the architecture of the standard Mara, while the dial trades Paulin’s usual geometric markers for classic diver indices, warm gilt accents and antiqued Super-LumiNova inspired by the black-and-gold dive watches of the 1950s and early ’60s.
The defining feature is its genuine galvanic gilt dial, produced using a traditional process rather than simply printing gold-colored details onto a black surface. Each brass dial is first electroplated in gold before the minute track, logos and lettering are masked with a chemical resist; a subsequent galvanic treatment turns the exposed areas matte black, leaving the underlying gold visible through the markings. Paulin then hand-paints the hour markers with aged-tone Super-LumiNova to match the hands and bezel scale. Other period-minded touches include the meters-first depth rating, a gilt Hodinkee signature at 4 o’clock and Paulin’s custom Wim typeface, while a dark grey 120-click bezel uses a double-domed sapphire insert. A black-and-grey striped NATO strap with a Hodinkee-signed buckle completes the vintage-informed treatment.
Inside, the collaboration swaps the Swiss movement used by the standard production Mara for a Miyota 9039 automatic calibre, providing a 42-hour power reserve while helping slim the case from 13.5mm to 11.8mm. Water resistance has correspondingly been reduced from 300 meters to a still practical 100 meters, creating proportions closer to vintage skin divers while retaining modern features including sapphire construction and a screw-down crown.
Limited to 250 individually numbered pieces, the Paulin Mara Limited Edition for Hodinkee is priced at $1,000 USD and is available for pre-order through Hodinkee and Watches of Switzerland, with deliveries expected to begin in mid-November 2026.
